Rhythm games are the new FPS for a lot of gamers, a broader audience of gamers, and the market is thriving and demanding new titles. Harmonix and Activision are at the front of the battle with Konami following a bit behind but still contending (we think) very soon.
Each company plans to up each other with cooler instruments, tighter controls and new in-game options and multi-player fancies. It’s a business and each competitor tries to gain a lead by whatever means needed to win… or do they?
Harmonix stops short when it comes to purchasing exclusive rights to music artists, for now at least. Harmonix’s Eric Brosious went on blogger record saying, “We prefer not to sign exclusive deals with artists because while it seems like the competitive “business” thing to do, in the long run, it’s really not good for anyone. We think we should be working to get more music out to more people.” (kotaku)
As Marky Mark once said, we need “Music for the people” not for in-game exclusives making us choose between Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles. We’ve seen what EA has done to the football franchise by taking control of the NFL roster, money talks and the best game doesn’t always win.
If Activision decides to buy up a ton of great exclusive content and you’re a rock band gamer, you’ll lose out in a ton of great content. For some gamers, that might mean losing out in some artists you’ve never heard before which also means the artist loses out in new fans. We’ve seen younger gamers fall in love with the sounds of Boston and The Police, bands famous way before the birth of many of the Rock Band fan base.
You can tell Harmonix is a development group with roots in music while Activision is a development group with their roots in business. While exclusive access brings you an advantage, in terms of broadening the culture of music, it does very little. Harmonix may be in the right but will that matter in the end when business deals hit the table?
p.s. sorry about the Marky Mark reference, but it had to be done. Bringing out a bit of my own childhood there…
The Xbox 360 price drop
Hi Guys.
Thanks for this episode, even if i am not so much into Resident Evil, it was interesting to listen to your thoughts about it 🙂
I played the last RE on PS4 … it was 7? Dont know exactly 🙂
I finished Hollow Knight, Detroit Become Human and Monsterboy and the cursed Kingdom … made it to 97% without any walkthroughs 🙂 Yesterday i started with Kingdom Hearts 2.5 because i want to play through this until i start KH 3. And of Course: a lot of Magic The Gathering Arena!
What do you guys think about all these new-old games coming out besides RE? Like Monsterboy or all these HD Remakes of this and that? Do you like it or do you like the original feeling of the old games and do you want to play only graphical blasts in 2019 (like Last Of Us 2, Anthem and such Triple A titles)?
For your question of the week: i want a remake of Metroid (the original one on NES and Super Metroid for SNES) as well or some GameBoy Games like Gargoyles Quest or Simons Quest 🙂
There are some Non-Video Games from my childhood (C64 and Amiga) i would love to see as a remake: Apydia, Turrican, Moonstone, New Zealand Story or Baldurs Gate. On the other side maybe these games were good back in the days but would not be good anymore today even with better graphics? 🙂
Please stay as you are and keep going with the good work.
Greetings from germany,
Ralf