Good news for those of us with injuries from tripping over plastic guitars only to land on a plastic drumset. According to Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, the Guitar Hero franchise is "reaching its peak."

Currently, we expect unit sales to decline by more than 50 percent series-over-series for November," said EEDAR's Jesse Divnich, "This is coming off the October month where series-over-series units declined by more than 60 percent.

So going into Christmas, sales are down. It's also notable that eBay pricing on the recent Guitar Hero: World Tour has dropped below retail pricing.

Even without citing sales numbers, EEDAR is grouping Rock Band right alongside Guitar Hero as a waning fad.

Divnich does go on to explain that both Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles should retain a loyal fanbase for the next decade or so, even if they aren't the wild cultural phenomenons they once were—just as Dance Dance Revolution keeps a following despite most of us sticking our metal pads in the basement by now. [Edge via Kotaku and most righteous image]

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