The Future of Harmonix

Wired blog Game|Life has up an interview with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix (original creators of the Guitar Hero series). They're finishing up work on Guitar Hero for the 360, and then they're moving on to bigger and better things. Chris Kohler had the chance to speak with Rigopulos about that next step for the company. They touch on topics like downloadable content, the awesomeness of the whammy bar, the end of Harmonix's relationship with the extremely popular music-game series, and why people just can't agree on music. Says Rigopulos: "People's taste in music varies. Massively. And music that you love, I might think is garbage, and vice versa. And it's really hard to assemble a single soundtrack that's going to have really broad appeal... [with Guitar Hero 2] we got from the metal community was that they were totally psyched that we were giving them the real goods. And a lot of other people who were Guitar Hero 1 fans saying, well, there are more songs in Guitar Hero II where I just wanted to turn down the speakers."

Comments

Different Editions

[AKAImBatman]

A game like Guitar Hero lends itself well to different editions. Rather than releasing a single game with a wide array of music, they should release several titles with a focus on each type of music. The game engine could be the same in each, with only the songs differing. Some examples:

Guitar Hero: Hard Rock
Guitar Hero: 80's Pop
Guitar Hero: Rock of the 60's
Guitar Hero: Spanish Licks
Guitar Hero: Heavy Metal

Since only the song content would differ, it would be less costly for Harmonix/Red Octane to produce the different versions than it is to release an entirely new game. Not only will they open up doors to new customers, but their existing customers will have a chance to purchase new compilations as they get tired of their existing ones. Yet they won't necessarily feel like they're getting gyped as each disc is a full-up game unto itself.

The best part is that six months after release (or around the holiday season, whichever comes first) they can release a special compilation of ALL the discs in one package. (A bit like DVDs of TV Seasons.) They could then charge a pretty penny for the special edition compilation while incurring only minor manufacturing and distribution costs. Or in other words, they'd have a license to print money. ;)

Re:Different Editions

[AKAImBatman]

If I'm not mistaken, a lot of the cost in producing a game like Guitar Hero is in licensing the tracks themselves.

There are a few different pricing structures, but usually you're talking about royalties. Royalties suck because you pay something for every copy you sell. On the other hand, royalties rock because you only pay for the copies you sell. In this case, they'd only need to pay royalties for the version that contains the song. It would make accounting a bit more difficult, but it's perfectly doable. That's why having different versions can work, despite all the licensing issues.