The games had gotten out of control by 2009. People were amazed at how much these things called DLC's were making and were hoping to grab onto that rope and continue swinging forever. With greater online fanbases, this swinging could continue until the end of time. For music games, this was as simple as licensing a song, popular or obscure and then finding a new set of colourful patterns to splash for a waiting audience. 

However, before DLC became a huge thing, there were two great giants of the music games industry and were more like brothers than two rivals who had come to fight in a great arena. The first two Guitar Hero games were developed by the fantastic Harmonix but were then bought out by Activision sometime in late 2006 after the release of Guitar Hero 2. The first title under the Activision split came Rock the 80's, which was by no means a bad game but did set the template for future music game spin-offs. However, the profitability of charging almost $100 ($150 for Australia) for a plastic instrument and a game put dollar signs in the eyes of the most cliched developers.

The game was more about the style of the music it was representing. There was a comical focus on the 80's and while the game was fun for fans of that era of music, it left a lot of other consumers in the dust. This, in marketing and game creating terms, was not a positive idea and so the creators set forth on creating a stronger and more rounded experience for their next title in the series Guitar Hero 3. The game was to be the most-hyped and awesome game in history with the works of Slash from the 90's superband Guns and Roses and Velvet Underground and of course, Rage Against the Machine guitar God, Tom Morello.

It was my first real try at the Guitar Hero series and I bought it on the first day. I bought the version that came with a guitar for Wii and was astounded at how difficult and how fun it became and suddenly the internet exploded. Through the Fire and The Flames by Dragonforce had become the Battletoads of music games, with people uploading their musical mastery for the seven minute track. Showing off had come to no greater feat and for a time, Activision looked upon it's creation and saw that it was good.

However, upon release, people saw something greater on the horizon. A sun that burnt brighter and rocked harder and louder than the soft strum of Guitar Hero. It was a Band. It was a Rock Band. The game with a full band. Not just your plastic guitar. But your plastic mic and drum kit too. All it was missing were some plastic groupies and an adoring crowd and your life for fake rockstar-dom would have been set.

So things really took off for both series but Guitar Hero was subsequently left in the dust when Guitar Hero Metallica didn't exactly fly off shelves.  Even with the extra kick pedal so you could play Drums+ and the final nail in the coffin came with Warriors of Rock. I don't think I purchased a Guitar Hero game after 5 and even then I think it was just to get the guitar to play with a new copy of Rock Band because I couldn't find their brand of guitar anywhere.

Personally, I enjoy the Rock Band experience a bit better as it creates a real feeling of a crowd surging and singing along with you and enjoying themselves which helps you get into the recreation of the experience. However, strangely enough Rock Band 2 has never had an official release here in Australia and people had to rely on imports when it was released. Rock Band 3 then came along and things got a bit weird...

The theory of the Uncanny Valley is often associated with visuals and graphical representations of humans who fall between an Android or fake representation or something that is "overly human." I'm appropriating it here with music games as Harmonix tried to create something that was meant to be "plastic" or "fake instruments," but at the same time tried to teach us how to play music.

Rock Band 3 had a feature called Pro Mode in which you could use the Guitar or keyboard provided to really learn how to play some of your favourite tracks. However, most people didn't want that. Even with 2000 songs which you could play from previous games or download via the Rock Band Network, people just didn't want to do so. It was a sad day for parents who had one day aspired that their children playing Guitar Hero would pay off.

The main problem was that Rock Band, a bit like Rockstar, took too much on looking at their games as being turned into realistic art form. The main problem with most artist's or creators of creative works often strive to create something real or considered realistic. However, when it came to something like Rock Band, people were playing for fun and alas we'll never hear of the great Bieber-esque tale of the boy who learned to play guitar from playing Rock Band 3. 

Another problem is more of a personal observation from seeing people who are in bands try their hand at Guitar Hero or Rock Band and seeing that it's incredibly different. The representations of the coloured bars, both on screen and on the instrument more often than not barely represent the song. I know friends who could play White Cliffs of Dover and be utterly angered or flabbergasted at how it plays out in Guitar Hero 3.

Anyway, by the time DJ Hero had come out, they were projected to sell 1.6 million...but that amount never really came at a good time and ultimately a few people lost their jobs. This was released around the same time as Guitar Hero 5 and Beatles Rock Band had been released; leaving the market open for DJ games but still no one wanted to play them. As for Rock Band 3, it sold around a million copies but there were never any official numbers released, except for Harmonix saying it trailed in the wake of the 1.2 million copies sold for Dance Central. 

However, Rock Band 2 was never really a big hit either which sold only half as many as it's rival Guitar Hero World Tour. That being said, GHWT was the first "band" version of the Guitar series and sold immensely. Beatles Rock Band sold incredibly well with all demographics and sold well over three million units. It seemed that, excluding DJ Hero, the only times when music games made a profit post Rock Band was when a band or new series of instruments were introduced...Rock Band 3 was the last one and barely turned a profit leaving music games to slowly fade out as a closing track on this album.

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