With Gibson Guitar Corp. suing Activision, several national retailers, Harmonix, MTV Networks, and EA over the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series of video games, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has rang in on the issue.
“This is a poorly masked attempt to extort money,” Pachter said.
Like many other analysts, Pachter believes that the recent litigations are merely efforts to capitalize on the video game industry, specifically Guitar Hero’s success, which surpassed $1 billion dollars in 26 months.
Gibson claims that both Guitar Hero and Rock Band infringe upon its 1999 patent for a “simulated musical concert experience.” The company has since ordered Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon.com, GameStop, and Toys “R” Us to stop selling the Guitar Hero series.
The retailers, however, have no intention of halting the sale of the games anytime soon. Amazon.com will continue to sell Guitar Hero and Rock Band, spokeswoman Patty Smith said.
“We’re aware of the situation, but have yet to be served,” Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said. “If and when we receive a complaint, we’ll review it and take the appropriate next steps.”
Activision maintains that their retailing partners have done nothing wrong and Gibson’s claims are “disingenuous and lack any justification.”
“They are using any way they can to have Activision write them a check,” Pachter added.
