Music games dying?


second exodous

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Looks like music games are going the way of the dodo. I have only played the Nintendo bongo game for game cube in a store display so many years ago and have picked up a plastic guitar for PS2 once in my life. I just never got the point of 'playing' plastic instruments that make no sounds on their own other than cheap plastic noises.


Oh wait, I played one of those on the DS that had an add-on thing for the GBA port, didn't like it either. I just _never_ got them, why the heck were they so popular?
 
Hmmm,


I don't know if like "music" games. I think LOOM is a "musical" game , and I like it.


But games like Guitar Hero are just pointless to me. I can't have fun with it, or enjoy seeing people playing it. It just looks stupid. I mean, what is the fun of playing a game that you have follow the buttons? Sorry! Even the "dancing" games are better, because your whole body can enjoy the coreography, but not my fingers!


I see no problem of people liking that kind of games. My only fear is that some day my son could ask me to buy him a plastic guitar with five colored buttons...
 
They have been around since at least Nintendo. The Power Pad on the Nes did have a game called dance aerobics well before DDR or Wii Fit & EA Active. Guitar hero type music games are newer, but as gfrancis said, can even play those with keyboards and there are lots of open source free rhythm games around.


I can see them not being as super popular as they were in the early GH days, but can't see them ever going out. Enough people have the peripherals, for this generation of consoles anyway, that it is fairly cheap to make these music games. Probably costs more in the licensing the songs then in the programming. Basic structure of the games hasn't changed in a while.


I think the reason GH and RB are bowing out is they tried to make it too big. Every time they got super popular and people actually shelled out for the instruments it was like a, WAIT, NOT YET, YOU DON'T HAVE THEM ALL!!! You have to get the keyboard now, and the DJ equipment!!!!


I don't think Music dance games are going anywhere because 8 year old girls will always be 8 year old girls. I think another company will come in and make some more titles under a diff name that are compatible with the periphs. I think the companies got greedy and instead of being happy with the market they created they kept trying to expand it. Can't sell many copies of DJ hero if everyone is fed up with buying yet ANOTHER plastic instrument.


You also have to give people some time to get bored with the songs. When GH I, II, and III came out there was enough gap that when the next game out I had gotten mostly 5 stars on all the songs, except the ridiculous ones that only 9 year olds in Korea can play. Once they started bringing out 2-3 a year of the main GH brand plus RB got into the fray, plus trying to introduce crap like DJ Hero, it was just too much. Was not enough room in the market for the amount of series and the speed at which they were releasing games. All because of greed. "Last year, Activision only sold 86,000 copies of the latest game in the series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock." Because people were still playing and enjoying the older GH games they hadn't had time to get bored of yet.


Is it the end of RB and GH? Maybe, until someone licenses the names to make a new series, but it will happen. Whether under the old name with a new company, or completely new named series, it will come back. Lots of people have plastic instruments already, it would be crazy for a smaller gaming company not to step up into the void that will be created with GH and RB bowing out. And the longer no one does, and the longer people play all the songs they already have, the bigger the void will get. If there is a market, someone will try to take advantage of it, someone with much smaller overhead than Activision, Harmoix and MTV.
 
I don't play these type games either, but think they are aimed at younger people. I also had that guitar thing for the ds lite but never bothered using it, got it cheap if a mate who was selling them and gave it to a mates little girl


parapa the rapper us the only good one of these games
 
I wouldnt call it the end of music games just because GH is going away. Frankly good riddance because I much prefer Rockband which is still going along just fine. These games are popular because they give people with no musical ability the chance to feel like they're playing music without having to spend 2 years learning cords. Much the same way a FPS lets people go out and shoot hundreds of virtual people in the face without actually getting shot in their OWN face.


But Activision did hurt the market all on their own with a poor strategy, releasing a dozen GH games in a year will certainly saturate the market with plastic guitars and wear out it's welcome. That's why I preferred Rockband; fewer releases, better designed equipment that didnt just look like a kids toy, and a far better thought out business model for DLC. Intelligence should be rewarded, while hackery falls off and that's what's happening. Thin the heard and let the better games find their audience.


The DJ games where a victim of their niche. It's not as approachable I think to ask people to play mixxing/techno/house/rap mashups as it is to ask them to play aerosmith or nirvana.
 
Rock band is kind of in hiatus while harmonix gets sold. And MTV games, the distributor, is shut down.


Wouldn't say rock band is still going along just fine.
 
Guitar Hero II was pretty cool.


After that, I think they realized they could make a killing by moving to the Internet-enabled consoles and charging for extra songs, and making a Beatles game. (Why the fuck would I want to play their music?)
 
Pfft, I don't see them dying, I just think there's been too much oversaturation in the industry from one company, need more variety.
 
I want a ballroom dance game for Kinect! And not a shovelwarey title either, I mean a good one!
 
Yeah, but why do sports games exist? Or RPGs, or music games or etc. etc. etc.? Ballroom+Kinect could=win.
 
Yeah, but why do sports games exist? Or RPGs, or music games or etc. etc. etc.? Ballroom+Kinect could=win.

I would say most sports need equipment and you can't find many dragons to kill around here anymore. Not like I live in england or anything. ;) With the music games, Sports games and RPG's you are doing something you can't really just do. The football, guitar, swords, magic, whatever is in the game. With ballroom dancing??? hmmmm.


But that doesn't matter. If they can make money with it, they will make it. Problem with ballroom dancing is I don't know if the market is big enough to make it financially worth it to produce. With DDR you know there are enough 8 year old girls and japanese school kids to make back your production costs. If it was profitable, or will be, then it would be, or will be made. Same for any game concept really.
 
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From Saturday I can say rhythm games are less dead than pc games, we held a LAN event and dragged a ddr setup, kinect and some gh/rb to uni, most popular was the ddr surprisingly (cobalt flux, projector and openitg (all ddr/itg/mungyodance packs and a few extras))


In contrast not a single person took up the offer of ut/l4e/team fortress/etc
 
Yeah, I play L4D every weekend using online multiplayer, but DDR lends itself to IRL multiplayer, so at a LAN party I'd probably choose that, too.


Or Guitar Hero, since I'm still pretty okay if I play on Medium. Never got the hang of Hard, there's just a huge gap between them, so I'm great at Medium and shitty at Hard.
 
Hehe, just got an email from amazon advertising discount for dance and rhythm games.


Dear Amazon.com Customer,


Customers who purchased or showed an interest in video games at Amazon.com might like to know about the following promotion: for a limited time, beat the winter blues with hot deals on rhythm and dance games.


Save up to 35% on popular titles, including "Just Dance 2", "Guitar Hero", "Def Jam Rapstar" and more.


Looks like someones trying to move GH stock.
 
Anyone ever played Tendrils?


It's a pygame RPG in the style of the eye of the beholder games utilizing typical DDR mechanics for combat. Not the greatest game ever but fun nevertheless.
 
Anyone ever played Tendrils?


It's a pygame RPG in the style of the eye of the beholder games utilizing typical DDR mechanics for combat. Not the greatest game ever but fun nevertheless.

An rpg you have to exercise to play? Pass. ;)
 
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