After struggling through a period of shrinking audiences and product glut, the two major music game franchises have chosen very different roads.
2010 will be remembered as the year Rock Band got real and Guitar Hero went Looney Tunes. And that’s a good thing for both: They need to be as different from each another as possible for both to survive.
Netflix is the best Non-Nintendo software to hit Wii. British comedy is the best thing to hit Netflix. When Wii, Netflix and British Comedy combine, you get The IT Crowd.
Roy plays Wii. Just another day in the I.T. department. WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE.
In 2007, a handful of ex-Guitar Hero developers announced a “radical new idea” in video games. I know because I was in the room at E3 when they announced it. They, Harmonix, were going to launch “an interactive music platform” called Rock Band, after which additional songs and game updates would be download later—as opposed to yearly stand alone releases.
Everyone in the room was thrilled with the idea. But it never came to fruition. Harmonix and its partners cowered. And instead of releasing “a platform,” they went against their word and released yearly stand alone games in the form of Rock Band 2, Beatles Rock Band, and Rock Band 3, at full price mind you. Guitar Hero releases are even more watered down.
