Rhythm game

**Rhythm game**, or **rhythm action**, is a type of music-themed action video game. These games mostly focus either on dancing or simulating the playing of musical instruments. Players must press buttons in time with commands from the game, which are in time with the rhythm of a song. Doing so will cause the game's protagonist or avatar to dance or play their instrument correctly, thus achieving a greater score. They can be played with a hand-held controller, though different control devices have been made to play rhythm games, such as guitar- and drum-shaped controllers for musical instrument games, and pressure-sensitive pads (called dance mats) that the player must step on for dancing games. The Kinect for the Xbox 360 allows the player to use their whole body to control the game by tracking their movements. Some games have a multi-player mode, where players can play as members of a band or dance crew, or compete against each other.

The 1996 title *PaRappa the Rapper* was the first influential rhythm game. The basic design of the game became a pattern that later rhythm games followed. In 1997, Konami's *Beatmania* started popularity for rhythm games in Japan. The company's music division, Bemani, released many music games over the next several years.  *Dance Dance Revolution* was the only one to achieve large-scale success outside of Japan. The game's style was imitated by many other games, until the release of Harmonix's *Guitar Hero*. This was inspired by similar, earlier Japanese games, but Harmonix added rock music aimed at a Western audience. The success of the game revived the genre and two hugely successful franchises were born in *Guitar Hero* and the later *Rock Band*. The success of both expanded the console video game market and its demographics. By 2008, rhythm games were considered to be one of the most popular video game genres, behind other action games. However, because there were so many spin-offs from the core titles in 2009, there was a nearly 50% drop in sales for music games, causing them to scale-back plans for further expansion in 2010.

## Definition and game design 
'', use a scrolling "note highway" to display what notes are to be played, along with a scoring and a performance meter.]]
Rhythm game, or rhythm action, is a subgenre of action game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm, In addition to rhythm, some games may challenge the player to control their volume by measuring how hard they press each button. While songs can be sight read without having performed them before, players usually practice to master more difficult songs and settings. Other rhythm games offer a challenge similar to that of *Simon says*,

In some rhythm games, the screen will display an avatar who performs in response to the player's button-presses. In single-player mode, the player's avatar will compete against a computer-controlled opponent, while multiplayer mode will allow two player-controlled avatars to compete head-to-head. These include a variety of controllers which look like musical instruments, such as guitars, drums, or maracas. invented by Howard Morrison and Ralph Baer (the latter also invented the Magnavox Odyssey) in 1978. Players take turns repeating increasingly complicated sequences of button presses and the game implemented the "call and response" mechanic used by later music video games. The later *PaRappa the Rapper* has also been credited as the first rhythm game, as well as one of the first music games in general. The game required players to press buttons corresponding to the order they appeared on-screen; The game was a surprise hit, inspiring Konami's Games and Music Division to change its name to Bemani in honor of the game, One of those successes,

*Dance Dance Revolution*, released in 1998, was a rhythm game in which players danced on pressure sensitive pads in time with on-screen commands. The game was highly successful not only in Japan but globally, unlike games such as *GuitarFreaks*, *DrumMania* and *Beatmania* (though *Beatmania* had some success in Europe). and pump it up in a similar rhythm game.

Released the same year, Enix's *Bust a Groove* revolved around similar dancing themes to *Dance Dance Revolution* but employed a more conventional input method. The game featured competitive one-on-one "battles" and also allowed the player more freedom than normally found in rhythm games.

*Vib-Ribbon* was released by NanaOn-Sha (the creator of *PaRappa the Rapper*) in 1999, and  did not use instrument-shaped controllers. In this game, players had to get the protagonist through an obstacle course by pressing buttons at the correct time. These courses were generated in a way that depended on the background music and players could load their own music to play along. While it was praised for its unique style and timeless artistry, its simple vector graphics proved difficult to market and the game was never released in North America. Bemani's *Samba de Amigo*, released in 1999 and on Dreamcast in 2000, featured maraca-shaped, motion sensor controllers. The game made use of "social gaming", allowing two player gameplay and providing a spectacle for onlookers. In 2001, *Taiko no Tatsujin* combined traditional Japanese drums with contemporary pop music, and became highly successful in Japanese arcades. The game was later released on consoles in the West (as *Taiko Drum Master*) and the franchise continues to receive new instalments in Japan.

### Popularity in the West (2001–2008)
Harmonix, a company formed from a computer music group at MIT in 1995, released *Frequency* in 2001. The game allowed the player to control multiple instruments and gave a feeling of more creative control. The game was well-reviewed, but its abstract style did not allow the player to give a "performance" as in other games and thus proved difficult to market. Harmonix later released more socially driven, karaoke-themed music games in *Karaoke Revolution* and *SingStar* (2003 and 2004 respectively). The game had several sequels, with the franchise earning more than $1 billion in sales; the third game was the best-selling game in North America in 2007. Harmonix's later *Rock Band* franchise, which also earned in excess of $1 billion, used multiple instrument controllers and cooperative multiplayer, allowing players to play as a full band. The *Guitar Hero* franchise followed suit with *Guitar Hero World Tour*, developed by Neversoft rather than Harmonix. *Guitar Hero* installments based on specific bands, such as Metallica and Aerosmith, were later published. Additional songs could be purchased on the internet and added to *Guitar Hero* and *Rock Band* games. In 2008, it was reported that the music game had become the second most popular video game genre in the U.S. (behind action, having overtaken sports), with 53% of players being female. Both the *Guitar Hero* and *Rock Band* franchises expanded in this year with new games on other gaming platforms including handheld gaming devices and mobile phones and with titles targeted towards specific genres or demographics, such as *Band Hero* for pop music and *Lego Rock Band* for younger players.  Sales of music games were down in the first half of the year, though part was attributed to fewer purchases of the instrument controllers which players had already purchased and could reuse for other games. Analysis had expected that United States sales of *Guitar Hero 5* and *The Beatles: Rock Band* would  be high the actual sales numbers were lower by nearly half of the projections. Though signs of the impact of the late-2000s recession on the video game markets were considered a factor in lower sales, it was also taken as a sign of the waning popularity of the titles, now considered to be saturating the market. As a result projections for sales of *DJ Hero*, a spinoff of *Guitar Hero* published by Activision, were reduced from 1.6 million units in the first quarter of sales in the United Sates to only 600,000. Further contributing to the decline is the lack of innovation  as they have not changed their basic play model. Total sales of rhythm games, $1.4 billion in 2008, reached only $700 million in 2009, with analysts predicting the market will settle at the same "healthy" $500–600 million level seen by the *Call of Duty* series.

Publishers and distributors  recognized that in 2010, most consumers likely have one or more sets of instrument controller hardware at their homes, and that further sales would be primarily driven by software sales and additional content. Activision scaled back its 2010 *Guitar Hero* release schedule to just two full games, reducing the number of SKUs from 25 in 2009 to 10 in 2010. Activision has also closed some of its in-house developers, including RedOctane, Neversoft's *Guitar Hero* division, and Underground Development, bringing the remaining employees and assets under their own control. Viacom, which had previously paid Harmonix $150 million for their performance behind *Rock Band* in 2007, are now seeking to get a "substantial" refund on that amount due to the weak sales in 2009. Viacom is also seeking to further reduce costs by negotiating new deals with music publishers to reduce the costs associated with music licensing for the *Rock Band* series. During the third quarter of 2010, Viacom began seeking a buyer for Harmonix, recognizing they did not have the efficiency and capacity to deal with the cost of maintaining a video game developer compared with dedicated video game publishers.

The kinds of people buying games was changing and they wanted something different. Rhythm game developers tried to add new features to their games. *Rock Band 3* and *Power Gig: Rise of the SixString* added new stringed guitar controllers. They also added kinds of game play to help players learn how to hold their fingers as if playing a real guitar.  Despite these new modes, sales of music games were still low in 2010. *Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock* and *DJ Hero 2* sold only 86,000 and 59,000 copies in North America during their first week of sales, respectively, a sharp contrast to *Guitar Hero III* which had seen nearly 1.4 million units in its first week in 2008.  Analysis of music game sales through October 2010 show net sales of around $200 million through October, one-fifth of the revenue for music games for the same period in 2008, and that the market will likely not break $400 million by the end of the year. End year sales were less than $300 million.

By the end of 2010, the rhythm market, initially propped by game bundles with instrument controllers, was considered "well past its prime" and has shifted towards downloadable content and potential integration with motion control systems. Citing the downturn in rhythm games, Activision shuttered their *Guitar Hero* division in February 2011. Viacom completed its sale of Harmonix in late 2010 to an investment-backed group to allow it to continue developing *Rock Band* and *Dance Central* on its own. Analysts suggest that the market for these types of peripheral rhythm games may be stagnant for three to five years after which they may resurge on new consoles or based on different distribution models such as a stronger focus on downloadable content.

### Motion control and dance games (2011-present)
With the introduction of motion control to both the Xbox 360 (through Kinect) and the PlayStation 3 (through PlayStation Move) in 2010 and 2011, along with existing Wii motion control, some analysts believed the rhythm market would resurge through a new wave of dance-based video games and band-based ones that use platform-agnostic controllers to replicate real-life actions. Games such as *Dance Central*, *Michael Jackson: The Game*, and *Child of Eden* are all games based on the new motion sensing technology aimed to encourage more engaging dance routines. Industry pundits believe that as sales of music games requiring peripheral controllers lag, dance-based games, along with rising popularity of pop music, will continue to thrive for some time. Dancing games such as *Just Dance* and *Dance Central* boosted late-year sales; *Dance Central* was the top-selling game for the Kinect in North America in November 2010, and both games led to an 38% increase in sales compared to November 2009, according to NPD.

## References 
* Ashcraft, Brian, ''Arcade Mania! The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Games Centers* (Kodansha International, 2008)
* Rollings, Andrew & Adams, Ernest, *Fundamentals of Game Design'' (Prentice Hall, 2006)