Volume rises for music video games

By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Jennifer Martinez

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It turns out everyone just wants to be a rock star.

Music-genre video games "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" are bona-fide smash hits, entering the rarefied air once reserved for only the elite first-person shooters, "Mario" games or sports titles. And success breeds imitation.

Music games seemed to be everywhere at this week's E3 video game trade show and it wasn't just Activision Blizzard Inc showing off its upcoming "Guitar Hero: World Tour" or MTV Games, a unit of Viacom Inc, providing a sneak peek at "Rock Band 2." Both are due out later this year.

Nintendo Co Ltd debuted "Wii Music," a game that lets you simulate playing over 60 different instruments, while Konami Corp and Microsoft Corp also showed off new music games of their own on the horizon.

"Music has really become the killer application," said Don Mattrick, a Microsoft senior vice president, who runs the company's Xbox business.

Music genre games accounted for 16 percent of U.S. video game software sales in 2007 and comprised a staggering 44 percent of last year's software sales growth, according to research from investment bank UBS Securities.

The genre evolved out of the once popular rhythm game genre. In rhythm games like Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution," players score points by stepping on a touch sensitive pad in time with generic music.

In music games, the touch sensitive pad was replaced with a toy musical instrument and the generic songs were replaced with recognizable rock hits, giving players the simulated experience of playing real instruments.

"It is really a hot genre that's bringing in families and people that never played games before," said Electronic Arts Games Label president Frank Gibeau. EA is the distributor for "Rock Band."

WII CAN PLAY TOO

Nintendo's music game grabbed the most headlines. "Wii Music," designed by the company's game creator Shigeru Miyamoto, lets players use the Wii's motion-sensing controllers to play the saxophone, violin or other instruments.

The initial reaction to the game seemed lukewarm. Some dismissed it as too basic because it does not keep score and does not allow an out of tune note.

More faithful to the genre is Konami's "Rock Revolution."

The game features 40 songs and will offer more once the game is released. It comes with a guitar and a bass, but Konami is especially proud of the game's drum set, which includes a foot pedal and six drum pads to beat.

"All the fame and glory goes to the lead singer and guitarist, but the drummer is often the heart of the band," said Konami spokeswoman Mondonna Akharan.