In 2009, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were at their height. People were buying $150 boxed sets that included the game and several instruments in order to put mock bands together in their home and play these rhythm games. The genre failed because Activision annualized the series just like it does with Call of Duty, so consumers who spent big bucks on obtaining guitars and drum sets had no need to continue purchasing the large peripheral bundles. By 2011 the music game genre was all but dead, but it looks like Nintendo may be looking to revive it.
In recent patent filings, Nintendo shows a Music Game set up to work with the GamePad and the TV. The patent descriptions are pretty technically related, but it appears that Nintendo could be looking to do something with music as a whole, like they did with Wii Karaoke U in Japan. Here’s a sample of the text from the patent:
Conventionally, there is a game apparatus that outputs the sound of performing one composition as an ensemble using a plurality of instruments. In the game apparatus, a user selects a part to be assigned to the user themselves. When the selection of the assigned part is completed, the ensemble is started. Then, the user can participate in the ensemble by performing an input operation based on the assigned part.
The game apparatus, however, can merely provide the audio output of the composition performed as an ensemble from, for example, a pair of loudspeakers provided in a monitor. Thus, even a composition performed as an ensemble may lack variety, as compared to other types of sound outputs.
Therefore, it is an object of an exemplary embodiment to provide a storage medium having stored therein an information processing program capable of a wide variety of sound outputs, and an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and an information processing method that are capable of a wide variety of sound outputs.
The user performing an input operation based on the assigned part makes it sound as though Nintendo is creating a band-like environment game on the Wii U, were users can play specific instruments in order to create music. Here’s a look at some of the images filed with the patents.
What do you think could come from this?