When Konami announced Rock Revolution back in May, their re-entry into the rock and roll videogame arena, you could practically hear the gaming world’s exasperation, eyes rolling, sighs exhaled in unison. No one wants stagnation, obviously. Guitar Hero’s fresh approach to music games revolutionized the industry three years ago, a feat Konami’s GuitarFreaks hadn’t managed in the better part of a decade. But no one wants clutter. Yet another band game hitting the public means yet another set of proprietary instrument controllers. Problematic, considering the precedent set by Activision last fall. They made it abundantly clear that they’re not interested in having their instruments completely compatible with another publisher’s software, a point they’ve reiterated by developing brand new drum, guitar, and microphone peripherals (with different functions than those made by MTV Games for Rock Band) for the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. It seems that Konami’s chosen a more reasonable approach. Konami associate producer Keith Matejka told MTV News’ Patrick Klepek, "Compatibility is a big issue for music games. Peripherals are expensive for the user and they are expensive to produce. The existing peripherals all deliver only a slightly different gameplay experience. Different teams have varying perspectives on what should be compatible with each game. I think all guitar- and drum-based games need to be compatible with each other to some level."
He’s absolutely right, and not just from a consumer friendliness perspective. While they’ve sold millions of $90 guitar-and-game sets over the past few years, it’s impossible for Activision to continue monopolizing the market as competition continues to grow. Every publisher making an instrument based game is going to have to contend with the market saturation born out of their own success; people simply won’t buy new instruments every year. For the music game genre to be successful going forward, Activision, MTV Games, Konami, and whoever else joins the fray will need to swallow the same bitter pill hardware manufacturers have choked on for years. The money’s in better software, not gear.
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