RedOctane: "We're just at the beginning of music games"

RedOctane founder Kai Huang has said that music games are only just at the beginning, and that the company is hoping DJ Hero will be the number one intellectual property of 2009, despite it failing to make the top ten best-selling games in the US when it was launched last month.

Speaking to the Seattle Times, Huang said of DJ Hero, "We're planning for it to be the number one new [intellectual property] of the year. So yeah, we're excited about it."

"We're really just at the beginning of music games," he added, saying that the company is constantly looking at new music and instruments, including untapped genres such as country, Latin and classical.

While specific announcements regarding new technologies and what RedOctane will do with "Guitar Hero 6 and beyond" haven't been made, Huang hinted too that Natal compatibility could be on the cards.

"One of the areas we're exploring certainly is camera technology and what you can do - track your movements and maybe have your characters on the screen do certain things you're doing, or personalise it more so it can look more like you on stage rather than just be an avatar."

Another possibility it's exploring is monthly subscriptions, which Huang said it would like to make a possibility, along with allowing users to import music they have on their PCs into the game.

"Licensing is certainly the biggest issue we have as far as being able to open up our platforms and let people access their own music, whether it's on the console or putting it on the PC and letting people access all of their own music," he said.

"The technology is mostly there for us to do that today. We know that's what the consumers want and we're trying to work to see how we could do that."

A music service based around a monthly Guitar Hero subscription is also on the cards, said Huang.

"That's definitely one of the things we would love to do. There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it, I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen."

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