Rhythm games changing music and game industries

It wasn’t long ago that video games were wed to buttons and joysticks. Now homes across America are filled with guitars, drum sets and microphones hooked up to gaming consoles.

“Rhythm games opened eyes about hardware,” said Edward Castronova, professor of game design at IU and virtual reality expert. “Now we’re in an environment with dance pads and the iPhone.”

Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are all household names. Also known as rhythm games, or games that reward players for syncing actions to music, these titles have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

“One of the game’s biggest achievements and one of its legacies is the fact that it helped non-gamers get into gaming,” Harmonix Project Manager Daniel Sussman said.

Harmonix Music Systems made the first two Guitar Hero games before moving on to create the Rock Band franchise.

“It became this party phenomenon. Suddenly your mom wanted to play video games with you,” Sussman said.

Harmonix broke into mainstream success with the first (2005) and second (2006) installments of the Guitar Hero series, which distributor Activision claims as the third largest video game franchise behind Mario and Madden NFL. But the cultural impact of rhythm games goes far beyond sales figures.

“Guitar Hero and Rock Band also helped connect the music industry and the gaming industry like never before,” Sussman said. “It created a way for musicians to expose their material to new fans and interact with them on a whole new level and exposed fans to new music.”

Castronova sees the indelible link between the games and the music as an important step toward understanding both better.

“If the issue is literacy,” he said, “anything that engages you with the material is good.”
Rhythm games encourage a deep familiarity with the songs to achieve higher scores, and set lists filled with classic rock are seen by some as a crash course in rock ’n’ roll history. Media analysts call this effect “tangential learning,” often functioning as subliminal education throughout the normal course of achieving the game’s objectives.

Others, however, view rhythm games as incompatible with conventional music. The musician Prince rejected Activision’s offer to license his hits for the Guitar Hero franchise, stating in an interview on the PBS program “The Tavis Smiley Show,” “I just think it’s more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar.” For Prince, music can be frustrating at times but it can also be enriching, and although he holds nothing against rhythm games, he’s also firmly rooted in the real thing.

“Musicians are just as divided on rhythm games as on people sharing music,” Castronova said. “But the technology is going to win.”

Sussman, however, said rhythm games only serve to cultivate an interest in music.
“We were receiving tons of stories from fans who took up instruments after playing Rock Band. You’re learning hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, rhythms and you’re just connecting with music in a whole new way.”

And it may be more than turning gamers into music lovers and vice versa. According to Sussman, the music industry has benefited from rhythm games. “Video games are a significant profit center for record labels and music publishers,” Sussman said. “We get constant interest from recording artists who either want to be in one of our games or have ideas about collaborations.”

But after half a decade of mainstream rhythm games (1996’s PaRappa the Rapper, anyone?), are developers still innovating?

“I’m not sure the genre is growing,” Castronova said. “It seems more like a question of marketing, especially with things like The Beatles: Rock Band.”

Harmonix was sold early this year by Viacom (MTV’s parent corporation) to investment firm Columbus Nova due in part to the absorption of music licensing and unsold guitars and drum sets. Following in February, Harmonix laid off 12 to 15 percent of its full-time staff. Activision put the “Guitar Hero” series on indefinite hiatus in 2011 after sales dropped steadily during the last three years despite the fact that each year, more and more titles were released.

However, Harmonix’s Dance Central for the Xbox 360 Kinect is one of the best-reviewed launch titles for Microsoft’s hands-free gaming peripheral. And with the rise in popularity of downloadable content, Sussman said Harmonix has sold more than 80 million songs online and releases new songs every week.

“We’re almost to a point where the world is not going to pay for copies anymore,” Castronova said.

It’s no secret that digital piracy has plagued the entertainment industry as each year more people have access to high-speed internet.

“But is there something about me that can’t be copied?” Castronova said. “Is there a way to broadcast the performance so users can play along virtually with the performers? Talk to us via headsets? Take questions?”

Whatever shape the future of rhythm gaming takes, Sussman remains optimistic about Harmonix’s future.

“Harmonix has the relationships and the standing ... to continue expanding the Rock Band and “Dance Central” music selections, and we have some great new content coming in the future,” he said.