Viacom's announcement that it will sell off Harmonix has put a lot of attention onto the apparent demise of rhythm games. Sales numbers for Rock Band 3 seem to confirm that dire prediction, coming in during release month ranked in the mid-teens or 20's depending on the source. And yet, of all the games I have managed to play over the past two years, Rock Band and its ilk have dominated all others in universal appeal. How is it that something with so prevalent an appeal can flounder while Black Ops, a game I have very little interest in, breaks sales records without batting an eye?
Now I'm not one to say that sales numbers are the sole arbiter of what gamers want from their market, but they are certainly a good prediction of what is going to be available in the future. The fact that one million Kinect units have been sold is a pretty clear indicator that we're going to see people attempting to tap that market. Toss into the mix that development costs for modern games are through the roof, and you'll see more dollars going towards established sellers.
Here are the October sales rankings for 2010.
- NBA 2K11 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC)
- Fallout: New Vegas (X360, PS3, PC)
- Medal of Honor (X360, PS3, PC)
- Fable 3 (X360)
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC, NDS)
- Halo: Reach (X360)
- Just Dance 2 (Wii)
- FIFA Soccer 11 (PS3, X360, Wii, PS2, PSP, NDS, PC)
- Madden NFL 11 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)
- WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 201 (PS3, X360, PS2, Wii, PSP)
- Will we ever see another action space flight sim?
- What will it take to revitalize adventure games?
- As a member of the "target market", why am I only playing ONE GAME in this list and only interested in playing ONE OTHER?
Notice that when you look at it, the list is dominated by two genres: Sports and first person shooters. Rhythm has only Just Dance, racing, and RTS games are absent, roleplaying waffles in some categorical limbo, and franchise appears to be the dominant factor for presence on the charts. While the yearly numbers paint a slightly more egalitarian view of gaming genres, one can still ponder, "What does the future hold for gaming genres?
Other things to think about:
Wes Wilson
Original Photograph by Mark J Sebastian
I am really surprised that Rhythm games seem to be at a low point right now. You could argue that Rhythm Games are beginning to become stale, but the same thing for Sports games. Sports games have essentially been the same for about twenty years, the only reason new ones are continuously made if for updated graphics and newer updates like new players, stats, and some new features. When Rock Band 2 was released, it was almost the same thing. Same gameplay, but new songs, new features, better graphics. It boggles my mind that Sports beat out Rhythm games, even though, as stated, Rhythm Games do seem to be much more universally liked.
As for the question of adventure games. I think that some fps have morphed into some form of an adventure game. Games like Bioshock, that put you in a strange and unknown location, are designed to make you explore the areas and find things that you may need on your quest or mission or wherever you need to go. Games like this also allow you to have the sense of exploration through the first person view. As for the point and click type of adventure games, I think it would take a damn good one to bring them back.
Will we ever see another action space flight sim?
I really hope so.
What will it take to revitalize adventure games?
I think it already is with games like Bioshock, Metroid prime and games like that. Infamous was and adventure game and so is GTA if you think about it
As a member of the “target market”, why am I only playing ONE GAME in this list and only interested in playing ONE OTHER?
Cause i don't think us, meaning "hardcore" gamers, are the target market anymore. Shooters like CoD and Medal of Honor are so easy to pick up and play anyone can play them and feel fine. The fact that there in a series means that there is a following. Look at CoD for instance. Was it really this big before CoD 4? No. Besides some graphical and story changes has the game really changed? No and why because no one wants to take risks anymore. Look at Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil, both amazing games but no one bought them.
Basically why go out and invent a new possible risky endeavor when you can make something that will show you an actual profit even if its bad.
I'd say the most obvious reason for the recent decline of rhythm games is simply oversaturation of the market. When you have a new Rock-Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero coming out every 4-5 months (Ex: Guitar Hero: Beatles Edition, AC/DC Edition, Aerosmith Edition, etc.), you are going to oversaturate your key consumers. To be blunt, many people don't want to buy the exact same game, essentially for just a few new songs.
I recently finished Fallout New Vegas for the 4th time and let me say this, that it is the only one on that list I was and still am interested in. To me, Fallout doesn't really fit in with traditional FPS and is by far more of an RPG that happens to allow first person shooting. Sort of in the same sense as you likely wouldn't consider Minecraft a fps; they just don't quite fit into that genera. I dunno, it's just how I feel about that.
As for why there are so many sports and fps games on that list, I'd say this is largely due to the target demographic of those games, which are generally 12-35 year old males who play games casually (by casually, I mean 1-2 times a week). In general, I've noticed older members of that demo tend to play sports games while younger members tend to play fps's (I'm sure most of you have had run-ins with some crying 12 year old asking their mom to bring them a hot pocket, or ranting about their "1337 skillz" while using hacks, or some such mishap.).
However, there is one other caveat, if there is one thing I've learned it is that a good advertising campaign can make the worst of things look the most appealing. So it could just be that the gaming public as a whole is far too easily manipulated by a good marketing campaign. In reality, there are just too many different factors to take into account.
(And with that, my afternoon coffee break is over. Talk about a time killing response.)
[...] Nog Blog: Endangered Species [...]