Music, Sound Effects, Tech News, and More — The AudioMicro Blog

It wasn’t the British Invasion that Harmonix wanted:  instead of crowds thronging the stores, screaming like the girls at the Ed Sullivan Theater, they got tepid sales when a Rock Band completely devoted to the Beatles was unleashed.  Are the lackluster sales of both the Beatles Rock Band and Guitar Hero5 indicators that the music video game has passed its prime and is on its way out?  It may be that the current model is on its way out – or needs to be in order to recapture the excitement the original games stirred in 2007.

Combined, Beatles Rock Band and Guitar Hero5 brought in $1.1 million in October.  Respectable.  So why does Gamasutra’s Matt Matthews write, “October’s sale figures brought with it new evidence of the crisis the genre is experiencing”?  Of all the games across all the platforms, only Beatles Rock Band for Wii made it into the top ten.  There were no other appearances in the top twenty.  But most damning:  in October 2007, Guitar Hero 3 sold 1.4 million copies in six days. The fifth edition seems a pale shadow of this, and DJ Hero doesn’t even compare.  This version has sold 120,000 in five days across all the gaming systems.

All games have taken a hit because of the economic downturn, but the music genre has taken it hardest of all.  Very simply, we’re sick of the same thing over and over.  Each new edition is not really new at all.  Dhani Harrison, who consulted with Harmonix on Rock Band, said, “I’m working on Rock Band 3 and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game.”  A move like this could reignite excitement and draw in new fans of the game.

Northeastern University marketing researchers wrote in a recent blog post, Too Much of a Good Thing: Explaining the decline of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, “Once people own a music game, there is less reason to purchase another one.”  So simple, so why are Harmonix and Activision so reluctant to change their formula?  Whatever the reason, it is becoming abundantly clear that they need to break the mold they’ve created.

Other Music News From Around the Web Today:

Arctic Monkeys Talk Fourth Album

New Vampire Weekend Video – “Cousins”

Reports: MySpace Buys imeem At Fire Sale Price

Karen-O and the Kids “Where the Wild Things Are OST”

Saul Williams & The Niggy Tardust Experience @ The Roxy

Posted in: Guitar Hero, Harmonix, music games, Rock Band, wii

Since the music video game trend has gone on a steady upward incline since the launch of Guitar Hero back in 2005, the sky has undoubtedly been the limit in terms of what boundaries could be pushed, both for software and hardware alike. The evolution of the plastic guitar, which once featured a simple interface of five color-corresponding buttons, has now developed into high-neck solo buttons, increasingly sensitive motion detection, and far more intuitive ergonomics. The games, which originally presented 30-60 hit-or-miss covers of a random assortment of songs, have now witnessed the incomparable advantages of music licensing.  With GH: Metallica awaiting a March release and GH: Aerosmith already on store shelves, the trend has even gained enough traction to get the Beatles talking.

Last year consumers became privy to far more choices in terms of their video game palette as the folks at Activision (Guitar Hero developers) challenged the drum and microphone’d prowess of Rock Band with Guitar Hero World Tour, which featured competing hardware to the Harmonix Brand. But such competition wasn’t nearly as feasible as it seemed; Konami made a feeble attempt to foray into the sector in 2008 with Rock Revolution, which was met with weak reviews and tanking sales figures.

But the true question is, what’s next for the titans of the music gaming world? We know that Activision is currently in development of their oft-rumored DJ Hero, which will hopefully open doors for the hip hop and electronica lovers in the gamersphere. However the real challenge may lie in the marketplace, as developers are testing more innovative ways of offering user-generated content available for mass download.  Considering the aforementioned evolution of the genre, the both sides of the competition better bring their A-game, because two turntables and a microphone just may not cut it for a finicky consumer base.

Posted in: Activision, Guitar Hero, Harmonix, Rock Band, User-Generated Content, Video Games