MUSIC GAMES

John, Paul, George, Ringo...and you!

Just as the Fab Four influenced pop music, 'Rock Band' release might influence video-game genre

By By Omar L. Gallaga
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Yesterday, "The Beatles: Rock Band" seemed so far away.

But at midnight, months of anticipation for the music video game will end. That's when big-box electronics stores and game emporiums hand over large boxes filled with plastic guitars and drums modeled after the original Fab Four instruments. If expectations are met, it will be a large, Abbey Road-sized step for video games, which have in recent years been pushing further into the mainstream.

Announced last October, the game still seems like a giant coup for Harmonix and MTV Games, the studio and publisher responsible for "The Beatles: Rock Band." The Beatles song catalog still has not appeared in online music services like Apple Inc.'s iTunes (that might come; Apple has a music announcement planned for noon Wednesday), but 45 Beatles songs (plus several more albums worth of downloadable songs) are in the package, wistfully computer-animated with John, Paul, George and Ringo playing.

The game faithfully retraces the band's career through its increasingly trippy stages. Songs include three-part harmonies that can be sung by players (if you have enough microphones and willing pals), and other controllers built for the game are replicas of Beatles instruments. The "Limited Edition" bundle out today includes a Höfner bass. Though it seemed from dipping sales this year that music games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" had plateaued, they're still part of a formidable genre that's expected to get a shot in the arm from the game release.

Through July, music-based video games had brought in revenues of $4.26 billion, according to the NPD Group, which closely follows video-game hardware and software sales.

David Riley, an analyst at NPD, said music games like "Rock Band" had skyrocketing sales when they were first introduced. But the market has been saturated with virtual guitars and drum sets that are compatible with multiple games.

"I wouldn't say that (the music genre) has peaked; it's a little more complicated than that," Riley said. "Every time I go out and buy a 'Rock Band' title, I'm not going to buy the bundle pack with everything. Initial sales were so high because of those bundles. It was quite impressive. Frankly, it still is."

Every major video game arrives on a wave of midnight game-store parties and online hype, but "Beatles: Rock Band" may also benefit from a big push of movie theater and TV ads and a program from MTV Games offering bars a five-song preview of the game for their patrons to play.

But the game itself will have to be more than just an exclusive song playlist to keep gamers happy. Riley, who has played the game, believes it will please both Beatles fans and the uninitiated.

"It is quite simply ... it's astonishing," he said. "It's just so fundamentally different from any other 'Rock Band' title. It takes you through the history of the Beatles. You can expect that the title will sell well. How could it not?"

Riley plans to not only purchase the $250 game bundle, but to download the extra Beatles tracks (from "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band") only available online the day the game launches, at about $20 apiece.

"That's gonna hurt my pocketbook a bit," he said. "But I'm such a Beatles fan. It's been so long since I've gotten into the Beatles' songs."

Those online sales, about $2 per track for hundreds of songs for the "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" games, are expected to be the future of music video games, along with songs and other content generated by players and amateur musicians. In July, Harmonix announced the Rock Band Network, where musicians will have access to tools to create their own tracks that can be sold. It's part of a move to diversify music content. To that end, a pack of country music songs was also released for "Rock Band" this summer.

They'll be competing for attention with another wave of music games including "DJ Hero" in October, which substitutes a turntable for a virtual guitar, and "Def Jam Rapstar," due this holiday season. Both are bringing hip-hop to music gamers.

But will any be as big as "Beatles: Rock Band"? Scott Steinberg, the Atlanta-based host of Web show "Players Only" at digitaltrends.com, thinks the game will not only be a hit, but will also contribute to the ascension of video games as a medium.

"What you've got is an endorsement from the biggest rock band in the world that games are cool and a social form of enertainment that speaks to everyone," Steinberg says. "Video games are finally coming into their own as a form of pop culture."

Video games already introduce younger players to music they might not otherwise be exposed to, and Steinberg, who has played "Beatles," thinks this particular song catalog elevates music games with its broad appeal.

"It's a game filled with sing-along hits," he said, "It's a game that, just like the Beatles, appeals to all ages, genders, different cultures, different backgrounds. It really feels like they've put some heart and soul into this."

Previews of the game have shown not only fidelity to locations and iconography in the Beatles' history, but also fanciful touches (hey, bunny costumes!) and a visual style that doesn't feel deadened by its reliance on computer graphics.

The game debuts the same day as the band's remastered CD catalog and a mysterious music-related announcement Wednesday from Apple Inc. that may tie in with the Beatles.

Fans might be too busy to notice; it'll be a good day to invite friends over and start singing, drumming and virtual-guitaring through a timeless collection of songs.

ogallaga@statesman.com; 445-3672