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The party’s over.
Probably the worst part of playing alto sax in middle school band (besides having to play on braces-tightening days) was rhythm practice. If you’re not familiar, there are entire books of rhythms written out – no notes, just the rhythms – which kids have to sit and verbalize. “Ta ta tee tee tee tee rest ta-a-a-a-a tee tee tee tee ta ta” can be heard coming from the mouths of dreary band halls across the country as kids prepare for that next chair test or concert. This despised exercise is what is at the core of Rock Band Blitz, and somehow they almost made it fun.
Jason analyzes the recent sale of Harmonix, and what it means for the future of rhythm game sales.
A few months ago, Viacom sold off rhythm game developer Harmonix for a reported amount of fifty dollars. The most shocking aspect of this trade is that Viacom originally bought Harmonix for $175 million. Apparently the trade gives Viacom about $150 million in tax benefits, which is quite a hefty number, itself, but still, it seems like this is a major failure on Viacom's part, which reflects as a failure on the part of Harmonix, itself. A little while later, Activision reported that they will not publish a new Guitar Hero or DJ Hero game in 2011 after disappointing sales of the previous entry, simultaneously halting future DLC for the two franchises. The once-popular music gaming genre appears to have come to a screeching halt after oversaturation and the companies' failure to understand the market.
I hate to say it, but Telephantasm is the best part of the whole package.
At this point, the Guitar Hero series has undoubtedly overstayed its welcome. While the series saw some definite innovation in its transition from 3 to World Tour, and moderately so from World Tour to 5, Warriors of Rock brings almost nothing to the table. Sure there's a new track list and they added the mediocre Quest Mode, but the only thing that truly stands out is the Quickplay + Mode that began in the last iteration of the series.
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