Electonic Arts To Develop Music Games
By Morelli
Electronic Arts, video game publisher of popular titles like The Sims and Spore, is currently helping MTV distribute the music video game Rock Band, but at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, EA’s Chief Operating Officer John Pleasants indicated that the company might be developing a their own music game in the near future by commenting:
“There are lots of other things you can do with music, and we’re working on interesting things, and we know our competition is working on interesting things.”
The music game genre is pretty crowded, with the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises already amounting to hefty competition for a possible future EA release, and Pleasants thinks that “when we look back five years, the fantasy of being a rock star by punching the buttons that are flowing down the screen is going to be one implementation in what is going to be a very large category.”
Pleasants said EA isn’t “in any position to announce anything,” but admitted that the music genre is “a robust category” and that “over the coming years, there will hopefully be lots of things we will do in the music category.”
That’s as close to a promise as possible, but somehow the idea of an industry shift towards plastic Fender peripherals and button mashing doesn’t seem encouraging for the next generation of musicians. Pleasants affirms that “there’s a lot of plastic in the market right now.”
What will EA come up with? Will it be able to compete with giants Guitar Hero and Rock Band? How do video games help music in general?
