Today's post is about music games. For a while now, games made exclusively for music have been incredibly popular. These games try to make the intricate and gigantic world of music popular and accessible to all people. Think about what music games have done to the industry. Before the rise of music games, a big gap was starting to form among those who were hardcore players and those who were casual players. Although this gap still exists, games like music games aided in keeping hardcore and casual in one place. By creating a game that is easy to pick up and is fun, but still has a great level of difficulty if one chooses, the industry created a bridge between hardcore and casual. Since then, many games have created bridges between the two groups. But as the game industry evolves, music games are an interesting thing to look at.
Music games have changed much over the years. They started as an staple in arcades with games such as Dance Dance Revolution. Only until DDR's transition to consoles did music games start to be on the rise. Guitar Hero introduced more mainstream rock into music. It introduced songs most people knew, which was a step forward from a mostly Japanese soundtrack on DDR. Guitar Hero became super popular, and created Guitar Hero officionados who new how to play all the songs on Expert. It spawned 2 sequels and created a cultural stamp for itself. Music games continued to grow however, as a game called Rock Band challenged the established genre. Rock Band introduced a wider base for music, more instruments, and downloadable songs. Rock Band turned music games into a group aspect. RB would spawn a sequel, and the downloadable songs would be a strongpoint for sales, with over 200 songs and albums available for download. Guitar Hero would follow in this trend and make multiple instruments also. The future holds much for music games. As Guitar Hero releases yet another sequel, Activision is trying to broaden the Hero label into pop music and rap music. With their new title DJ Hero and Band Hero, more music is being made available to the gaming masses. EA is focusing on bringing more legendary music to the table, with the impending release of The Beatles: Rock Band, as well as their continued focus on downloadable content.
But the music genre could hit a roadblock fairly soon. Music games have always been known to be new and innotive. They have been known to introduce new things. But music games at this point have reached a technological peak. After Rock Band and Guitar Hero introduced an entire set of instruments, all instruments for rock, pop, and country were taken care of. Now with the impending release of DJ Hero, rap will be taken care of. As far as controllers go, there isn't much left in terms of innovation without sacrificing ease of play and quality. The games are reaching their peak themselves. Completely customizable characters, instruments, and even user-created music have all reached the games. With the impending release of LEGO: Rock Band, stages will be able to customized also. Guitar Hero 5 is set to have a completely customizable experience, with any combination of instruments and players possible. What else can music games do?
Certainly, if music games are at the peak of performance, releasing new peripherals and a new game every year isn't smart. The point I am trying to make is that this is the time for music games to make it or break it. They need to figure out a way to appeal to the masses in a completely different way, or they will fall into the woodwork. It seems that the game developers are noting this, and the big 2 (EA and Activision) are doing things to try and evolve.
EA is sticking to music. They want to focus on giving people a music experience, and that to them means delivering more music. Through their gigantic amount of downloadable content, EA is able to deliver tons of music that is playable in both Rock Band and Rock Band 2. This content includes tons of different genres. There's stuff like nu-metal, classic rock, metal, death metal, screamo, emo, pop, and even country in there. And with the full release of albums, EA plans to keep up this content for a while. They also realize however that some music needs more than just being available for download. EA had the license to introduce the Beatles for a while now, but they knew just putting it into downloadable content would not be the best sales option. By creating The Beatles: Rock Band, and getting names like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, and Dhani Harrison involved in the development, the game will sell like hotcakes and be quality. EA is sticking to the music.
Activision is going almost completely opposite. Although they too want to have downloadable content, its content is shameful compared to Rock Band's. Activision is focussing their music effort into separate games, such as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Their strategy is to deliver a seperate game, and have whomever likes it buy it. Their main focus is in enhancing the gameplay experience. GH5 promises drop-in and drop-out gameplay, with any combination of instruments. Anything from 4 guitar players to 3 drum players and 1 singer is possible. It is also possible to change difficulty and song in the game without going back to the menu. Activision is sticking with refinement.
Who's strategy is better? Are either of the strategies going to work? It is a topic to consider.
So just consider music games today and how much they have changed. And please don't watch The Sound of Music. Please.
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