Now, far from it for SPOnG to say anything too shiny and happy, but when a really rather good game franchise manages to make an vast - and we mean vast - amount of cash even we turn the corners of our mouths up a little.

Why? Well, because it means that we could expect more of of the really rather good game. Because the publishers might be goaded into being maybe a tad more adventurous and because the devs might be able to afford a holiday.

So, we're happy enough to pass on the fact that according to US statisticians, NPD, Acitivision's Guitar Hero franchise has chalked up $1,000,000,000 (£514m) in sales.

"Since its initial release in fall 2005, the Guitar Hero franchise has sold in excess of 14 million units in North America alone.

"In 10 weeks since the game's launch, consumers have already downloaded more than five million songs."

One billion bucks for guitar-based karaoke fun! Fantastic! Bet Blizzard, Vivendi and Activision shareholders are happy with that. It would also confirm that GH is a really rather important property to Activision... "Activision posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007".

Now, with all that cash flowing in, it's got to be time for a really revolutionary game concept... hasn't it? Please.