“Cementing gaming’s role in music’s evolution, Steinberg has done pop culture a laudable service.” – Nick Catucci, Rolling Stone RHYTHM GAMING’S GREATEST HITS OF ALL TIME By SCOTT STEINBERG Author of Get Rich Playing Games Feat. Martin Mathers and Nadia Oxford Foreword By ALEX RIGOPULOS Co-Creator, Guitar Hero and Rock Band Praise for Music Games Rock “Hits all the right notes—and some you don’t expect. A great account of the music game story so far!” – Mike Snider, Entertainment Reporter, USA Today “An exhaustive compendia. Chocked full of fascinating detail...” – Alex Pham, Technology Reporter, Los Angeles Times “It’ll make you want to celebrate by trashing a gaming unit the way Pete Townshend destroys a guitar.” –Jason Pettigrew, Editor-in-Chief, ALTERNATIVE PRESS “I’ve never seen such a well-collected reference... it serves an important role in letting readers consider all sides of the music and rhythm game debate.” –Masaya Matsuura, Creator, PaRappa the Rapper “A must read for the game-obsessed...” –Jermaine Hall, Editor-in-Chief, VIBE MUSIC GAMES ROCK RHYTHM GAMING’S GREATEST HITS OF ALL TIME SCOTT STEINBERG DEDICATION MUSIC GAMES ROCK: RHYTHM GAMING’S GREATEST HITS OF ALL TIME All Rights Reserved © 2011 by Scott Steinberg “Behind the Music: The Making of Sex ‘N Drugs ‘N Rock ‘N Roll” © 2009 Jon Hare No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical – including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher. DEDICATION Published by P3: Power Play Publishing 4045 Five Forks Trickum Rd. Suite B-8, #244 For K, Z and R, who always kept the show going while Lilburn, GA 30047 I was out on tour. And to Keith Elam, Nathaniel Hale, David Francis, Eric Knipp, Bjorn Larsson, Erik Schrody, Josh Levetan, Kris Ramac, Paul Scigliano, Frenchie, Nolan Bushnell, Trip Hawkins and Todd Anthony Shaw—all around the world, it’s the same old song. MEAN BUSINESS? DON’T PLAY. GAMES INDUSTRY RESEARCH Video Game Consulting AND ANALYSIS www.techsavvyglobal.com www.gametheoryonline.com FOREWORD FOREWORD hen I learned that Scott Steinberg was compiling games, from a creative standpoint, and they were popular with the critics. But consumers didn’t show much interest, and Harmonix continued to struggle to get a history of music games, I was thrilled, as this is by. Then, in 2004, the one non-music game we’d ever developed, EyeToy: AntiGrav, a little-known story that ought to be told. sold about 3X better than any music game we’d made previously. This was a dark W hour for Harmonix, and we seriously pondered whether our decade-long forays in interactive music had been pointless. Way back when Eran Egozy and I started Harmonix, over 16 years ago, video games were actually the last thing on our minds. Rather, we were motivated But then our next game was Guitar Hero ... by something quite different: We wanted to change the way that people experience music. Most people in the US had never really heard of “music games” before Guitar Hero appeared in 2005, after which it snowballed into the fastest new video game Why? Because music stirs people’s emotions on a bafflingly profound level. It franchise to reach $1 billion in retail sales in the history of the business. This record affects us in ways both abstract and potent; it prods deep recesses of our minds was quickly broken by our next franchise, Rock Band, which came in 2007. that are inaccessible to any other art form. To borrow words from Confucius, “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” Of course, the spectacular expansion of the genre from 2006 through 2008 was followed by a comparably spectacular contraction of the genre from 2008 through And so we wondered: How might interactive media be used to tamper with the 2010. This has led many pundits to pronounce that “music games are dead.” And relationship between people and music? indeed, if you equate the words “music game” with “rock performance simulation game,” this would seem to be an uncontroversial assertion, with current sales of In particular, we were struck by the fact that the urge to make music is woven into such games being a fraction of what they were a couple years ago. every one of us. And yet very, very few of us are actually able to act on that innate desire. Most of us don’t have the time or talent or patience to endure the years However, such glib pronouncements miss the bigger picture: “Music games” of training and dedication that are the price of entry for musicianship. For most comprise a vastly more expansive domain than just rock performance simulation. people, the path to having a joyful experience with a musical instrument is Like music itself, music games will continue to mutate and evolve. Already, for a prohibitively long one. This is the problem we set out to solve. example, dancing games such as Dance Central have emerged as a prominent new fixture in popular culture. In the beginning, we weren’t making video games, we were making music creativity apps of various sorts, and for years, we failed to make any kind of Needless to say, dancing games, too, may someday be supplanted by some new meaningful headway. But then something happened to us: PaRappa the Rapper form of music gameplay, which will then be succeeded by another. Some of these appeared in Japan. It wasn’t the first music game we’d ever seen, but it was the new phases of the evolution of music games will shine under the bright lights of first one that had an emotional impact on us. I remember sitting in Harmonix’s mainstream success, some will not. But what’s clear is that music games, broadly conference room one night, playing PaRappa for the first time and having my “light speaking, can never “die,” because they are rooted in the basic human appetites bulb moment,” where for the first time I could see the potential of video games for music and for play, both of which are manifestly here to stay. Music games, like as a medium to amplify people’s connection to music. And shortly thereafter, music, will be endlessly reinvented. I am eager to see the next chapters in this story Harmonix started making games. unfold! That was in 1998. And for the subsequent five or six years, Harmonix made several Alex Rigopulos music games, including the rhythm-action games Frequency and Amplitude as Co-Founder and CEO well as the Karaoke Revolution series of singing games. We were proud of these Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION or those about to virtually rock, we salute you. Still, Not only have global economic problems seen cash-strapped gaming enthusi- asts pinching pennies more than ever. We’ve also seen software publishers— that’s not only because you’re about to step onto convinced of the industry’s ‘recession-proof’ nature—increasingly attempt to milk a path that untold millions have walked (clad in red, popular franchises for all they were worth. From Band Hero to DJ Hero, SingStar: F Queen and Lips: Number One Hits to Guitar Hero: Van Halen and Green Day: Rock blue suede and Adidas shell-toed shoes, natch) for over Band, each incongruously not only played to an increasingly limited subset of three decades before. No, it’s also because following a fans, but also required the use of expensive plastic instruments that often ran upwards of $100. 46% year-over-year drop in 2009 sales of music games across the board—and Activision’s subsequent decision With shoppers choosier about where they spend their money nowadays, and a willingness to buy only so many pricey accessories compatible with a small to temporarily bench the once-proud Guitar Hero series— range of titles, one might argue that a sales decline was inevitable. Ditto for a some would argue that it’s time for the entire genre to correspondingly massive market correction, considering the price of the average music and rhythm game genre offering (with associated peripherals) more than take a final bow. doubled that of the average video game in recent years. Never mind that fans can stomach only so many faux Stratocasters crowding up the living room; even Granted, you and I know that it’s a ludicrous statement. Long before the older music titles, many armed with built-in online music download services that Fab Four ever flirted with headlining blockbuster band simulations or Dance allow players to constantly purchase new tunes that keep them feeling fresh and Central made legions of coordination-deprived high-tech enthusiasts get new, still offer tremendous value. Coupled with the rise of free-to-play alterna- awkwardly footloose, each enjoyed a healthy romance with gaming fans— tives for web browsers, smartphones and PCs, new on-demand digital download not to mention hit-making success—in other eras, concepts and formats. platforms and a target audience that, while growing, isn’t necessarily exhibiting a A more cost effective alternative to $60 retail amusements, let alone nosebleed dire need for polystyrene turntable controllers… well, is it really a surprise that so $120 instrument bundles, free to play digital, mobile and online-enabled many promising launches have ended up hitting a sour note? games like Tap Tap Revenge 4 and Slayer: Pinball Rocks also continue to steadily tear up the charts. Growing public enthusiasm for karaoke and dancing games While it’s tempting to be cynical though, the truth is that just as lawmakers, politi- appears to be singing a different tune as well, given the multiplatinum-selling cians and parents attempted to dismiss rock ‘n roll as destined for failure as the success of Michael Jackson: The Experience, and both the original Just Dance and devil’s music so long ago, none should be so quick to write the music gaming its equally well-received sequel.