The other day my wife and I had about 20 minutes to kill before we had to go out and she asked if I wanted to play a few songs in Rock Band to kill the time. For some reason, I hesitated to take her up on her offer, which is crazy because a) how often is she going to SUGGEST we play video games together, and b) I’m supposed to be a huge music game fan. That got me thinking, have music games possibly reached their saturation point?
Adding fuel to my speculative fire is the news that came out while I was away, namely, that Guitar Hero and Rock Band sales are both down (34 and 67 percent, respectively). Even though Rock Band didn’t have a new game this year, perhaps in this down economy people aren’t as willing to shell out the money for all these plastic instruments.
Personally, I’m not as excited anymore about Rock Band Beatles and Guitar Hero 5, which seems strange to me considering the amount of time I’ve put into Guitar Hero 2, World Tour, and Rock Band 1 & 2. I wonder if I’m going to put as much time into those games as I have in previous iterations. Or maybe DJ Hero is going to be the next big thing, it certainly looks interesting. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to music games in the next year or so.
Am I alone in this, or do others feel the same way?
You’re definitely not alone in it, as I feel the same way. Part of me was curious if Activision was going to release a new drum set and guitar for Guitar Hero 5 this year, and sure enough, a new $200 band kit will be out this fall to compete with the Rock Band Beatles set, which contains a drum kit that’s the same old Rock Band drum kit but with a Beatles emblem on it. I think the whole plastic instruments annoys me the most about music games, and how they just keep coming out. I don’t find myself buying a new mouse and keyboard or a 360 controller every time I get a new PC or 360 game, so what gives? I guess we have to blame consumers for this one, as the reason publishers are pushing them out is because they’re selling.
I personally feel like I probably won’t be buying any more music games (at least at launch price) any time in the near future – my collection of Rock Band 1, 2, Guitar Hero 2, 3 and World Tour are enough should I feel like doing some music gaming. Activision is most guilty of flooding the market – 5 Guitar Hero games this year? At least with Beatles Rock Band, Harmonix is going for something that is a little different and has more value. Activision’s defense though is that people keep buying it, and they would stop if the games weren’t selling. But the Wii market is apparently a gold mine for Guitar Hero, and that doesn’t seem to change any time soon.
I’m guessing music games will eventually go the way of Dance Dance Revolution, holding onto a core amount of fans but no longer in the limelight once a new casual family-friendly game approaches. What will be the next big thing?
2 points. and I agree that the music games have reached a saturation point.
1. The game iterations are becoming like “Madden” and other EA sports “sequels”. Minor graphical improvements and roster changes (songlists) and they still make you pay full price for the game. I guess I’m not sure what else these companies can do to advance the rhythm game niche; I suppose adding a song composer sounds good in theory but how has that been going since GHWT has been released? It seems like they are concentrating on peripherals driving game design and ideas rather than the game driving what peripherals would enhance that game.
2. Peripherals – I think the picture in the post says it all. I mean come on, how many band kits does a house need? I personally held off on RB just because of the clutter factor. I think parents are feeling the same way – why should they buy another band kit for pretty much the same game? We’ll see how the consumers embrace DJ Hero, yet another accessory to add to their collection of clutter, but I predict it will not do as well.