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At long last, the state of the music game genre has returned to its’ true form, barely limping along with only a few truly hardcore still following it. All you wannabe rock stars, the middle school kids with nothing better to do but show off your “guitar” skills, I say…Good Riddance.
I don’t really blame you for the mutation that the music genre became. We all know it was greedy companies like Activision and Viacom who just wanted a piece of the pie that eventually soured everything. They made crap that could barely be called a game let alone a music one. They took the basic DNA of the rhythm genre and injected it into whatever cheerleader Disney shell they could get their hands on. Then they wanted to cash in on your limited and fleeting attention so they oversaturated the market. They built a business model off of creating overly priced plastic instruments and when the market couldn’t sustain itself, they dumped their developers.
Recently it was announced that there would be no Guitar Hero or DJ Hero games this year. It was also announced that there would be no Tony Hawk Game, but no one really cared about that. Activision also said that it would not support any more new DLC for their music games and after February, that was it.
I mentioned yesterday that Harmonix had been hit with layoffs. This is after Viacom, sold the company to Harmonix for a rumored fifty dollars. Harmonix now owned itself again. The reasoning behind this, Harmonix would also take over the debt currently owed, freeing Viacom from any financial obligation.
So what now? Is there no hope? Great music games come out but people don’t care? Harmonix makes one of the biggest and best improvements to the music genre and now they’re scrambling to stay afloat?
Like I said before. Farewell to all you music game players from this generation. To be honest, you annoyed me quite a bit with your licensed only rock music, your too hip attitude, and the ease at which you dropped a genre dear to me. But this isn’t the first time. Dance Dance Revolution was the thing when I first started college. You’d see people lined up at the college arcades. There would be excitement when the newest Mix came from Japan. But you don’t see any of that anymore, do you?
But the genre will find a way. The splinters from the pieces of will group together and form something new. I’ve survived this long because I didn’t let the opinions of others stop me. I kept doing my thing because I enjoyed it. I kept playing even when there weren’t people around watching, clapping, cheering. Because I loved it. I might not be able to play an instrument, but I am a musician. I can work any plastic controller you hand me. My eyes listen as good as my ears. And sometimes, I let my feet do the talking.
So I guess I’ll see you around.
Maybe it’ll be when the next generation of music games arrives.
Or maybe we won’t see you again at all.
Take care,
David
Comments
13 years, 9 months ago
"They built a business model off of creating overly priced plastic instruments and when the market couldn’t sustain itself, they dumped their developers."
- This is the main focus point. Society does the same thing to pop stars. Think of Brittney Spears for example. It started off "Omg brittney!!" to "Another Brittney album, sounds the same, shes getting kinda old" to "Holy shit she crotch shotted the camera again, dumb whore" Over saturating any market with a product will kill it. Im glad to see plastic instrument games die finally. Now if Call of Duty can please be next.
13 years, 9 months ago
Why does this sound disturbingly like a note from a serial killer, trying to justify his murder spree?
In all honesty, though, I've never been one for music games. I suck at them, so I don't play them. Because I don't follow these games, I had no idea that music games were sinking. It saddens me to see the deterioration of a gaming genre.
13 years, 9 months ago
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dennis Gagliardotto and David Liao, Justin Reuter. Justin Reuter said: Well said. RT @4PlayerPodcast: I Can Finally Have My Music Games Again by David Liao - http://4pp.tv/hS [...]
13 years, 9 months ago
this is awesome david! the guitar hero kids pissed me off when it was cool. ive spent years playing real guitar and now its cooler to play a little plastic instrument than the real thing...really put a damper on me. thank you
13 years, 9 months ago
So much respect for you right now, bro.
13 years, 9 months ago
They also Cancelled True Crime Hong Kong
13 years, 9 months ago
The sad thing is activision can afford to just drop the music genre and still have an overrated overpayed genre cover for it...it sickens me
13 years, 9 months ago
I think I'll probably pick up a DDR game if it comes out in the future. I feel like that would be a music game I'd enjoy
13 years, 9 months ago
Hah, oh this is lovely.
But it's nice to hear there's someone else who really enjoys DDR. I'd also want to give Pump It Up a try, the five button layout's got me curious.
I also need to check out if DDR on the PS3's worth it. Oh... and I also found a DDR machine at a restaurant nearby that has an unlimited chicken wing buffet each monday.
I swear, if it wasn't for the purchases of games in the future... I'd go wild on chicken and DDR every monday... But that would probably be 20$ worth of DDRing (roughly 8 hours, alternating, taking breaks and etc.)
...
*Sighs* DDR Arcades are fun, but they drain money so quick.
13 years, 9 months ago
Hopefully this is the floodgate. Other shitty Activision can be discontinued.
I give COD 6 years, until it's dead.
13 years, 9 months ago
I would like to see a return of the old retro style arcade music games.
13 years, 9 months ago
Preach it brotha!
13 years, 9 months ago
I wonder if some in the company are getting to get worried about CoD dying next. Maybe Kotick isn't sitting so pretty anymore. Nah.. I'm probably just being hopeful.
13 years, 9 months ago
Sounding a little pretentious there, David.
13 years, 9 months ago
The thing is, with DDR, you buy it and the pad. That's it. With the Guitar Hero games and the Rock Band games, you get one and then about 6 months later, another game comes out with it's own instruments that are better than the ones you have now. Before long, you'll have 3 drum sets, 5 guitars, and however many mics. And during all this sale, DDR still has the same dance pad. They kept it simple and it's still around, Guitar Hero is not. But they left us with what? 11 games in 6 years?
13 years, 9 months ago
I have the same view more or less with David about this whole fiasco.
Honestly was pretty into guitar hero once it established a name for itself. I bought GH3, then world tour. Then around that time I started to learn how to play an intstrument for real and I realized the folly and flaws of the franchise.
The guitar peripherals are lying in the corner of my room now like their an item of shame,caked with years of dust on them, while my actual instruments lie proudly in plain view.
As for the future of music games, I believe that they may be seeing a revival. DDR never had much of a heavy following in the area I live, but lately I've noticed plenty of people, both college age and some even younger than me starting to take interest.
Of course, the majority of the players are noobs or the people who stay on the easy settings forever, but it's a good start.
13 years, 9 months ago
Harmonix will be fine I assure you.
HMX has invested too much to have the Rock Band franchise fold. Those who think RB is going to follow the way of GH and die out soon don't understand how different the context is. HMX has done the independent gig before, they have emotional investment in the brand and don't abandon their IPs whenever they stop printing money.
The Rock Band Network structure is there and it seems to sustain itself well enough. They might cut the flow to PS3 like they did with the Wii but the 360 infrastructure is simply there and the work to simply sustain it is minimal since a lot of the work is community based.
So basically, expect Rock Band to slow down, possibly a lot. Expect HMX to start exploring new ideas now that they're back to independence. Expect Rock Band Network to possibly take a bigger space in the community. But don't expect Rock Band to die out soon.