Ubisoft’s Rocksmith Revives Music Gaming With Combo Of Guitar Hero & “How To”

Ubisoft is responsible for such games as the "Just Dance" series and "Michael Jackson The Experience". Last month the company released "Rocksmith", signaling their intention to revive the music game genre that faded under the onslaught of dance games. The game's marketing ties into its combination of rock star fantasy and educational game and represents the final entry in Scott Steinberg's free ebook, "Music Games Rock".

Rocksmith Guitar Baby

Ubisoft's Rocksmith launched last month featuring a variety of rock songs, from Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" to The Black Keys' "I Got Mine". Its most unique element is the ability to plug one's guitar into the videogame console using the Rocksmith Real Tone Cable. A special Guitar Bundle includes an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. which looks like a real winner for Christmas and is suggestive of the potential for future bundles if Rocksmith does well.

Rocksmith's marketing efforts feature two videos created by the Cutwater agency that have been quite popular on YouTube. The recently released Rocksmith Launch Trailer attempts to tap into the Guitar Hero-esque elements of Rocksmith with a somewhat cliched video. However, the Rocksmith Guitar Baby video shown above, released in early June, focuses on the educational aspects in a manner that ties together the uncanny baby theme with the desire of many parents to have their kids learn to play instruments.

Having presided over the shift from music games to dance games, Ubisoft's Rocksmith may well depend on Christmas sales and the dream of being a rockstar rather than pretending to be a rockstar.

Interestingly enough, Rocksmith is the final entry in Scott Steinberg's ebook Music Games Rock that profiles top rhythm games going back to Milton Bradley's 1978 release, "Simon". Available as a free PDF, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Steinberg included the "KISS" pinball game, my favorite music game of all time.

Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at All World Dance and This Business of Blogging. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.