Will: game music

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May 20, 2005

game music @11:49 AM

so, microsoft is looking to axe game music in the new xbox 360, according to this article on create digital music.

this is too bad. I mean, certainly when listening to some of the insipid pop-punk that stinks up many sports like titles I wish I could just listen to my stereo. You know what I do? I listen to my stereo. Or turn the music off in options.

Lucas once said that some large percentage of any movie is sound, and backed it up by creating the industry leading skywalker sound. I think that if you go back to many older games (super mario, meteroid come to mind), as well as new ones like katamari damacy, etc., this is almost equally true.

I know ms is pushing personal media as part of the new xbox console, but this just seems like a really bad idea (surprise...)

posted by will | comments (4) | get permalink

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That's terrible. Maybe next they'll require that DVD players must allow people to turn off a movie's score and play an MP3 instead...

Posted by: msteffen at May 20, 2005 12:16 PM

I sat in on a VIP presentation @ E3 on the 360. The personal media aspects are really fun, and as a user of Xbox live are just what I'm looking for; broadcasting audio and video to parties of fiends, interactive party visuals, video chat, customized player profiles, and more.

What is compelling about being allowed to insert your own game music is that it will spatially embedded within the game, no a mere stereo layer. And with some game sound tracks being as horrible and "alternative" as the shit metal on Kingdom Under Fire, I'd be happy to replace it with some Aphex Twin! Away with authorship and hello to user centered customization; as a creator I'll miss authorship, as a user, I'll be glad it's gone.

Posted by: SEDinehart at May 20, 2005 12:44 PM

Wow... thats kinda crazy. I think that for more cinematic game situations, people are still gonna pay reverence to the composed score even if they have the option to kill it. Its really with all the twitchier games full of crappy licensed soundtracks (*cough* EA TRAX *cough*) that this will be really useful.

But back to more cinematic games for sec... this feature could create a new opportunity for composers/producers to make music for games. With the Xbox 360's connectivity, it shouldn't be difficult for music makers to distribute their new scores on the internet so that player's could insert them into the games they were created with in mind.

Posted by: Aaron at May 20, 2005 01:43 PM

yeah aaron, I totally agree -- I think the first thing I'd want to do is to change all the crappy licensed shit in my latest baseball sim to circa 1950's organ music by the dodgers' organist, nancy bea. And the opportunity for personalization is definitely cool, esp. the possibilities for webernet distribution / creative commons licenses. Makes you think about musicians releasing albums strictly composed to be played with a game ( xbox marketing people should definitely jump on that idea ).

But yeah, mobile phones have demonstrated the desire of consumers to personalize, and I think that for a number of games, this will be a great feature. My lament was based more on the potential for the richer, more thought out compositions that add value to the game experience to be circumvented.

Posted by: will at May 20, 2005 02:37 PM