Game On! (Page 2)

In a Harmonix conference room outfitted with a 50-inch flat-screen TV, Blender is given the chance to put that accessibility to the test. Strapping on the wireless plastic-replica Fender Stratocaster, we stumble through the opening verses of the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The guitar play is very similar to Guitar Hero’s, and within a minute or so — and with the constant instruction/needling of the three Harmonix employees who have been drafted as bandmates — we get the hang of it. The vocals are another story, but if Blender’s enthusiastic, off-key caterwauling through the Who classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again” proves anything, it’s that Harmonix was right to include an independent volume control for the vocals. Finally, there are the drums: Sitting behind the pads as our makeshift band dives into Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” Blender spends most of the song missing every fill and trying to catch up with the beat. But the rare moments when we’re in the groove or actually manage a four- or five-beat series in time with a powerful Dave Grohl crash provide a potent, addictive rush.

“It’s basically no different than playing drums for real,” says one of our temporary bandmates, John Drake, who mans the kit for an indie-pop outfit called the Main Drag. “This game will create drummers.”

Drake isn’t the only one of Harmonix’s 127 staffers who moonlights in a real-life band. Eric Brosius, who heads the audio department and played guitar in the late-’80s/early-’90s major-label alt-rockers Tribe, estimates that Harmonix employees play in 30 different bands. Producer Crooker is a member of the electro-pop outfit Freezepop. Art director Ryan Lesser plays guitar in the sludge-metal band Megasus alongside three other coworkers, including Lightning Bolt bassist Brian Gibson and former Amazing Crowns singer Jason Kendall.

Harmonix actively encourages its workers’ musical sidelines. Besides offering a soundproof practice space in the office and granting staff time off to go on tour, the company has also included a number of employees’ songs in Harmonix games, a hugely valuable ­promotional tool. “We went from nobody knowing who we were to having thousands of people begging us to make a record,” says Megasus’s Lesser, whose song “Red Lottery” was an unlockable track on GHII. “We’ve never toured or released a record, but we have booking agents calling us from across America and Europe to play shows.”

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Both Rock Band and GHIII feature an impressive number of master recordings from original artists, as opposed to the cover versions that predominated the earlier Guitar Hero games. While the effect on game play is debatable, going after masters meant cementing relationships with record labels, which have come to see these games as important vehicles for exposing their music.

While both titles offer a similar range of tunes — heavy on classic rock, metal and alt-rock — GHIII comes packaged with more than 70 songs; the Rock Band disc includes only 45. Competition for songs was diminished somewhat by the fact that few artists were willing to sign away exclusive rights to license their tracks to one game versus the other. As a consequence, five songs have found their way onto both products. Although each title will have additional tunes available regularly as downloads, Rock Band’s online plans appear more ambitious, with Rigopulos promising “hundreds of songs within the first year,” including several full albums, starting with the Who’s Who’s Next. Both games will also offer wireless peripherals and online play.

GHIII has added one other major feature: a challenge level, where players go head-to-head with in-game guitar “bosses.” Tom Morello and Slash both recorded original music for these “boss battles” and appear as animated characters in the game.

However, in look and feel, even GHIII’s creators admit it’s basically a refinement of the title’s earlier versions. “Our main goal was to make sure we weren’t the people who screwed up the franchise, like George Clooney did to Batman,” says Chris Parise, Neversoft’s lead producer for the game.

While the gamer buzz on GHIII isn’t as strong as it is for Rock Band, most agree the franchise appears perfectly healthy. “It still has that pick-up-and-play appeal, but it’s more advanced,” says Ricardo Torres, editorial director for GameSpot.com. “But the blessing and the curse is that you really have to be a fan of the original games to get comfortable with the new one.”

Within the Guitar Hero community there is considerable excitement about Rock Band, but also a fair amount of skepticism. Jack Kentala, who runs the blog We Are Guitar Heroes, worries that Harmonix’s plans are too ambitious. “It’ll be hard to have songs that are compelling for every instrument in every part of the song,” he says. “I’m not sure it’ll appeal to the really hardcore Guitar Hero players who are just in it for the guitar parts.”

GHIII also has the advantage of a proven brand name. But Harmonix’s new parent company, MTV, has already begun to establish Rock Band’s market presence, starting with a barrage of events surrounding September’s VMAs. “Rock Band is going to be promoted across all our channels — MTV, MTV2, MTVu, VH1, VH1 Classic, Logo, CMT, Spike,” says Jeff Yapp, MTV’s vice president for program enterprises.

With both games having so much working in their favor, it would be a mistake to assume Rock Band’s success will automatically spell GHIII’s failure or vice versa. “Few people will buy both, but they’re both going to do great,” predicts Michael Pachter, an industry analyst with the securities firm Wedbush Morgan. “After six months, Guitar Hero is going to sell 3.5 million units, because they’re the real franchise, but it’s likely Rock Band will have sold a million units, which is nothing to sneeze at.”

The one big thing threatening to limit Rock Band’s appeal is the price: $199, packaged with all the peripherals. (By comparison, GHIII will run $100 for Xbox 360 and PS3.) “Every indication we have is that once consumers try the experience, suddenly it doesn’t seem expensive,” Rigopulos says. “Also, we don’t think of Rock Band just as a title — it’s a platform. People can keep enjoying music in this forum forever, through downloadable content and expansion packs.” Harmonix, MTV and their distributor, EA, hope to convince consumers that purchasing Rock Band is more like buying a stereo than buying, say, Halo 3.

“Five years from now, Rock Band will be one of the standard ways people experience music,” says Harmonix cofounder Egozy. The potential impact, he says, is comparable to the way iTunes has revolutionized the music industry.

These are unquestionably lofty ambitions. But with the music industry in a freefall, it’s foolish to dismiss any idea with the potential to fundamentally alter this course — even if it’s one that, as Rigopulos himself points out, is possibly more old-fashioned than it appears at first glance.

“Before phonographs, the music business was sheet music,” he says. “The way you got music out to people is that they learned to play it on the piano. Rock Band jumps back to a time when people were actually connected to the music they listened to.” Rigopulos pauses and nods confidently. “I think there’s a huge appetite for that.”