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DJ Hero Planned For Later This Year
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick spilled the news that the DJ Hero game currently being developed by FreeStyleGames will be released sometime this year. He described it as a "turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs." In an interview at the World Economic Forum, Kotick also explained why the games industry is in a good position to survive the recent economic troubles, saying that the amount of time people are playing games is on the rise, in part due to their low cost-to-time ratio.
Because Guitar Hero is lots of fun and playing guitar is lots of work? It takes a lot of time to get good at playing an instrument; not only do you have to master the technical playing of the guitar but you also have to gain a rudimentary knowledge of music theory and musicianship. Or you could just rock out to your favorite bands' songs with your friends. Not everyone who plays Guitar Hero wants to become a guitar master.
Because its fun. End of story.
I play guitar, bass guitar, piano, cello, bass (the standup version) and a few other instruments, i've been playing for over 20 years now. I can also beat Dragon Force (GH3) on Hard (Did expert once, im proud of that fact). Why did I spend time and energy into the game? Because I enjoy it. My friends have no musical talent (they couldnt hold a tune if it was on sheet music duct taped to their back), and we can play together, and have fun. We can sit down in an afternoon, drink some beers, order pizza and have fun. They have no inclination to pick up and play a real instrument, but they can have fun for a night playing with the plastic ones.
Just because you picked up an instrument and learned to play, doesn't mean everyone has that ability/drive to do so.
Playing Guitar Hero is to "Learn a real instrument" as Buying a Mac is to "Buy each individual piece from different vendors on the Internet, put them together, and install Gentoo" to most people. Its not out of most peoples ability to learn, the truth is, they just dont have time/care enough. Anyone can pick up guitar hero and have fun for an hour or so.
Do these Japanese games companies have plans on releasing their DJ game in other teritories anytime soon? on somthing newer than a PS2? With local hardware manufacturing so that the cost isn't through the roof? Will it be using licensed music tracks that westerners will actually know?
I'd say that the answer to most, if not all, of those questions is a big fat NO. As such it may as well not exist outside of Japan because it's not doing anything for anyone outside of Japan.
I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
Put simply, because the return on investment is higher, quicker.
A gamer can pick up a new Guitar Hero/Rock Band/etc game having not played any before, pick up the basics, and be playing songs within the hour. Within an hour of picking up a real guitar, the same gamer *might* be able to pick out a chord or two, following along to some guide they found online or, if they're lucky or have money to burn, with someone teaching them. Mastering Guitar Hero can take months, at which point you're "playing along" with dozens of your favourite bands and feeling a sense of some accomplishment. Mastering a guitar can take years (well, *really* mastering a guitar can take decades), and at the end of it it's still you and your guitar, nothing more. Maybe one guitar player in dozens will wind up actually out there in a band worth a damn, and maybe one in ten thousand will wind up hitting the big time. The number who wind up playing with all their favourites... too small a number to quantify.
To put it another way one is a game, and the other is an art form, and the two are very very different. Why would I want to practice an art form when I just want to play a fun game? I have utmost respect for anyone who can learn an instrument, even tried it myself for a while, but it's not the same thing.