Music never dies, but rhythm games have certainly had their ups and downs.
In their heyday, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the pinnacles of the genre. Originally developed by Harmonix and RedOctane, these franchises dominated the noughties with their multi-coloured fretboards and plastic instruments.
However, both franchises have since faded, with the last mainline games released in 2015. Harmonix and RedOctane have since evolved into new forms with different teams, and now veterans from both companies are leading a revival of this style of gameplay.
Harmonix found success once again with Fortnite Festival, which launched in 2023, while RedOctane reformed last year as RedOctane Games and is currently working on a project called Stage Tour.
Echo Foundry Interactive, a new studio co-founded by veterans of Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and DJ Hero, is the latest to join this comeback. GamesIndustry.biz spoke with CEO and creative director Marcus Henderson and president and executive producer Lennon Lange at this year’s GDC Festival of Gaming about why now is the right time for a rhythm resurgence.
As Henderson explains, the genre has reached a “generational cycle where these games are ready to be embraced again.”
“I think there was fatigue at the tail end of [Guitar Hero and Rock Band] where oversaturation and maybe a little bit of avarice came in. It just ran its course. But like anything in video games, it tends to get reinvented again. And if it’s in the right hands and brought back with care and alacrity, then anything can happen. So we decided we didn’t want to just do a genre reboot play – we wanted to advance this. We wanted to use modern tech and fix a lot of the things that we thought may have caused the demise of the genre in the first place.”
Lange says she “always dreamed of writing the wrongs of Guitar Hero.” She and Henderson met working on the original 2005 game, and have remained in contact.
“We both had this vision of, ‘Let’s do it.’ It started with spending time and creating what it could be, then we slowly started forming the [Echo Foundry] team,” Lange explains. “The most important thing with a rhythm game is the feel, and we nailed that, and we felt like we had something. Then it’s just the spiral of what can we do and what can’t we do?”
Echo Foundry’s vision is Sound System, described as combining “classic music and rhythm gameplay” with built-in creator tools and a community platform for artists and players to share tracks. The game will launch later this year on October 16 for $24.99. It features over 50 songs, including covers of popular and original music from up-and-coming indie artists.
“What we’re doing is we’re releasing one game, one game that is going to live on. It is a platform itself. You buy this $24.99 game, and you’re going to get constant upgrades, assets to customise it, new music, people are uploading stuff to it, creating their own charts. It becomes its own living and breathing thing that hopefully grows with the community – writing that wrong of oversaturation with one product that you buy once, and you enjoy and really just focusing on that.”
Henderson adds: “By having something for everybody and meaningfully done, it levels the playing field. No matter the type of player that enters Sound System, there should be something for you to do, enjoy, or relate with.”
“We didn’t want to do a genre reboot – we wanted to fix the things that may have caused the demise of the [rhythm] genre”
Marcus Henderson
The audience for Sound System is there – Guitar Hero and Rock Band veterans have been itching for something to reignite the opportunity to live their rockstar fantasies. Echo Foundry also hopes this aspect will reach new audiences.
“It comes in two ways. There are people who are looking for nostalgia, but it’s also the people who never got a chance that grew up or grew up too late after it already failed,” Lange observes.
“The modern community is a big one. You’re going to have the nostalgia of people wanting to play it and experience it again, but all those people now have teenagers and kids who can experience it. We’ve ended up tapping into the new generation by having the parents be old fans of the game itself.”
If you build it, they will come
Lange and Henderson clearly know how to make a rhythm game and are optimistic the audience is there to play it. But are they confident that Sound System will be successful?
“Guitar Hero was my baby,” says Lange. “I read the comments and the number of people crying out: ‘I want it back, I want a new version of it.’ It’s been growing and growing, people are hungry for that experience again.”
“From what we’ve seen from the public reception with small announcements that we’ve made, the audience is there. It’s definitely there, and we’re hoping the game is going to grow from that.”
“[The appetite for rhythm games] has been growing and growing, people are hungry for that experience again”
Lennon Lange
Henderson notes that the “player base never disappeared; they just didn’t have anything to play.” He also highlighted the success of Fortnite Festival – a rhythm game developed by Harmonix that features a mix of songs from popular bands and artists, as well as original tracks.
“Once again, our indie spirit is reactionary to: ‘What if we did it our way’ because every song in Fortnite is $5,” says Henderson. “You’re looking at a user base of ten-to-12-year-old kids, and when they have their V-Buck card, the last thing they’re doing is spending it on a $5 song that’s usable in one game mode. And the impetus for us building this game to begin with was Lennon and me asking each other, why don’t we build it? If nobody else is going to do it, why not us?”
He continues: “We’ve sold quite literally billions of dollars worth of games over the course of our history, and this just feels different. It feels like it’s ours to not fuck up, right? We’re not going to go and make some of the decisions that some of our predecessors or our competition made 20 years ago, because we have the frame of reference now to look back and say: ‘If we could do it again, what would we do?”
Community first
Echo Foundry’s main goal is righting the wrongs of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, focusing on the community aspect to cater to today’s generation of gamers.
“Everybody is a creator now,” says Lange. “Back in the day, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were a passive experience. You were listening, you were active in it, but you can only experience what was given to you. We’re making it possible for people to take part in building the game. They can upload their own full-motion videos and their own songs, so anybody who is a musician can actually put their music into the game and chart their songs. So it becomes an extension of the creation aspect that most people are gravitating towards right now with streamers and musicians.”
Watch on YouTube
Giving players the ability to chart songs, in what Henderson describes as “Mario Maker meets Guitar Hero,” is Echo Foundry’s solution to avoiding paying extortionate licensing fees for songs.
“When you lean too heavily on those master tracks, you are wearing a straitjacket with pricing. We want everybody to enjoy Sound System regardless of socioeconomic status. We do know from experience, specifically the last game we worked on, literally two years ago, where we spent $250,000 on master tracks, which then forces you into a price point because you’re just running all the numbers and covering your investment. So by keeping it relatively inexpensive, we open it up for more people to discover.”
Sound System includes a store with “ethically developed” microtransactions, where players can buy cover songs or items to customise the game’s fretboard at a “very affordable rate.”
“There are no surprise mechanics, loot crates, or gambling. It’s designed for players because we were players of this genre in the first place, and that’s why we could do what we want.”
Echo Foundry has also partnered with Turtle Beach, which acquired PDP, the producer of RiftMaster. But Sound System will support all plastic controllers. “Anybody that still has them in their garage, in their basement, wherever they stored them, they can bring them back up, and they’re fully compatible,” says Lange.
“By keeping it relatively inexpensive, we open it up for more people to discover”
Marcus Henderson
As a self-funded studio, Lange and Henderson said they wanted to maintain control rather than be “dictated on what our price point or content is going to be.”
“Staying indie is in our best interest long term for sure, but we’re going to stay self-funded through either private investment or private equity, whatever matches what we need to get the job done,” says Henderson.
“We’re obviously a startup, so we’re looking in terms of launching at a lower price point, specifically on Steam. We’re not backporting instantly, which would have just cost a phenomenal amount of money, but staying lean, staying hungry, and having that indie identity is something that people tend to embrace these days because you’re seeing a lot of pushback against the bullshit proclivities of AAA companies and the decision-making that affects them.
“Like Lennon says all the time, there’s a massive amount of fatigue and pushback against $70 video games that just do not deliver. So we want to start off with goodwill and build it as we grow.”
