Why I suck at Twitter (plus thoughts on music & rhythm games)
Recent tweet I sent (with spelling errors corrected plus a little more detail):
“intent to buy is more important than inherent quality (of a product - or in this case Amplitude by Harmonix) but actually purchasing that product/art is more important.”
Unpacked:
I was listening to Eran Ergozy, one of the founders of Harmonix, speak to a class of students in the lab. Basically, here’s what he was talking about and my take on it: in market studies (done by their publisher, Sony Computer Entertainment of America), Amplitude did not test well for ‘intent to buy’ tests because it was hard to define in a screenshot or a DVD cover. The kicker is that those playing the game, once having played it, enjoyed it and said they would then now buy it. Thus, because they never intended to buy the game, they never would have experienced the game. I don’t know if they changed anything after the fact (release a demo, put more advertising into it, actually try to figure out how to market it right). Whatever happened, Amplitude still didn’t sell more than 150k units (which for music is damn respectable, but not for games). And the game didn’t get a reprint or a sequel, and instead they made a game about being a fucking 80’s hair metal douchebag rather than make another game for aficionado’s of quality late-90’s pop electronica (BTW: no anger here).
Market Capitalism made Harmonix create Guitar Hero and the rhythm and music game genres have felt that loss (in quality, in innovation) since. Which is ironic since now rhythm and music games (ie, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and all those since) now account for 20% of game sales (although possibly because of the cost of the controllers).
That said, market capitalism gave Harmonix a shit-ton of money to spend in order to make a bunch of market failures (improvisational play music with a joystick product, awesome beat-matching PS2 games Frequency and Amplitude). Harmonix then makes a killer product Guitar Hero which gets them bought by people with not just money, but connections in the music industry (MTV). Harmonix then gives MTV Guitar Hero+, ie Rock Band. Even more money gets printed. Now, finally, Harmonix is at a place where they can finally further explore their original ideas (give everyone the experience of making/playing music) and not have to worry about where the next $2 million is going to come from.
They better deliver or I’ll be pissed.
POSTSCRIPT:
I finally did get that Amplitude sequel I wanted, in essence if not in fact. Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP plays out in the same way as Amplitude, but because it’s ‘Rock Band’ the closest I get to my fantasy music game about music I actually care about is a Nine Inch Nails track (1996’s “Perfect Drug”).
