Analyst Advises Activision to Acquire Rock Band

[SaintWaldo]

It's not wizardry or eldritch arts that make the Rock Band games score higher than the Guitar Hero games, it's that Harmonix is taking its time and isn't firing them out at a rate of at least one a year.

If you actually think it's that simple (and I grant that you probably don't), you don't understand that RB is actually progressing towards the goals of the original masters thesis project that started BOTH franchises. The original thesis was about discovering not only a new way for people to interact with music, but also new ways to close the loop and open up access to playing music. REALLY playing it. That sort of compelling vision shining through a quality product is what draws people and keeps them, not the frequency of releases. Hell, just look at the DLC venues; Rock Band has actually been doing weekly releases of new content. Consumers OBVIOUSLY like a la carte music titles better than monolithic blocs. If GH had even ONCE acted like they really supported DLC for their franchise, instead of each release being a reason to abondon already purchased content, maybe they wouldn't be atrophying so fast.

And Rock Band, in just a few iterations, has pretty much finished the job it started with Guitar Hero, but for some reason didn't feel it could complete under the Activision roof. I bet that part has much more to do with one group embracing the core vision and being determined to follow through no matter what the dollar suits said, and the other team tacking on anything to seem like they even HAD a vision, all for the money suits.

When it comes to music, and music games it seems, the one with soul is the one to back. Rock Band, by virtue of possessing any soul in the first place, will hold this crown for a good while.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Heh, I think Rock Band has No Doubt too.

It does. The whole Greatest Hits collection, in fact.

 

[Jonny1188]

This scares me, because Activision has the money and its not practical to assume Harmonix will stand on principle and not sell out. I do hope, however, that Guitar Hero just dies and Harmonix becomes sole ruler of the music game genre, since I trust them as a company to do what's best for everyone.

 

[Madmanonfire]

That doesn't make sense. The only things RB has going for it is lots of DLC, good-ish online play, and awesome vocals. GH (especially GH6) is better in every single other way as a game. Most likely because RB is a casual series.
At least GH is made with "quality over quantity" in mind. Not as much fun having a ton of songs if the charts aren't that great to play.
Now RB is turning more into a teaching guide than a game. That's making it harder to compare the two.

 

[bpm195]

It's not wizardry or eldritch arts that make the Rock Band games score higher than the Guitar Hero games, it's that Harmonix is taking its time and isn't firing them out at a rate of at least one a year.

Harmonix is absolutely crapping out games at least once a year.

2007 - Rock Band
2008 - Rock Band 2
2009 - Lego Rock Band, The Beatles Rock Band, Rock Band Unplugged, Rock Band Mobile, Rock Band iOS
2010 - Green Day Rock Band, Rock Band 3

That's some pretty solid milking right there. Not as bad as Guitar Hero obviously but still pretty solid milking.

And anyway, Rock Band will be in the same place as Guitar Hero pretty soon. There's only so much you can do with a giant quick time event as your only gameplay mechanic. Rock Band 3's silly "we can teach you to play for realz!" gimmick is only going to prolong the inevitable.

That's basically it right there. Both sides are cranking out the games, but what it really boils down to is the DLC. Rock Band is streaks ahead of GH on that front. And that's the only reason why I have abandoned GH for RB.

Keep in mind that the Rhythm Action genre has been based around that same "giant quick time event as your only gameplay mechanic" with moderate success and a cult following since 1998. Same very shallow game concept with tons of variations on it, mainly in different controllers I can think of 10 different controllers released before Guitar Hero that each have their own cult following. These games are ridiculously shallow, but there's a chunk of players that thoroughly enjoy it.

The Rock Band 3 mode that teaches you how to play is actually a good use of technology. For drums and keyboard in particular it's relatively easy to use a midi interface to detect what's being played and give feedback on it. Further more the games consist of reading scrolling simplified tablature, so if they remove the simplified part its that much closer to the real thing. I don't know how receptive people will be to this concept, but they had a mode in RB2 that taught real beats so I assume that was well received enough to warrant pro mode.

Frankly I'm excited about this. I have no interest or desire in learning Guitar Bass or Keyboard and I'm a good enough drummer that I'd benefit less from this mode than I would from just getting sheet music. However, this a good step for educational gaming. It's taking a game that has already proved popular and adding an educational element.

That's freaking awesome!

 

[Yog Sothoth]

It's not wizardry or eldritch arts that make the Rock Band games score higher than the Guitar Hero games, it's that Harmonix is taking its time and isn't firing them out at a rate of at least one a year.

Harmonix is absolutely crapping out games at least once a year.

2007 - Rock Band
2008 - Rock Band 2
2009 - Lego Rock Band, The Beatles Rock Band, Rock Band Unplugged, Rock Band Mobile, Rock Band iOS
2010 - Green Day Rock Band, Rock Band 3

That's some pretty solid milking right there. Not as bad as Guitar Hero obviously but still pretty solid milking.

And anyway, Rock Band will be in the same place as Guitar Hero pretty soon. There's only so much you can do with a giant quick time event as your only gameplay mechanic. Rock Band 3's silly "we can teach you to play for realz!" gimmick is only going to prolong the inevitable.

Harmonix is the biggest distributor of DLC for any platform, any game, world-wide. They've got a solid business model & aren't going anywhere any time soon.

 

[Andronicus]

How about they don't? Guitar Hero is dwindling, so rather than milk the last droplets out of the cow, we feed it lots of grass, give it some time, then, when it's Udder is fit to burst, we begin to milk it a bit.

Then we eat beef.

Calumon: Ummm... I don't understand this. I agree with Jack? Maybe? I like milk too!

I'm sorry, but I just have to ask.
How does eating the cow fit into the analogy in the context of videogames?

OT: Meh, they can do whatever they like. I've got the only rhythm game I'll ever need: Rock Band: Beatles.

 

[Denmarkian]

NO, NO, NO!

Just give the Guitar Hero trademark and licenses back to Harmonix! They know what they are doing.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

How about they don't? Guitar Hero is dwindling, so rather than milk the last droplets out of the cow, we feed it lots of grass, give it some time, then, when it's Udder is fit to burst, we begin to milk it a bit.

Then we eat beef.

Calumon: Ummm... I don't understand this. I agree with Jack? Maybe? I like milk too!

I'm sorry, but I just have to ask.
How does eating the cow fit into the analogy in the context of videogames?

It's putting the franchise to bed. Can't milk a cow in your stomach.

Calumon: Awww... but I wanted some more milk!

 

[Andronicus]

How about they don't? Guitar Hero is dwindling, so rather than milk the last droplets out of the cow, we feed it lots of grass, give it some time, then, when it's Udder is fit to burst, we begin to milk it a bit.

Then we eat beef.

Calumon: Ummm... I don't understand this. I agree with Jack? Maybe? I like milk too!

I'm sorry, but I just have to ask.
How does eating the cow fit into the analogy in the context of videogames?

It's putting the franchise to bed. Can't milk a cow in your stomach.

Calumon: Awww... but I wanted some more milk!

I get that killing the cash cow would be putting it to bed, but cutting up the actual cow, throwing it on a barbecue and eating the remains? Sounds more like you're suggesting Activision cut up the part making the milk (in the case of "Warriors of Rock", Neversoft), give them a solid grilling for their milk becoming stale and old, consume them and shit them out the other end. Actually, that sounds exactly like something Activision would do.

Apparently, all this exam revision is making my neurons fire off in unexpected and slightly disturbing directions...

 

[Stollos]

I can't see how bringing the two franchises together will make them more popular. Whats happened is that nobody cares anymore. They throttled the genre with mediocre cash-grabs that didn't (really) bring anything new to the table. And now everybody has been there, done that, and if they still care enough, they go back and play their favourite again when they get the pangs, like I do. Personally, I think the gimmick of plastic guitars and flashing lights in your living room is over. It had a good run, a better run than I would have thought it was capable of achieving, but like all fads, its died down. My 2 cents.

How about they don't? Guitar Hero is dwindling, so rather than milk the last droplets out of the cow, we feed it lots of grass, give it some time, then, when it's Udder is fit to burst, we begin to milk it a bit.

Then we eat beef.

Calumon: Ummm... I don't understand this. I agree with Jack? Maybe? I like milk too!

Hmmm... I do like beef.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Innovation and variety beat out churning out quantity? Color me shocked. Or don't. I kind of saw it coming.