The original creators of the Guitar Hero games were able to sit down for an interview at D.I.C.E., and were able to talk about the DS and Wii a tiny bit.
WN: What do you think about the three different console makers and their three different approaches to it?
AR: Sony and Microsoft are in one universe, and Wii is in a completely different universe. I don’t see those consoles as, I mean, they’re almost complementary to each other. I don’t think people will choose one or the other between those universes, they’ll either choose both, or it’s just a different kind of consumer. So I think that Nintendo is fantastically on the right track in terms of creating a console that’s easy and cheap to develop for, and providing an interface that opens up a whole new world of possibility to game design, specifically ones that are more accessible to people who don’t consider themselves gamers. It’s awesome.WN: What about making games with peripherals? Obviously that helped a lot in terms of getting it into peoples’ hands, much like the Wii controller it’s immediately understandable. At the same time, it does add an extra layer of complexity to not only the design, but the marketing and the retail. It’s a huge, huge box. Do you feel that it’s something that you need to stick with, or that it’s a gateway drug and then you can move on and do something that doesn’t require a special controller?
AR: I think both. The controller really does deepen the suspension of disbelief. If the experience that we’re trying to synthesize is that you feel like you’re a rock guitarist on stage rocking out, there’s something about going from [regular controller to guitar ] that deepens the experience. That can’t be replaced in a game controller.
The flip side is that now that music games are finally, finally established as mainstream genre in the US, consumers will be more receptive to other takes on the music genre that aren’t just about instrumental performance simulation, that you can do with the regular DS interface or the regular game controller or whatever, and it won’t be such a terrible marketing challenge.
