Most likely this game is going to try and capitalize on what Konami did with Beatmania. That was essentially a DJ music game, which never was very popular outside of Japan.

Essentially that's the same thing that Guitar Hero started as. Konami had the wildly popular Guitar Freaks game in most parts of Asia. Red Octane started making home peripherals for imported versions of these games when they started showing up on playstation. Harmonix approached them and they worked together to create Guitar Hero. Using nearly the same concept and controller design that Konami created for Guitar Freaks, but changing the interface to resemble a tweaked version of Frequency (Harmonix's previous music game).

Konami dropped the ball and a competing company took every English speaking territory by storm. If Rock Revolution is any indication, they aren't trying very hard to get their marketshare back.

DJ Hero is probably going to be the same thing. Creating a similar game to Beatmania, but capitalizing on Konami's inability to market their previous DJ game.

As it stands, Activision needs to be careful not to flood the market. Or else they're going to do the same thing they just did with Tony Hawk. Flood the market with yearly sequels until consumers lose interest.

Most players will probably accept the idea of digital distribution, using a single retail version of Guitar Hero/Rock Band as a platform for their gaming music collection. What most players don't want is to have to re-buy the same music game over and over. Especially, if the intervals between games is less than a year.

We'll have to see about DJ Hero. But if it comes with an expensive peripheral and doesn't integrate well with Guitar Hero... it'll probably tank. And it's not really a sure million seller based on concept alone.

Will I play it? Probably not.

Permalink | Report