DJ Hero seeing "huge pre-sales spike"

Activision's Hero franchise boss Dan Rosensweig has told GamesIndustry.biz that pre-orders for DJ Hero are very strong ahead of its release at the end of the month.

Speaking in an exclusive interview published today, he also hinted that pre-orders have given the publisher the confidence to plan 2010 content for the game, as he sees DJ Hero as another "tent pole" franchise for the company.

"Pre-order sales of Guitar Hero continue to do extraordinarily well - you're seeing DJ Hero in particular... we were very loud in June when we announced that Jay-Z and Eminem were having a relationship with the game itself - they spiked up very high," detailed Rosenweig.

"As major mainstream press is now writing this as one of the top five games you have to have for the Holiday Season, the reviews are beginning to come out... I think we saw a huge pre-sales spike of DJ Hero last week, and as we build to the launch you're going to see that rise to a nice high number just like Guitar Hero did. We're really excited about that."

GamesIndustry.biz reported last week that sequels and additional content for the game are already in development, with at least one independent studio in the UK working on a future title.

"Our complete expectation is that this is going to be one of our tent pole franchises - we already have a 2010 slate that assumes success of this product," said Rosenweig on the future of the franchise.

DJ Hero is out in Europe on October 30, with an RRP of GBP 99.99.