GARRISON’S BLOG » On the Game Scene http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog The music industry today Sun, 09 May 2010 23:31:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 Nintendo Affirms Recession…and boredom http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/2009/07/31/nintendo-affirms-recessionand-boredom/ http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/2009/07/31/nintendo-affirms-recessionand-boredom/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:50:19 +0000 Garrison Lykam http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/?p=129 According to a report out of Tokyo (Investor’s Business Daily, 7/31/’09), “sales of the once unstoppable Wii console have tumbled for the first time since its launch three years ago, sending the game giant’s quarterly profits down 61%.” Prior to the bad news, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit notched holiday sales records just half a year ago. “Nintendo’s sales in the Americas fell 38%…troubling signs for a company that derives 87% of its revenue from overseas markets.” A stronger yen reduced Nintendo’s net overseas profit value after repatriation to Japan but the dark clouds impacted the entire gaming industry. Sony’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox360 are both looking at lessening sales. Deutsche Securities analyst Satoru Kikuchi blamed Nintendo’s falling sales on the lack of bockbuster games: “These casual gamers and light users (are) getting bored. Nintendo needs to keep their attention with new software, but that hasn’t happened.” We’ll see if Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Brothers Wii and Wii Fit Plus can pull Nintendo and others out of the slump.

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]]> http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/2009/07/31/nintendo-affirms-recessionand-boredom/feed/ 0 MTV Gives Artists New Gateway Into Rock Band http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/2009/07/25/mtv-gives-artists-new-gateway-into-rock-band/ http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/2009/07/25/mtv-gives-artists-new-gateway-into-rock-band/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:25:46 +0000 Garrison Lykam http://musicquench.com/garrison_blog/?p=118 MTV has given artists a new first step toward having their music reach gamers by launching Rock Band Network. Any artist, signed or unsigned, can submit songs for consideration in the Xbox 360 version of the game (Sony Playstation 3 and Wii to follow). As long as your tunes are of playable quality with lyrics that don’t offend anybody and your copyrights are clean, you’ll be able to submit your music through Harmonix game developers who will make the call and decide if your tracks will be available for Rock Band gamers in a store separate from the existing one. You can even set your own price from $.50 up to $3.00.

For indie and unsigned artists, Rock Band Network is a new portal opportunity through which to use the video game to market and sell your music. Considering that the 700 songs already available have spawned a whopping 50 million downloads, Rock Band Network presents artists with an opportunity to leash the MTV behemoth as a new channel for sales and exposure. And because MTV is leveraging Rock Band Network as a music distribution vehicle, interactivity can take a higher position in an artist’s marketing matrix.

As I always caution, look at both sides of every opportunity. MTV will be challenged to manage a predictable tsunami of submissions and will need to maintain standards so that Rock Band Network doesn’t become the dollar bin step sister to the existing store. That said, if MTV does everything right, the new store will open up terrific new opportunities for artists to push their music business further than before.

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