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Divnich: the fad of music games have peaked, can only go down from here

Posted Nov 20, 2008 at 5:31AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii Tags: Jesse Divnich

Music & Rhythm Game 'Fad' On The Way Out - Image 1

Analyst Jesse Divnich is making yet another bold claim, saying that music games (Guitar Hero and Rock Band specifically) have reached their peak in popularity and can only go down from here on out.

Divnich's claim is based on the failure of Guitar Hero World Tour (360, PS3, Wii) to meet sales expectations. Although he cites that the problem was the shortage of the Band Kit SKU, he claims that sales would have been down 40% from last year even if supplies were sufficient.

He furthers that the popularity of music games may have decreased because of the huge amount of triple A titles that came out last month, or that they only got to be so popular because it was part of a nationwide fad:

Understand, however, that "fad" is not necessarily a negative term. Fads can last for several years, and while they seem short-lived in comparison to the time we spend on this planet, they are considerably lengthy by video game standards.

Did he just describe the Wii? Kidding. At any rate, even though he feels the popularity of music games have reached it's peak, it's still going to be around for a long, long time:

Dance Dance Revolution is a good example, as it has been around for over 10 years, and it still remains somewhat popular today. However, it is not nearly as popular as it was five to seven years ago. I believe that instrument/singing games are following a similar course, but on a bigger scale.

That being said, I do believe the music & rhythm category is definitely here to stay, and it will always have a large and loyal market base. I believe, however, we may have seen a peak in sales from the category -- at least, until, the next big craze sweeps America, whatever that may be.

Via Gamasutra

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I think the biggest problem is the instruments. I don't think people want to buy $400 of plastic controllers to play two games. Having said that I also think this guy bases his statement on what the new Guitar Hero selling what they thought it would sell. You cannot base a claim like that on one single game. I wouldn't take this article at face value because the logic is " The new guitar hero didn't sell as much as rockband so this genre is dead.", this is total BS and if they want to back this claim up how about they throw out some more info to prove what their saying.

# ... — zeromatrix75 2008-11-20 08:12

I wonder how long the wii will last. Not long I hope so Nintendo could come up with something thats actually up to date.

# um.. — NarooN 2008-11-20 10:42

You do realize that the Rock Band 1/2 instruments work with GH4 and vice versa, right? You can also use the Rock Band instruments on Rock Revolution.

Anyway, fads do exist but imo Rock Band and Guitar Hero are simply two epic series that pleases people. What else can they add? *****ing car chases? No, the fun comes from playing new songs all the time. DLC is awesome, and as long as it exists, the games won't get old for true music enthusiasts.

Even if it was really a fad, it doesn't matter. Those who bought the games just because they thought it was cool aren't true gamers anyway and don't even deserve their systems.

# I think the guitar controller needs to be updated somehow. — yworob 2008-11-21 06:39

I have to admit when I first saw Guitar Hero it looked really childish because the guitar is smaller than lifesize and it has 5 brightly colored buttons that make it look like a toy for a young kid. I have since really enjoyed playing the guitar in the games but I also play the guitar in real life and would like something a little more realistic. Its easy for me to say but I dont really have any ideas on how the could improve the controller. I like how the drumset in World Tour is more realistic than the RB drumset but I think the biggest mistake they made with World Tour is the bad songlist. I think there are at least 8 songs that are also in RB. The RB2 songlist isnt that great either, more than half of the songs suck and every person I have played with online agrees with me.

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Divnich: the fad of music games have peaked, can only go down from here

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