I think this stock should go on the chopping block for the next round of delistings. I haven't heard anything about sales during the holiday and I think people over-estimated how the release of GH3 would improve sales of this title.
After sales of an additional 108,000 copies in July, Guitar Hero II is closing in on 1 million units sold in the US alone (957k). The series has done quite well in Europe although it's hard to peg an exact amount.
As far as the US is concerned though, sales should hover around 100k in August, see a boost in September due to new X360 owners who are purchasing the system for Halo 3 (let's say 150k) and do somewhere in the neighborhood of another 75-100k in October in time for the release of the 3rd title. At that point, the stock would be worth 130 DKP on sales of the US release alone and if you toss in the 5 consecutive top-10 months in Canada (as of now, more than likely 7 or 8 by the time October rolls around) and the current price is almost met by North American sales alone.
To say the stock is undervalued currently would be quite the ahem, understatement.
@RoommateDave, Sorry, I didn't see that you'd already thrown a comment in here about the separate controllers. My other comments still stand, though.
As for it being an expansion, I think that expansion and encore are probably synonymous in this case. The encore adds to the original game, but there's nothing really radically different about it (from my friends reviews).
@Starless, Not necessarily, but mostly yes. There's places that sell just a guitar, but I would think most people would buy GH2 if they didn't already have it (and were interested in playing 80's). That's why I think when GH2 comes unpackaged, without the guitar, it will see an increase in sales. I didn't say it was conclusive proof, I said it kind of backs me up. : ) I'm confident I'll be borne out when GH3 comes out. I've already loaded up on GH2, so I'm just waiting, now.
@Laoldar, Something that kind of backs up my "GH3 will boost GH2 sales" theory:
GH2 for PS2 was holding steady at about 35-38k sold per week (according to VGC), and bumped up a bit with the release of Rocks the 80's to 43k. Not a huge rise, but I think it's the beginning of a trend. I think GH2 is going to explode when GH3 onboards more people to the franchise.
@Laoldar, The only real evidence I have is anecdotal: everyone I know who bought Guitar Hero 2 before Guitar Hero went out to buy the original game. I'm talking a time span of a few WEEKS, not six months. I think you're underestimating the appeal of more, different, recognizable songs to people new to the franchise. Someone new to the franchise would look back on older games and go, "Oh man, I'd LOVE to play Freebird!". I know that's what happened with everyone I've talked to; they see a song or 3 they want on a previous version and pick it up. It's not the most irrefutable logic, granted.
There's also a few other things to consider. 1) If GH3 totally sucks, which it shouldn't, people might see online how much people love GH2 and pick it up. 2) There was a price break for GH, I can't imagine there won't be one at some point for GH2. 3) Places like amazon.com will throw out the old "buy this with Guitar Hero 2 and save $1.37!", people will buy it that way.
Like I said, I don't have any solid, numbers based reasoning as to why I'm taking the position I am, I just think it will, based on the aforementioned reasons. I'd be really really surprised if this game doesn't crack 2 million at some point.
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GH2 was in a lot of black Fridays offer.
@all May I ask why this thing dropped 6% today?