Analysis Details Massive Failure For Music Games

[Adzma]

I don't know where the sudden hate for the music genre came from, didn't we already get over the "Play a real instrument! Gosh!" phase of these games?

My guess is it has something to do with the fact that once Rock Band and Guitar Hero IV were released, new songs could easily be accomplished through DLC, yet they insisted on remaking the exact same games at full price.

 

[Yog Sothoth]

I think Harmonix has done a commendable job of doing just that. The first Rock Band introduced the drums which are quite close to their real world counterpart. And of course vocals can't exactly be faked... But as a fellow fan of the genre, I'm sure you know all that and would agree.

Now that we have authentic instruments, I think the next step will be some sort of system where players can use the software (it will cease to be a mere game at this point) to compose original songs and possibly sell them via the Rock Band Network. I'd be surprised if Harmonix is not already exploring this idea.

I really hope that RB3 proves to be something of a sleeper hit; it would be a tragedy to see them fall when things are just starting to get interesting...

http://www.rockbandaide.com/9488/future-titles-to-include-composition-and-improvisation/




I think you're right.

I'm a HUGE Rock band fanboy and really really hope a decent company that can fully support HMX picks them up, and PRAY that Activision never gets their hands on them, or else the genre is officially dead.

Wow, look at that, I'm psychic! lol...

And yes, please god, don't let Activision get their hands on Harmonix... My hope is that Activision won't be interested and consider Harmonix to not be profitable enough. But in a best case scenario they'd just hand the Guitar Hero license back to them and stay out of their way. Pretty much the same way that they treat Blizzard...

EDIT: In the meantime, I'm buying up as much DLC from the music store as I can afford until we know Harmonix's fate.

 

[Jumplion]

I don't know where the sudden hate for the music genre came from, didn't we already get over the "Play a real instrument! Gosh!" phase of these games?

My guess is it has something to do with the fact that once Rock Band and Guitar Hero IV were released, new songs could easily be accomplished through DLC, yet they insisted on remaking the exact same games at full price.

Guitar Hero for sure, but Rock Band? Not so much.

I mean, fine, they released Beatles and Greenday (though the Beatles was friggin' amazing, don't know about Greenday), but they've supported all their Rock Band titles with waves upon waves of DLC with over 2,000+ songs now available for Rock Band 3. Guitar Hero did something like that, but made the huge mistake of making the DLC for their games incompatible with previous or future versions.

Again, as I said before, I really don't get where the hate all of a sudden came up. Are we still going "buy an instrument and pay for lessons to learn 'Mary had a Little Lamb' you pansies!" as if there's absolutely no appeal with the music genre games?

 

[Sight Unseen]

I don't know where the sudden hate for the music genre came from, didn't we already get over the "Play a real instrument! Gosh!" phase of these games?

My guess is it has something to do with the fact that once Rock Band and Guitar Hero IV were released, new songs could easily be accomplished through DLC, yet they insisted on remaking the exact same games at full price.

Guitar Hero for sure, but Rock Band? Not so much.

I mean, fine, they released Beatles and Greenday (though the Beatles was friggin' amazing, don't know about Greenday), but they've supported all their Rock Band titles with waves upon waves of DLC with over 2,000+ songs now available for Rock Band 3. Guitar Hero did something like that, but made the huge mistake of making the DLC for their games incompatible with previous or future versions.

Again, as I said before, I really don't get where the hate all of a sudden came up. Are we still going "buy an instrument and pay for lessons to learn 'Mary had a Little Lamb' you pansies!" as if there's absolutely no appeal with the music genre games?

I personally never understood why music games get so much flak for all being the same, when racing games, sports games, shooters to an extent, and many RPG's all have basically the same mechanics as the previous ones, have way more of a back catalog of games, and all of whom are complete standalones.

I have no doubt in my mind that Rock Band 3 is EASILY the most innovative game out of any game released in the past 2 to 3 years, in a game genre that is constantly put down for having no innovation, and yet people are still claiming that all music games are the same. Rock Band also has the advantage that, with the exception of about 15 songs and the Beatles, the entirety of all the songs from every Rock Band game and DLC seamlessly integrate into the most recent version. VERY few games have ever imported previous content or DLC into their new games, and none to the extent of Rock Band. Add in the amazing Rock Band Network, and this is easily the game that takes advantage of digital content the best.

Also about the Beatles, Lego, and Green day games: the beatles game is one of the prettiest games in recent years, and is revolutionary in the sense that it beat out iTunes in terms of being able to download digital versions of Beatles' songs. LEGO was a nice little game targetted for kids, and had probably the best "story" of a music game, simply because it was made by the makers of other Lego games and was completely over the top and hilarious. In the scheme of things though, LEGO was certainly not needed, though I did buy it since it had an awesome setlist. As for Green Day, another game that's not really necessary, but for me, Green Day is one of my favourite bands so I was thrilled when this got announced, and played the hell out of it, and now I have over 50 Green Day songs in my Rock Band 3 library, so that's awesome for me.

 

[Shindiggity]

Maybe I should become an analyst! All you have to do is state the obvious.

 

[Jake Martinez]

New songs are not enough of a lure for people to get the new games (and frankly, many of the song lists REALLY suck.)

The game play "enhancements" are really quite modest too and don't justify entire new releases in their own right. Essentially they are selling shovel-ware, and they are acting surprised that people aren't buying it?

 

[chinomareno]

I'm surprised the bubble lasted this long, haven't played a rhythm game with a guitar since GH2.

 

[Gindil]

I think the concept was just a phase, phase is now over.

Updating compusory perhiperals (spelling??!?!?!) so you have to buy them aswell just doesn't go down well in a casual market

The market could do quite well, but the Goldman pegs it pretty well.

Oversaturation.

I know that every year, I'd put a lot of money into the newest Drummania game which always kept a good mix of songs. The same could be done with Rockband or Guitar Hero with more international mixes of songs. The problem is that I've heard quite a lot of music but it's all been done before.

 

[Optimystic]

Ok, let's get this out of the way first: I love the Rock Band games... Like really, really love them. I have over 200 downloaded tracks and play on a near daily basis. So this is coming from a bona fide fanboy.

I read with interest the article on Gamasutra. One thing to keep in mind with the declining sales numbers is that after the initial launch everyone had acquired their plastic instrument bundles of choice, which carry a much higher price point than the game disc alone. So I think that part of what we're seeing is gamers choosing not to upgrade their fake instruments, but maybe still buying the disc. There wasn't any possible way to sustain the momentum once the peripherals were in everyone's hands.

What I don't understand is why Harmonix has still not been profitable for Viacom. Sure, shipping bulky bundles all over the world must be an expensive endeavor, but here's where things don't add up: I've read in numerous sources that Harmonix sells more DLC (in terms of revenue) than anyone else. They were crowing about gross sales of over a billion(!) dollars a little more than a year after Rock Band was released. And they still can't turn a profit?

Something fishy is going on here, I think. I'm not saying that the market isn't saturated (it is) or that many gamers aren't sick of these kinds of games (they are). What I am saying is that Harmonix is inflating their DLC sales claims, those sales aren't being taken into account, or that their business model is seriously flawed.

Anyone else here care to weigh in on this apparent discrepancy?

Here's some light: [http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-viacom-harmonix.html]

Their revenues increased 5% but their profit fell 59%. Too many expenses is the obvious cause.

 

[gring]

Because all the songs I want cost so much to play. Like for 9 songs I can buy an entire game off steam or used at block buster.

this, plus the games are already plenty expensive enough when you include all the hardware. if they actually supported the genre by keeping more music flowing in for cheap prices, maybe people wouldnt feel so ripped off. besides, most the time theres only a handful of songs you end up liking on their entire soundtrack, so if you want new music, you have to buy DLC, and no one wants that shit.

i remember seeing DLC for DJ hero selling for $15.99, was only 3 SONGS! i can buy whole CD's for $12, sometimes $10 or less. these companies got too greedy and it backfired.

 

[Shale_Dirk]

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales/29394/rock-band-3/
http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales/29395/rock-band-3/

Hm. That?s odd.

Gamrreview puts total sales to this point at 300,000 for 360 and PS3. (Including 200,000 sales for week 1 [coincidentally, much higher than GH:WoR's 140,000]).

Almost like someone stating that Rock Band only selling 8,000 units was completely unreasonable given the moderate pre-orders, amazing reviews, and respect from the gaming and music communities.

10 to 1 that the company being cited for these sales is only reporting sales of the standalone disc. For Europe. Just for the PS3.

 

[XT inc]

We'll the devs don't take into account that their game is a part of the world. That People aren't being swayed away from other games.

Consumers are always looking for deals and cheaper things, music games aren't competing against new titles, but used games and steam+gfwl. Their main issue is royalties to the song owners. Lets face it, it's a jooooke to say it's hard work to make those songs for the games. Why would they think I'd rather get half an album for the price of a game off steam.

 

[j0frenzy]

I think a big aspect of the declining sales since 2008 is the peripherals. In 2008, people had none because the games were just being released on home consoles. In 2010, people don't need to buy the $100+ versions with the instruments because they already have them. That alone is going to do terrible things to revenue. Now keep in mind that those things break and are expensive to replace. They probably lost a lot of sales because the controllers no longer work and people decided the genre was not worth another triple-digit investment to get a new game with all the needed instruments.
And then there is the over saturation problem that is not helping either.
Also, there is the fact that it is not the holidays yet. I haven't gotten RB3 mostly because I only have money from December to February and whatever I manage to hold on to after that period. At least RB3 is trying to innovate the genre.

 

[Something Amyss]

I love that people are singling out music games for poor performance last month, even though they weren't alone.

Obviously a lot of people just wouldn't see the point, but as we can see, this evolution of the music games is required in order to keep the genre not only alive, but flourishing.

I hope so, but Rock Band 3's sales are far from promising (even within the context that they weren't the only oens floundering). I think the pro model is awesome, but I totally seem to be in the minority here.