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…
PS2 the most played
My roommate has the white PS4 that was bundled with Destiny.
I recall playing DotA when it was new in 2005, but I haven’t played it in years because I disliked teammates “feeding” (dieing a lot) and being killed by multiple opponents because my teammate(s) wouldn’t declare MiA (missing in action) heroes in their lanes.
Regarding why people in RTS and MOBA games click constantly might be to help their reaction time, as I, too, did that; it would let me know relative server latency.
I never played LoL, HotS, or DOTA2, but I have spectated DOTA2 to see my PC’s performance, and DOTA2 got a Vulkan update, so I’m hoping for the next Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, or Valve game to use a good Vulkan implementation.
I enjoy watching Super Mario Maker, “Retro” category games, nostalgic games, and high requirement games because I’m using an old PC until Zen arrives, and I, too, use Twitch to preview games.; it, also, serves as “background noise”.
I watch StarCraft 2 and other RTS games because I’m no good at them anymore.