Peripheral vision

Gaming consoles the music industry

What?: With the global gaming market estimated at $30B, and CD sales nose-diving, music- based games are getting hands on.Disney’s world-dominating Hannah Montana franchise is digging its claws into the gaming market. Disney is releasing both Hannah Montana: Music Jam for Nintendo DS and Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour for the Nintendo Wii. The games will enable users to form virtual bands and dance to the Tween star’s songs.

Harmonix’s latest music-based video game, Rock Band, has announced the full line up of tracks available which include songs by Pixies, Metallica, The Clash and The Who. Viacom’s MTV Games and Harmonix are also teaming up with Mekanism to create an online social network for the game. Rockband.com will feature virtual band pages, leaderboards and other social network features.

Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock is going live with its new TV campaign. In the new advert a fan playing the game actually becomes Slash as the top-hated axe wielder climbs out of his mouth. The new game features guest appearances from a number of legendary guitarists (including the aforementioned Slash and Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine).

So what?: As PS2 dancemats continue to fill up car boot sales and landfill sites, both Tween queens and ageing rockers are lining up to put themselves in the palms of the new hands-on gaming community. The broad appeal of the Nintendo Wii and DS sees the industry reaching out to an increasingly female audience. There is still plenty for the boys too, as the fingerless leather gloves come off in the guitar-based peripheral games market. MTV will be devoting a massive $30M of promotional time to Rock Band. Artists will also benefit from royalties as opposed to flat fees for the first time, a decision that lured the revenue-protective Metallica into the deal.

“Music has always been part of the gaming experience. Harmonix and platforms such as Xbox 360 have looked at new ways to engage people beyond the perceived barriers of the handheld controller.”
Alex Weller, Brand Experience Mgr, Xbox

“Guitar Hero, Rock Band and High School Musical are particularly exciting for the industry since they offer an opportunity to expand a cosy relationship, especially for those labels seeking to create value and returns from their expansive (expensive?)
360 degree models.”
Jeremy Paterson, Director of Content and Production, FRUKT

www.rockband.com
www.guitarherogame.com
http://tv.disney.go.com