According to The Guardian, a small team of employees from DJ Hero dev FreeStyle Games recently jumped ship and formed their own studio, Music In Colour. The team's first title will be a collaboration with production firm Reactify and recording studio Metropolis. The music game, Say What?! for iOS, is backed by a licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment.
"The music business needs to capture a new audience," says joint managing director and former FreeStyle head Chris Lee. "Rather than make a game then license the music, this is much more of a partnership. We think there is a great opportunity to leverage the mobile platform to build something that reaches a wider audience, and monetizes music."
Say What?!'s gameplay revolves around matching icons to song lyrics, unlike the current beat-matching style of play established in Harmonix's Frequency long ago.
"We're not trying to be cleverer than that. This is about something that appeals in its simplicity, and we're trying not to niche it. It should appeal as much to 8-13 year-old girls as it does to 30-40 year-old males,” said Lee. "Far too many games can fall into the trap of having a game mechanic based on failure, and the fear of failure driving you to do stuff. We don't think that's what the mobile audience wants."
Unlike some studios, FreeStyle Games is still up-and-running under the watchful eye of Activision, though it recently suffered some layoffs.
[Via Eurogamer]
