10 trends in music games
TRANSCRIPT
10 TRENDS IN MUSIC AND GAMESAre games the new rock’n’roll?
1. Cash cow... Third most popular genre
behind general action and multiple/sports
Guitar Hero: 35m sales, $2bn+ revenues, 40m song downloads
Rock Band: 10m sales, $1bn+ revenues, 60m song downloads
1. ...or Bursting Bubble? US sales down 46% so
far this year and down 6% in 2008 (NPD Group)
BUT – this was before Q4 with new games
2. Downloadable content (DLC) Guitar Hero: more than
40m song downloads Rock Band: more than
60m song downloads Tap Tap Revenge – 500k
weekly downloads for featured track
2. Downloadable content (DLC) Exclusives: Beatles All
You Need Is Love for Xbox 360
Full albums: Pearl Jam, Metallica, Judas Priest, Pixies
Small beans next to 8.5bn iTunes sales, but growing...
2. Downloadable content (DLC) Next big thing: DIY
downloads with Rock Band Network
Open to labels and artists – IF they have a trained developer
Solves bottleneck at Harmonix to get tracks live
3. Squabbles over money WMG: “The amount being paid to
the music industry - even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control - is far too small.”
Activision: “There’s a misunderstanding of the value we bring to the catalogue... you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse.”
4. Broadening out Genre started as rock-
focused Now broadening out – DJ
Hero for dance, Scratch for hip-hop
DLC for Rock Band bringing in funk and hip-hop
Karaoke and kids games remain focused on pop
5. Artist-specific games Guitar Hero games for
Metallica, Aerosmith and Van Halen
The Beatles: Rock Band – first digital Fab Four music product
iPhone: Tap Tap Coldplay, Lady GaGa Revenge, Christmas With Weezer
5. Artist-specific games Music games also being
used to break new artists Gedda-Headz –
iPhone/mobile gaming community based on new hip-hop group
Dance Fabulous – Nokia introduces Cindy Gomez to the world
6. Going mobile Tap Tap Revenge – 15m
downloads on iPhone Guitar Hero III Mobile – 3m+
downloads, has downloadable content
Rock Band just went mobile through EA
Guitar Hero and Rock Band have PSP/DS versions too
7. Going online JamLegend – Guitar Hero
for the web Hit Machine – Rock Band
for the web Issues of licensing may
come to fore
8. Song library access Games tapping into
players’ own libraries of music
iPhone 3.0 makes this increasingly common
AudioSurf turns tracks into... tracks!
Hitting music licensing revenues?
9. Creating music Guitar Hero World Tour
studio – 250k uploads and 17m downloads
Riddim Ribbon – remix by playing then share the results
Leaf Trombone – 2k uploaded scores
Beaterator – PSP music creation with Timbaland
9. Creating music Licensing issues around
players uploading cover versions of songs
Easy option: ban covers Harder but more
rewarding to find a model to reward rights-owners
10. Mash-ups DJ Hero – licensing
songs in pairs to be mixed into new tune
But more controversial: Kurt Cobain does Bon Jovi – but Courtney Love didn’t approve
Thankyou! Stuart Dredge – [email protected] Music Ally – www.musically.com iPhone Games Bulletin –
www.iphonegamesbulletin.com