Today’s earlier announcement that the MTV-owned, ex-Guitar Hero boys at Harmonix have teamed up with EA to make the ultimate rhythm-action game, Rock Band, has sent shivers of excitement and 'shockwaves of rock’ throughout the gaming and music industries.
What we didn’t hear in the official announcement earlier, though, was any mention of Nintendo’s Wii. However, in a conference call earlier today, Harmonix’s Alex Rigopulos assured gamers that:
As a concept Rock Band is, without a doubt, absolutely water-tight; firstly, get every major music publisher to agree to license the original versions of everyone’s most-loved rock classics, both old and new. Then get the best development team in the genre to put together an on-line, collaborative console-based rhythm/timing rock game with realistic, easy-to-use peripherals. Finally, get the biggest videogame publisher in the world to handle the sales and marketing.
Job done. Providing of course that Rock Band works as well as, if not better than, Guitar Hero - and is not prohibitively expensive. But with Harmonix’s pedigree in the genre being second-to-none, it’s really hard to see how Rock Band can fail.
Unless, that is, MTV gets too involved in the whole thing and it all turns into a pop or MOR mess. If that happens, SPOnG is going to organise some kind of dirty protest whereby we will encourage irate gamers to cover MTV’s infamous Camden Town studios in poo.
We don’t like to issue these kinds of threats, but in this case it’s necessary. Heed our warning MTV! Let Harmonix do what they want with Rock Band and all will be good.
What we didn’t hear in the official announcement earlier, though, was any mention of Nintendo’s Wii. However, in a conference call earlier today, Harmonix’s Alex Rigopulos assured gamers that:
“Absolutely, we will at some time bring Rock Band to every console of significance and in doing so we will customize and tailor the play experience to take into account the weakness of the console and the strengths of the consoles ... I think [the Wii] is something that holds enormous potential for music games."
As a concept Rock Band is, without a doubt, absolutely water-tight; firstly, get every major music publisher to agree to license the original versions of everyone’s most-loved rock classics, both old and new. Then get the best development team in the genre to put together an on-line, collaborative console-based rhythm/timing rock game with realistic, easy-to-use peripherals. Finally, get the biggest videogame publisher in the world to handle the sales and marketing.
Job done. Providing of course that Rock Band works as well as, if not better than, Guitar Hero - and is not prohibitively expensive. But with Harmonix’s pedigree in the genre being second-to-none, it’s really hard to see how Rock Band can fail.
Unless, that is, MTV gets too involved in the whole thing and it all turns into a pop or MOR mess. If that happens, SPOnG is going to organise some kind of dirty protest whereby we will encourage irate gamers to cover MTV’s infamous Camden Town studios in poo.
We don’t like to issue these kinds of threats, but in this case it’s necessary. Heed our warning MTV! Let Harmonix do what they want with Rock Band and all will be good.
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Comments
Joji 2 Apr 2007 21:12
1/1
This does have great potential but I'm wondering why they'd want to pigeon whole the game by calling it Rock Band. I understand that's where its strength and Guitar Hero roots are rooted, but it would smart to spread the music.
Maybe I'm jumping ahead, but if you look at the definition of rock music it would leave a lot of scope instrument wise. A possible Wii version would be cool in if worked out, but true success of that version would have to rely on one thing, (sd card or a potential Wii hard drive, before it goes online for games).
Its a good thing to have some success with music games outside of japan. Lets just hope it doesn't get too commercial with the likes of MTV vultures lurking.
Maybe I'm jumping ahead, but if you look at the definition of rock music it would leave a lot of scope instrument wise. A possible Wii version would be cool in if worked out, but true success of that version would have to rely on one thing, (sd card or a potential Wii hard drive, before it goes online for games).
Its a good thing to have some success with music games outside of japan. Lets just hope it doesn't get too commercial with the likes of MTV vultures lurking.