On Rock and Roll

This has been the most peculiar week of video game news voyeurism. It would seem that Mass Effect 2 has created a void in the industry with all gamers willing and able to hold their breath until they have the opportunity to take control of Commander Shepard. Last I checked the calendar said January, but don’t tell Electronic Arts or BioWare. The rest of the industry is treating this like a big-time holiday release, so I’ll let the higher-ups enjoy their champagne and caviar. In the mean time, nearly every news story is getting buried by Mass Effect goodies. In the wake of the latest, and last trailer released, I’m sure you didn’t notice the fact that the Rock Band Network has updated to an open beta. It’s an interesting story that speaks to a larger situation concerning the state of digital content on our consoles.

So please, hold off on boarding the Normandy for a little bit longer.

First a point of full disclosure: I’ve never played a single instance of Rock Band. One of my co-workers in college had Guitar Hero 2, and I spent one night playing Guitar Hero 3 with my friends one New Years. That is the extent of my rhythm music genre experience. Hopefully this means you can trust that I am looking at this as a someone not emotionally or financially invested in the situation, just an interested gamer.

Debuting as a closed beta in August, the Rock Band Network enables anyone with the patience, skill, and entry fee into the XNA Creators Club ($99) to create fully realized tracks compatible with Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Similar to the way the Indie Games portion of Xbox LIVE operates, creators will recoup a portion of the price paid to download a track. Assuming the Rock Gods look down favorably upon your purchase, you will be able to jam to a carefully crafted piece of user-generated content with three of your friends. In theory this sounds great. The Rock Band Network has been in closed beta for a few months, letting the content build up for public consumption so new users won’t walk into a barren wasteland of a digital store. Assuming all goes well, all parties involved will make some money and gamers around the world will rejoice. Of course you know what happens when you assume things.

In its favor, the Rock Band Network will work perfectly with the recently introduced Rock Band Music Store. Over 1000 songs currently available to download, all from the comfort of your all-too-cluttered Xbox 360 Dashboard. Impulse purchases no longer require a game disc now that all of Harmonix’s downloadable content is available in a centralized location. Adding the Rock Band Network merely requires a new blade to be added to the interface, and like magic an entirely new catalog of music is ready to be consumed. Of course now the only issues are whether gamers will a) notice the new content, and b) purchase it. The latter is entirely out of the content creators’ hands, but it can be heavily influenced by the former.

The key with this user-generated content is getting the consumer’s foot in the door, even if it’s a digital foot. It is impossible to make a sale if there are no potential customers. If there is any hope of generating a reliable and fruitful revenue stream, the Rock Band Network needs to be put out front and center as the pride of the rhythm music genre for all to see. It’s not like the Rock Band franchise is fading into obscurity any time soon. The current course charted by the Rock Band franchise is one of over-saturation. After all, Green Day: Rock Band is “not going to be [Rock Band's] only game this year.” The only hope for the Network is that it does not get lost in the constant stream of content and presumably brushed off as consumers lose enthusiasm for yet another music game. The Network will need help, hopefully more help than the Indie Games section has received since its inception.

A recent feature on Boing Boing, posing the question “what’s Microsoft doing for Indie Games,” details the current situation with Microsoft’s Indie Games endeavor along with why it is currently failing. The same reasons the author uses to suggest the Indie Games market is failing could just as easily apply to the Rock Band Network if Harmonix does not take this project seriously. At the top of the blame list are “sales so low that the platform hasn’t proven itself to be viable for any serious full-time indie developer,” and “a lack of publicity and marketing, something Microsoft had promised as the service was launching.” Now I understand that times are tough and resources are limited. Maybe Microsoft over estimated the effort necessary to give Indie Games a true chance in a world full of billion dollar blockbusters like Modern Warfare 2. Maybe Microsoft thought word of mouth would do the dirty work for them. Whatever the reason, there is not enough working in favor of Indie Games and I fear that the Rock Band Network could be sentenced to a similar death: fading into obscurity.

I remember when all anyone could talk about was User-Generated Content. Upstart after Internet upstart focused its energy on developing tools for its users and letting them build the content that would drive traffic. These business plans are satisfactory assuming that potential users are aware and actively participating in whatever it is that is being offered. With the Rock Band Network now in an open beta stage, it is the hope of Harmonix that there are plenty of gamers interested in both creating and purchasing content developed by their peers. Assuming that there is enough awareness and the content meets the quality deserving of the Rock Band name, this could be the beginning of an endless stream of content for gamers and revenue for Harmonix. That is, of course, assuming the premise that there will be enough awareness. Without a significant awareness campaign, the Rock Band Network could fare just as well as the XBLA Indie Games.

The Hindenburg suddenly comes to mind.

This post is also featured on Talking About Games. That’s how they roll.