The recession hurt the peripheral heavy music games. Future titles will ”exceed” past glories in sales. User-content is critical to that.
”I absolutely do not believe that rhythm-action gaming has reached its peak,” Rigopulos tells Edge. “Of course, 2009 was a tough year with the recession, which especially affects music games given the relatively high price point of instrument bundles.”
”But in the long term, people’s passion for music isn’t going away, and rhythm gaming will continue to provide people with a deeper level of engagement with the music they love. So, yes, I do think that future music games will exceed the sales success of the last generation.”
Neversoft’s Brian Bright is Guitar Heroes’ project director, and he says that disc-based updates may never again match the stellar performances of past releases like Rigopulos believes. User generated content could tip the balance however.
”As far as sales exceeding GHIII’s in the future, only time will tell, but it’s a tall order,” said Guitar Hero’s big shot boss, Bright. ”I think user-created content is key to the evolution. If you can’t create or edit licensed music due to copyright laws then you’re limited to pretending to play someone else’s music. I think the key is to create music, but make it compelling to create, so the game is in the creation, not the playback.”
”User-generated content will be absolutely critical to the ongoing success of the genre, I think,” chimes in Rigopulos, agreeing with his rival. ”To be clear, though, when I talk about ‘users’ in this context, I don’t necessarily mean end-users or players.”
”I’m talking about a huge community of power-users – skilled music creators – providing their music to the audience. The launch of the Rock Band Network will be our next ‘defining moment’.” The Rock Band Network has recently opened its doors.
However only skilled developers can really pull off what’s necessary to get tracks into the game because of all the conversions and hoop jumps needed to meet standards. A number of studios have popped up offering their services to interested bands.
