Music games hit new high in 2010

Forget the fall of Guitar Hero; the music video game sector is stronger than ever, says GfK Chart-Track.

The sales tracker says that 2010 was the most successful year for music games in the UK, despite disappointing performances by the various Hero and Rock Band titles.

Dance games drove the sector, with Just Dance overtaking Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock to be the best-selling music game in the UK ever.

Ubisoft revealed in its latest financial report that in its last quarter it sold 10.5m dance games (including Michael Jackson and Dance on Broadway) into retail.

The music genre actually had its best ever year in 2010, but this was really down to the success of Just Dance 1 and 2,” said GfK Chart-Track senior account manager Chris Poole.

This really shows just how swift the music genre’s shift has been from guitar games to dancing games, with Just Dance 2 – released October last year – already the third biggest music game of all time.

I suppose the music game market is really returning to dancing games – going from Dance Dance Revolution mat games to SingStar karaoke mic games to guitar accessory games and now Just Dance.”

The trend towards dancing games is something noticed by Harmonix – the US developer that created both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The firm launched Dance Central on Kinect last year, and is currently in negotiation with publishers on releasing a sequel.

Much like the sheer number of instrument games that appeared following the success of Guitar Hero, there’s a flurry of dancing games on the release schedule.

These include new versions of Dance on Broadway and Michael Jackson: The Experience, Dance Sensation from 505 Games, Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution New Moves and Black Bean’s Mel B Dance.

Ubisoft’s latest dancing title – Dance Juniors – is aimed specifically at younger gamers and reached No.12 in the Top 40 this week after a 290 per cent sales surge in its second week.

Oh Activision, why did you not commission Dance Hero?