The Opposable Thumbs blog reports that
Guitar Hero III has reached a financial milestone, becoming the first individual video game to
reach $1 billion in total sales. The number is even higher if you consider the rest of the franchise. In addition to helping drive the video game industry during tough economic times (
much like the Wii), it's helping other industries as well: "... aside from the fact that
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith had sold three times as many copies as the band's last album during their respective first weeks, musicians whose music is featured in the game has seen a rise in music sales to the tune of 15-843 percent." And CVG notes, "... two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games plan to
start playing a real instrument in the next couple of years." Also,
Rock Band creator Harmonix may be looking into a partnership with the record labels to
sell music for use outside of the games.