After an explosive 2008, the music genre was way down in 2009. Sales fell 46% in the U.S., and the music genre combined with the casual sector were two of the primary reasons that 2009 failed to match 2008's record revenues. That said, music is the lifeblood of developer Harmonix, and the studio isn't convinced that music gaming is on its way out. In fact, with the recent launch of the Rock Band Network, Harmonix is more optimistic about the space than ever before it would seem.
Speaking in the latest issue of Edge magazine, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos commented, “I absolutely do not believe that rhythm-action gaming has reached its peak. Of course, 2009 was a tough year with the recession, which especially affects music games given the relatively high price point of instrument bundles. But in the long term, people’s passion for music isn’t going away, and rhythm gaming will continue to provide people with a deeper level of engagement with the music they love. So, yes, I do think that future music games will exceed the sales success of the last generation.”
Rigopulos believes that music gaming will be driven by user-generated content, and naturally he believes that the aforementioned Rock Band Network will be a huge part of the genre's success moving forward. “User-generated content will be absolutely critical to the ongoing success of the genre, I think. To be clear, though, when I talk about ‘users’ in this context, I don’t necessarily mean end-users or players. I’m talking about a huge community of power-users – skilled music creators – providing their music to the audience. The launch of the Rock Band Network will be our next ‘defining moment’.”
We're certainly intrigued by the prospect of Rock Band Network democratizing the music genre in video games, but we're not so sure it alone is enough to push sales back to their 2008 levels. The music genre may in fact have peaked, but that doesn't really matter so long as the space can remain healthy.
