Analysis Details Massive Failure For Music Games

[Sirisaxman]

Who would have guessed that heavily repetitious games with the same kind of tasks year after year and a general oversaturation (Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk etc.) would go down the drain...huh

The only "music game" I was ever interested in and bought was Audio Galaxy and that was for under 10? on Steam, didn't require any peripherals and gosh darn works with every single track on the whole world because of a simple track analyzation algorithm...

I just hope it doesn't take too many years till "Call of Doody" goes down the drain too and the damn "gaming industry" can finally move past it and maybe do something original or cool again for a change...

Audio Surf is pretty sweet as well. Reminds me of Harmonix's pre-Guitar Hero games, Amplitude and Frequency.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Because we all didn't know this from about 2 years ago. Man 14 game since 2008, that is ridiculous for a series that is quite expensive

 

[TelHybrid]

I'd like to see more music games that don't require peripherals, similar to Gitaroo Man.

I think they could catch on well with a good bit of marketing. Hell some of the indie ones on PC are my faves, e.g. Audiosurf, Beat Hazard, Ongaku.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Activision shit all over the playground once they realized they'd traded the only good player in the kickball game away. I think the over-saturation is pretty much attributable to a single actor on the field, and I think it was because they saw other people figuring out new (and better) games with their ball.

Rock Band is still worth much more than the price of admission, IMO. It's also the only franchise worth worrying about the future for. For comparison's sake, I just spent $400 on RB3. Long tail, anyone?

 

[Mr. Socky]

Oversaturation is definitely the problem. Especially since so much care has been made to allow different peripherals work with different games, why would I buy Rock Band when I could just bring my Guitar Hero guitar over to a friend's house and play it for a few hours?

 

[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.