Harmonix could abandon consoles?

[BuRn7 CaK3]

Harmonix honcho Josh Randall has looked deep into the future, and disappointingly not seen free jetpacks and the triumphant return of New Kids on the Block. Instead, Randall tells of a future where music games like Rock Band are playable without consoles.

“I think you could foresee a future where maybe you don’t even have a console,” said Randall, speaking to VideoGamer.com. “Your instrument can have all these songs and you just plug it into your TV. I’m sure it [the genre] is going to start to move in weird ways that no-one’s even thought of yet.”

No doubt. Given the size of plastic instruments, and the ease with which you insert a functional game system in one, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I would love to see actual instruments with built-in "games" that plugged into your computer. If you could play something like Guitar Hero: World Tour with real instruments, and have fun while you're actually learning to rock, that would be pretty cool for aspiring musicians.... of course, it would be a very hard game!

How do you think the music game world will change over the next decade or so? Big revolutions, or is it more likely to just sort of fade out as the fad dies down?

Source: G4-The Feed
Source: Videogamer.com

_________________
From now on, I'm adding both sources. Posting the G4 article.

[Oscar-Rio]

i wouldn't buy it if it came to that.

[General Lein979]

I'm guessing tech will advance enough but I'm not seeing this in the near future. Also I don't thing they would stop the console support.

Think about it my ipod has more power than my parents first computer.

[guitarheromasta]

Damn.

Smashing my guitars would no longer be a viable option.

Please don't do this HMX!

[BuRn7 CaK3]

I honestly don't see why they would. They are making a bunch of money from Rock Band already. And that is on console (obviously).

I'm guessing tech will advance enough but I'm not seeing this in the near future. Also I don't thing they would stop the console support.

Pretty much this.

[LinkStrifeLeonhart]

God damn it was a decent little blurb until he called it a fad. I swear each time I hear that I wish more and more to never read anything but facts.

In my mind, I can see music games going forward with dynamically created music. I don't know how exactly, but it would probably be akin to a music sandbox game.

[hawkofva]

Bad idea. They need consoles to act as a hub for all of the band people to be included in the same game. Putting the game software in the controllers would just drive up the price of something that doesn't last long enough for that to be viable. I don't want to have to re-buy the game every time I wear out a controller.

[ArchangelZero]

They're not gonna do it. They'd lose too much to do something like that.

[BuRn7 CaK3]

"Could" not "Will"

lol.

[esquehill]

The downside of the consoles is that HMX does not control them,
and their supporting infrastructure; AND that there are three of them.
Three distinct products, to build & support, really...
each with its own specific set of bugs; each requiring its own
variant of guitar & drums. What a hassle it must be. Building
their own self-contained gaming instruments would give HMX more
control of their final product, reduce their customer support
issues, and simplify their manufacturing processes. It might
happen...