It's no secret that the over-saturated music game genre isn't doing as well as it used to. Analyst Michael Pachter believes there is one big reason for 2009's music game decline -- the games didn't withhold enough content.
"Publishers have probably done themselves a disservice by giving us way too much value for our money with each of these games," explains the mighty soothsayer. "You just get way too much content. The installed base has a lot of music, and they don't really need a lot more. It's sort of like buying more books when you have a stack of books left to read. You just don't."
Really? I thought it was because people saw DJ Hero, said "that sh*t looks absolutely retarded" and then left the music game genre alone to jump the shark as it's done. People just don't have enough room for anymore pieces of plastic crap, and I don't think "value" has much to do with it. With Activision releasing about five Guitar Hero games a year, I reckon the market has simply reached breaking point.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 12.21.2009
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I easily agree with you Jim. Despite DJ Hero being the freshest thing since Guitar Hero 1, people are just fed up with plastic toys. Even years before Rock Band, a lot of people (myself included) had Karaoke Revolution, and played Drums at local arcades. It's been saturated for quite a while.
RIP Britney Murphy... The world lost another blah blah blah
Great. I love these.
Add the harmonies to Rock Band 3 next year and let me keep my existing library of downloaded music. Also let me customized the background of the note tracks to add some variation to the half of my TV I am actually looking at while playing.
One of the very few games entitled to the "too much value" title, is The Orange Box, that was a STEAL!
I can't understand Pachters logic here, it's abnormally stupid today.
People who say its shit just havent played it yet.
What a knob.
I had fun with that.
*chortles*
Also, I literally LOL'ed at mizzougrad01's comment. Thanks for that one...
If Rock Band 3 won't let you import all your Rock Band 2 content, that will officially be the end of the rhythm music game genre. Pachter can quote me on that if he wants.
From his discussion on the Bonus Round, which is where I initially heard Pachter's thoughts on music games, I think he made it clear that the issue was simply that there was an over saturation of these games on the market. Given that so many people had already bought tons of Guitar Hero and Rock Band games and very likely not even finished all of the content on the existing games, it's quite possible that they simply didn't consider Beatles Rock Band an essential purchase, especially when many of the older games had been so heavily discounted by that time that in comparison, they might have been seen as a better value for the money than Beatles Rock Band. I think he also conceded that the appeal of the Beatles may have been overestimated as a selling point.
As for "DJ Hero," in that same episode of Bonus Round, I don't remember if Pachter said anything specific about that game other than that he felt that it was a much harder sell than the Guitar Hero / Rock Band games because it's easier to sell the idea of a guitar game than a DJ game, which I think most people would agree with.
So yeah, Pachter did indeed say that music games were "giving us way too much value for our money" but I do not think he meant that the studios should be withholding content from its games.
If they want the game itself to be the draw they need to allow players to import their own tracks, CDs and mp3s included,then release a new game every year or two that will sell on the merits on the improvements over the previous iteration.
On the other hand if they expect the draw to be the music itself and want to make their money with multiple yearly releases and dlc the games have to be alot cheaper, on par with their cd counterparts, and throwing in a digital copy you could listen to on your iPod/Zune would make buying tracks for the games much less painful.
I feel that by not definitively choosing one model or the other, they're choking the life out of the genre.
But seriously, it really is such a simple answer I don't know why he even bothered commenting on it; they pumped out too many games and the market for rhythm games has crashed, or is at leats in the process of doing so.
I demo'd DJ Hero in stores and like it, and it seems that other people who stopped by have the same feeling (most of the time the demo is being played by someone). I just feel like I've had plenty of music game content lately, as well as other new games that have come out that demand more attention.
Also unlike Tony Hawk Ride, the DJ Turntable is actually responsive and is fun to play with.
But whatever, I don't care, I'll just go play with my real guitar if these tools don't want my money.
I demo'd DJ Hero in stores and like it, and it seems that other people who stopped by have the same feeling (most of the time the demo is being played by someone). I just feel like I've had plenty of music game content lately, as well as other new games that have come out that demand more attention.
[re-lurks]
VGSWID needs more of him. And of "Pretentious Videogames Journalist-Mime"
wow is all I can say. what exactly does retarded look like anyway. ever stop to think about how your words hurt people in the special needs community? Bet not.
Once the franchise split and rock band came into existence things just out of control.
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