By Nadia Oxford on Feb 21, 2011 in Business, Game Design, Journalism
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The end of a once-hot franchise like Guitar Hero is disappointing for gamers, but it’s downright unnerving for other developers in the industry. Even employees in competing companies know one another, and an upheaval of any magnitude spreads shockwaves for miles. It’s an emotionally taxing time: Employees at surviving companies mourn for their friends’ job loss. Subsequent worries are more self-centered but perfectly understandable: “Are we...
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By Nadia Oxford on Jan 18, 2011 in Business, Casual Games, Music Games
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Earlier this month, the UKIE–that’s The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment–published charts of the best-selling video games of 2010. Obviously, the tastes of UK audiences are going to differ slightly from those of an American audience (or a Canadian audience, as Canada slumps between the two cultures like a bastard child). But by using these numbers, we can make some generalized observations about the state of the industry in...
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By Nadia Oxford on Dec 21, 2010 in Business, Game Design, Kinect
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Poor Harmonix. The company was the (Guitar) hero of the latter half of the Aughts, and now it’s peering out at the world with wet puppy-dog eyes, begging for a buyer. Whereas it initially looked like Harmonix might go home with EA, that’s become an unlikely scenario: In an interview with Bloomberg last month, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said that buying Harmonix would make it appear as if EA is “doubling down on yesterday,” and...
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By Nadia Oxford on Nov 22, 2010 in Business, Game Development, Music Games
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The initial sales numbers for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock have been poor, and Rock Band 3′s numbers have unfortunately been even worse. Despite yielding high review scores, Rock Band 3 sold a paltry 7386 units across the United Kingdom in the week ending October 30.
Whereas it was initially tempting to credit Guitar Hero: Warrior of Rock‘s low sales numbers to a hesitant audience that was waiting to see how Rock Band 3 fared with critics, the state of...
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By Nadia Oxford on Nov 17, 2010 in Game Development, Music Games, Nintendo
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Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is a man with endless vision. When he gardened in his backyard, he came up with Pikmin. When he recalled the caves he explored as a child, he conceived The Legend of Zelda. And when he stepped on a bathroom scale, he expanded on the idea with the phenomenally popular Wii Fit.
But everybody has off days, and Miyamoto struck out pretty hard with Wii Music. The freeform music game, which was intended to get children and parents...
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Scott Steinberg is the CEO of 