Harmonix: Music Game Sales Will Rise Again

Music games as a genre blew up practically overnight. One day rhythm games were known mainly as quirky Japanese imports, and the next everyone was playing “Bark at the Moon.” Though the genre has dipped 46 percent year-over-year, this recent loss of traction has not rattled Harmonix.

Alex Rigopulos, the founder and CEO of Harmonix, holds the staunch belief that music games have a bright future. Speaking with Edge, he said “I absolutely do not believe that rhythm-action gaming has reached its peak. Of course, 2009 was a tough year with the recession, which especially affects music games given the relatively high price point of instrument bundles. But in the long term, people’s passion for music isn’t going away, and rhythm gaming will continue to provide people with a deeper level of engagement with the music they love. So, yes, I do think that future music games will exceed the sales success of the last generation.”

“User-generated content will be absolutely critical to the ongoing success of the genre, I think,” continues Rigopulos. “To be clear, though, when I talk about ‘users’ in this context, I don’t necessarily mean end-users or players. I’m talking about a huge community of power-users -- skilled music creators -- providing their music to the audience. The launch of the Rock Band Network will be our next ‘defining moment’.”

Do you agree with Alex that the future of music games will usurp the genre’s past success? When was the last time you bought a music game?