Disney joins 'Band' wagon
 

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=20&cs=1


Chris

Cool!

D'oh!

This is the only thing I hate about these type of games. I'm a person that doesn't like cover bands and won't go see them play someone else's original songs.

I'm not sure who is stopping the originals from being included in these games. Is it the artists themselves or the greedy record companies?

Chris

I don't know, part of the fun of these games is playing a real (fake) instrument.

But I guess it will keep costs down.

In perfect world, they'd all be masters. But a song being a cover doesn't take away any enjoyment I get out of it. It isn't like they're doing some crazy cross-genre crap with these covers. As long as they're faithful, who cares?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the control schemes. I suppose the "front man" I read in another preview will be handled. Like if you're just dancing around like that dude from The Bosstones or if your success in replicating the movements actually affects the vocal track.

Sounds interesting. Might be fun for younger players, because the description of the controls leads me to believe the actual gameplay will be simplified from what we get in Rockband/Guitar Hero. I guess the bonus if that you won't need as many music controllers.

Aside from the Disney game, i'm curious about and want more info on this bit:

After the huge success of "Guitar Hero," which generated the most revenue of any videogame franchise last year, and a solid launch for "Rock Band," the music gaming genre is getting particularly competitive this year. Activision is developing three "Guitar Hero" games for release in 2008, while MTV is presumed to be making a "Rock Band" follow-up for the holidays and THQ is developing a new title called "Band Mashups."

That is the first i have heard of that.

Disney can get the White Stripes, but Rock Band can't?

Since this is Disney, I just assumed it was just going to be filled with High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and That's So Raven songs -- which would make sense and might be in the game, but it's cool that they're branching out.

Yeah, but they're all covers! :(

Chris

Not to thread crap, but this game is gonna tank like a . . .

http://cougs.org/wordpress2/wp-conte.../09/ledzep.jpg

People that only think the games they're interested in are the successful ones..

Always a great source of comedy. :lol:

It's gonna tank like a Led Zeppelin? :confused:

Well then tank = success

Chris

Chris - metalhead was making a reference to the band's name origins.

I know, I know, the game's going to crash like the original Hindenburg back in 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Chris

rotfl most detailed "I get the reference, leave me alone" reply I've seen in a while.

I think rabbit77 thought I was some young punk kid who didn't know what the Hindenburg was all about.

The sad thing is, I am almost old enough to have ridden on that fateful trip! :(

Chris

No, I've been around long enough to know you're not some young punk kid, and I wasn't even talking about the hindenburg. I didn't know if you knew about Keith Moon saying that the band would go over like a lead balloon, and metalhead referring to that. Then again I just read his comment and don't know if that's what he was referring to.

Yes sir that would be correct. I wasn't to sure if anyone would get it right away.



I'm pretty sure this is going to tank because games that are rushed out to cater to a specific genre at the tail end of its life span always spell doom for not only the game, but the genre as well. Disney coming out with a "guitar hero-esq" game only tells me that the Rock Band / GH phenom is coming to an end. Lets face it, the games are good, but do both of these series / the genre have the staying power of games and genres like halo and first person shooters?

Yes to a core audience and no to the mass public. Rock band made a saving throw by expanding to not only drums but the mic as well. GHIII attempted to bring a new edge to its series by making battles, but really where do both these series have to go now? How much more revolutionary can they make hitting a button when a note pops up?

I think the Disney game will be a way for much-older adults and younger children to find a way to relate to the GH and RB fans out there but on a lesser scale. It sounds like a good idea to make the game, i guess, but I don't see people getting as much enjoyment out of the game strumming their Wii-motes like guitars as apposed to actually holding a "real" guitar and hitting notes on the "fret board".

If the game is profitable then chalk me up as wrong on this one but I'm going to go ahead and call it for what I see it as. Disney trying to cash in on the "shooting star" success of the game type, but ultimately leaving a blemish on the genre that we will quickly try to forget.

It's not too far fetched to believe someone named "metalhead" would think anything outside that genre would tank. :D

I think you are grasping at straws at this point. Admit it, you came in, saw the Disney name, assumed it would only be Disney licensed music and threw out an ever so clever pic. There is nothing wrong with that assumption. I assume 99% of the people clicking on the thread thought the same thing. But then to claim the music genre is teetering on its death bed with a half baked response to justify your initial assumption? :down:

The Disney brand is HUGE right now. The Wii is HUGE right now. I think this will be a success, if not a huge one. I do think it would be beneficial to make it guitar compatible though.

My dream add-on would be to add live online tournaments that would drop 16 people into a virtual room, pair them up and have them all play the same random song, then the 8 winners pair up, new song, then the semis, then the finals. That would be awesome.

I guess I may not be getting my point across correctly, and that is my fault.
I am not viewing this from the prospective of a "rock" fan and I am not dismissing the game for the company that is making it either. I personally love Disney. I have been to both Disney Land and Disney World plenty of times. I love the movies and am man enough to admit that I do enjoy the music from their movies as well. You are correct in saying that Disney is huge. They have been huge for a long time.

My concern and ultimate dismissal of the game comes from the fact that I feel this genre is getting to large to support itself. The GH and RB games are awesome. I love them all and get a lot of enjoyment from playing them alone or with friends, but the fact that there are THREE more GH games slated for a release this year, one more Rock band game, and a slew of "clones" all coming out tells me that rhythm genre is going to suffer.

Anyone that wants to fight that point is crazy. How many times have we seen this in the past? For example, extreme sports games were huge in the ninety's and early 00's thanks to Tony Hawk and Dave Mirra. How many "x-treme clones" games came out after THPS and THPS2 sold so well? We are at what like fifteen Tony Hawk games? Sure every game that came out had some new and innovative feature, but the the quality and appeal of the game started to dwindle drastically. The market got flooded with so many competitors trying to break off a hunk of "cheese" that the originators of the genre started to scramble and push out game after game just to keep up and retain sales while sacrificing overall quality. After THPS3 came out it wasn't to hard to notice they were scrambling for a new niche because they pretty much exhausted a lot of their options in regards to content and abilities in the game. What do we have now? You can get angry and smash your board and that counts as a multiplier? What kind of fun is that?

Niche games like this have to be regulated to ultimately be appreciated and profitable. If there is an excessive amount of games out there consumers go into an overload. They buy them up, play them, stumble across the bad ones, and never buy another game of that type again because they got burned on their last purchase. If people are afraid to take a risk and buy new games like that because of a past transgression than there is no incentive to make those types of games, and fans of the genre suffer.

Harmonix took a very long time and put a lot of care into the GH series while they had it, and it is completely blatantly obvious they put even more care into Rock Band. These companies that get ahold of the basic blue prints and push out a game in three months whether it is ready or not turn a thriving and profitable atmosphere into a tarnished lost cause.

Regardless, the game could be made by Nick or Cartoon Network or even CNN and my opinion of it would stay the same. When consumers start having knock-offs and less than quality releases pushed down their throats under the guise of "alternatives" or hidden under the umbrella of a quality name (like Disney) they will eventually realize they have bought crap, assume all games of the genre are crap, and eventually the genre will die because new customers are losing interest in it and the once strong core audience has lost its faith and jumped ship.

Of course I may eat my words when the game comes out. Good music and good game play can do wonders. If the game is packing enough of an appeal outside of just the initial attraction to the Disney logo for it to be profitable then I guess you can teach an old genre new tricks.


P.S. I got my name from this:

http://content.answers.com/main/cont...d_tmnt1987.jpg (TMNT)

Not this:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...layer600.1.jpg

Metalhead pretty much covered it. Do we really need yet another 'pretend you're in a rock band' game, that doesn't really seem to bring anything new to the table. Just sounds like Disney jumping on the bandwagon.

:lol: That might have been something better left unsaid.

I understand what you are saying about the clones and agree. I just think the Disney brand plus the strength of the Wii will elevate it above the Carnival Games of the world.

OH HECK NO! You did not just slam on the Turtles. Hahaha.

As far as the game goes, we will see I guess. It would be nice to see Disney stumble onto something a little more innovative and something that makes really good use out of the Wii-mote.