Quest to Nowhere

The big “battle” gearing up this year seems to be between Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. Even though they are “battling,” it seems as though both games have taken to adopting different philosophies, not just in how the game should be played, but also in the business models for them.

The different game play models are obvious from anyone who has played the two games. Guitar Hero is continuing down the path forged by the first two games, really flashy graphical touches with some rock art style to them. Also it is a game that you can experience by yourself, or one other person to get the full enjoyment out of it.

Rock Band on the other hand seems to have gone for a more minimalistic/modern look. Which seems kind of weird considering how Guitar Hero 1 and 2 looked, but it really works well for them. I don’t necessarily think it was a style choice as much as it was a functional choice, since it lets them fit all the stuff they need for when you are in 4 player mode, and understand it all easily. Also Rock Band is going to only reach its full potential in a more social situation, where you can have all for people playing together. Seems like this will make it more ideal for parties, especially since you are able to try different instruments, or sing if you want.

I think the more subtle philosophical difference between the two games is going to be the business model for them. This is sort of an educated guess about how I think these two are going to go about things, but I’m fairly confident in my opinion.

I think you are going to see Guitar Hero come out with more iterations as they have in the past. Probably more along the lines of the Guitar Hero 80′s edition, then another full Guitar Hero game. They will of course do downloadable songs, but I think they are really going to be more concerned with compilation discs instead of DLC songs.

Rock Band on the other hand I think is setting itself up to be a platform. They are going to be all about the downloadable songs. They’ve already announced that you’ll be able to download whole albums to play, which they have said will be released for download/purchase rather frequently. Working on that much content past the game’s release says to me that they aren’t playing on making Rock Band 2 anytime soon.

Now it might seem that perhaps the market can’t support these two games, seeing as they are both so similar, but I think that because of these philosophical differences both can succeed since they are aimed at different audiences. Guitar Hero I think is really aimed at more the casual user in the end, and that user owns a Wii, which means they aren’t going to download songs most likely. Which is why the compilation disc system will work for them.

Rock Band will likely attract a more serious gamer population, who know how to download songs, and are willing to pay the somewhat higher entrance fee for the game and instruments. The high price tag is another reason why you won’t see RB2 that fast. It’d be hard to convince people to go out and buy a whole new bundle of instruments again at that high price. I do think though that when you do see RB2, it likely won’t be with a guitar, drums and mic bundled with it, but I think more likely you’ll see other instruments that will add on to what you already have. Rather then giving you what you already have again.

Now this isn’t to say that there won’t be serious gamers that play Guitar Hero, or casual people who play Rock Band. But I think that generally that might be a more niche situation with each. Something like serious gamers who spend lots of time on GH, but do it for contests. And then casual people who play RB, but only at parties and other social gatherings where people can sit around and watch. Or possibly form teams.

But regardless which game is better, or more fun, or whatever. What’s great is that there are two of them now, and that competition will breed innovation. So over time they are just going to get better and better, rather then having us get spoon feed the same game from last year with improved graphics (I’m looking at you sports games!)