“I think it sold lower than our expectations but on the other hand it was a really unique game, I have to say,” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told the Official Nintendo Magazine. “And also, even today, we are receiving several different offers from people in the field of music education, so as far as Wii Music is concerned, I think is still has great potential. And in the future there might be some developments.”

Exciting, no?

Wii Music: You Haven’t Heard The Last Of It [ONM]

Now, of course I’ve heard people say that this is wrong; that video games cheapen or damage the experience of learning real music with their plastic peripherals and oversimplification of beats, rhythm and notes. But it seems like even more music games seem to be popping up in response to this criticism – all of which claiming that they are different, that they really are about the music and not about mimicking and button mashing.

Think about it: we’ve got Timbaland’s Beaterator which includes lessons on real music theory in the tutorial, DJ Hero which introduces the concept of an artist who uses other people’s music to make an original song and elaborate music studio components in Rock Band and Guitar Hero that put the power of composition directly in your button-mashing fingers. And let us not forget Wii Music and all its lofty educational ambitions.

To tone deaf choir reject like myself, the music game scene isn’t just over saturated – it’s downright intimidating. Am I supposed to be entertained, educated or indoctrinated? I can hardly decide.

All of this came up today while talking with Carlo Delallana (designer) and Matt Leunig (associate producer) about their game, Jam Sessions 2 – a guitar simulator. I was playing Good Reporter and trying to find out how the game would treat me as a gamer and also as a would-be musician (despite my evident failure in middle school).

I asked about the scoring system and Delallana said the game wouldn’t punish me or make the song sound bad for messing up a note. I started to ask about competitive multiplayer and both Leunig and Delallana emphasised that their game was more about making music than trying to be better than the next guy. Finally, I told them about Beaterator’s music theory lessons and asked for their take, and Delallana dropped this bomb: “There’s a danger in teaching [music] because there’s no one way to learn music.”

That may be why Jam Sessions 2 is so careful not to punish gamers for messing things up – and why it doesn’t really tell you what to do when you get to the music studio to start recording and editing your own tracks. It also may be why I gravitate to it over Beaterator or Rock Band because I don’t really know that I want a music game to teach me or judge me on something I feel like I suck at. But is that reaction even worse than me assuming I know how to play the guitar having beaten Killer Queen on Hard?

It comes down to what music games are supposed to be for. If Delallana is right and there’s no one way to learn music, then maybe it doesn’t matter whether or not DJ Hero has a better track list than Scratch: The Ultimate DJ. But on the other hand, if the game isn’t supposed to teach me music – if it’s really just an interactive fantasy where I can pretend to be a rock star – maybe all music games are only as good as their set lists.

Either way you look at it, though, there is eventually going to be a music game for everybody if the market for these games keeps expanding like it is. Whether you’re a choir reject like me or a Ukulele Hero hold-out, there just might be some comfort in that.

Iwata was forced to remind the crowd of Miyamoto’s non-divine status when questioned about a few of Nintendo’s more recent stumbles. That includes Wii Music “not selling very well,” declining Wii hardware sales and a series of “small mistakes” from the company, including buggy and delayed software.

Mr. Iwata responds.

“One of the reasons why Miyamoto is highly praised is because of his ability to stop, rethink about, and fix how he can convey the appeal of a software when he finds out during the latter phase of development that the software will not be good enough,” Iwata said. “This is why the games he has worked on have a high batting average to produce big hits.”

“However, he is not God and even Miyamoto himself cannot hit the mark every time nor always predict how long it takes to complete development,” he added, a statement which would fly in the face of the opinions of attendees of Nintendo’s E3 2004 press conference.

But Iwata seems to be taking these criticisms to hear.

Iwata sums up: “We are making efforts to not miss out on great opportunities. We are always searching for the next fun thing. With luck and some preparations, we hope to identify and catch these opportunities when they appear in front of us. However, no one can tell when these will comes to us, and it is inevitable that we may not always be able to launch our products at the most desirable timings.”

Financial Results Briefing for the 69th Fiscal Term Ended March 2009 – Q&A [Nintendo]

A Washington, D.C. school is one of the first in the nation to get Wii Music in their school.

The program isn’t using the game to teach music, it’s just meant to engage student in the arts, to get them interested in music. Which, I think, is a fantastic idea. Sure, Guitar Hero and Rock Band would do the same thing, but including instruments they are both more expensive.

The program is, in part, a reaction to the D.C. School Chancellor’s new policy to make sure every school has a music teacher on staff. The Wii music program will eventually be in 50 cities throughout the country.

Maybe Harmonix or Activision will take a page from Nintendo and test out a program that would introduce younger children to music through their games. I know that’s why Tristan is studying classical guitar now.

Nintendo Wii Debuts in D.C. School [Fox DC]

Wii Music didn’t become the breakout hit Nintendo was hoping for. It was a sales disappointment of sorts. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata thinks the software elicits one of two reactions.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. just released a Q&A that was held during last week’s Nintendo Third Quarter Financial Results Briefing in Tokyo, where president Iwata conceded: “I agree that Wii Music, as of now, has not achieved its true potential. On the other hand, I feel that Wii Music is a software that elicits largely two extremely different reaction from consumers. There are people who highly appreciate it and those who do not appreciate it at all.”

Continuing, Iwata points out that the typical reaction towards a game is that lots of people enjoy a game and the buzz towards that game becomes positive — or vice versa. “For Wii Music, the impression seems to completely depend on each individual player,” said Iwata. “It is unfortunate that Wii Music was not immediately appealing enough to some consumers, but it simply might have not been the right game for them.”

That’s not to say Nintendo has given up on the title. Iwata points out that when Brain Age originally launched in Japan, the game didn’t become a hit until Brain Age 2 went on sale.

“We do not like to think that we failed with Wii Music nor that we should abandon sales support,” sai Iwata. “If we had approached Brain Age with that mentality, the software would have not achieved the current sales situation.”

Wii Music was launched along with Animal Crossing: City Folk at the end of 2008 in hopes of appealing to Japanese consumers and “revitalize the Wii market in Japan.” Continuing, Iwata said, “Our efforts have not lived up to our expectation. While Wii had very strong momentum in the overseas markets, the Wii market in Japan (during the year-end sales season) showed a slow start, did not show sharp trajectory in sales, and ended up moving back to the sales level of non-sales-season level quickly.”

In short: “So, what happened at the end of last year in Japan was simply that it did not go as we had planned.”

Iwata is very quick to point out that the sales figures for both Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk are “nowhere near that of failing software.” Nintendo has extremely high sales expectations for its titles — these games did not meet those sales expectations. “To generate strong sales,” Iwata added, “we need to effectively communicate Nintendo’s messages to our consumers.”

These are such things as dreams are made on, the colourful concepts of dying developers, the universes that will never be.

Nintendo is teaming with The National Association for Music Education to get the Wii and Wii Music into schools, the two announced today.

The collaboration will have music teachers in 51 cities using Wii Music to help children with rhythm, temp and song structure.

“The goal of Wii Music is to inspire people of all ages to enjoy music,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “By partnering with educators and bringing Wii Music into their classrooms, we hope to give students a memorable, hands-on experience that helps them discover their own creative voice.”

Instead of trying to use Wii music to actually teach musical concepts, the main thrust appears to be getting children more interested in music. Something that I think Rock Band and Guitar Hero could also lend a hand in. Just ask my son and the thousands like him who have taken up real guitar lessons because of their game play.

But this is a great first step.

“Wii Music has brought a renewed excitement to music class for students from first grade to fifth, myself and even some of the classroom teachers,” said Helen A. Krofchick, a music teacher at Doby’s Mill Elementary School in Lugoff, S.C. “I love how many music standards can be covered in such a short time. Students also have to use language skills, spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination. We have a school very supportive of the arts and Wii Music has empowered our program even more. Any system that is educational and can add a love of music to children’s lives should be in every classroom.”

Other organisation working with Nintendo on this program include San Francisco’s Blue Bear School of Music and New York’s Opus 118 Harlem School of Music.

“The joy of playing music is something that should be experienced by everyone, regardless of age, talent-level or experience,” said Joe Lamond, President & CEO of NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants. “Research shows that more than 82 percent of people who don’t currently play a musical instrument wish they did. Wii Music can help address this by providing a positive introduction for millions of people who might not otherwise be inclined to try.”

This sounds like Nintendo has taken up the idea of getting Wii into schools to heart. Nintendo told me that they didn provide a “limited amount” of consoles to help get the program off the ground, though it doesn’t sound like they plan on donating to schools across the country.

They did also work with The National Association for Music Education to create a master lesson plan.

It’s good to see that my pet peeve is getting some attention.

One cannot dismiss Miyamoto’s impact on gaming. He’s responsible for so much of gaming’s basic grammar. So even when one of his games does not garner the expected interest and acclaim, it is worth giving those titles another look. They very well could be misunderstood. From an interview with game magazine Edge:

What’s your response to some of the poor reviews Wii Music has received in the gaming press? Did you expect it to be misunderstood?

…My hope is of course that a gradually increasing number of people will get access to Wii Music and understand its fun nature. I really don’t think that it will have the immediate and universal appeal around the world at all [laughs].

I really appreciate that the gaming media has a different view of anything as new as Wii Music today — it’s simply symbolises how different and unique Wii Music is. To tell the truth, I have this big ambition for Wii Music, that it can eventually be something very influential so that it might be able to influence what music means in the world.

Wii Music might age well. It might be one of those titles that we come back to and are able to appreciate at all that Miyamoto is hinting at. Then again, it might not.

Miyamoto Unplugged [Edge Online]

Instead, the game sold either a disappointing 81,000 units (according to NPD) or an even more disappointing 65-66,000 (according to Nintendo’s “internal numbers”). Let’s be charitable, and give them the 81,000. That means the game was outsold by Dead Space, Rock Band 2, SOCOM, the venerable Mario Kart and, yes, Kirby Super Star Ultra. I didn’t see Kirby Super Star Ultra shilled on morning talk shows.

Of course, Smile Machine Cammie Dunaway may have a point when she says, in the game’s defence:

We’re predicting that it’s going to be an evergreen title. And if you look at titles like ‘Brain Age,’ it’s about the same as what ‘Brain Age’ did during it’s first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. ‘Wii Fit’ certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand ‘Wii Music.

Then again, if November passes and the game puts up similar numbers, she may not have a point, and all you angry Wii Music-hating children of the internet can spend the day basking in your own sense of smug self-satisfaction.

‘Wii Music’ U.S. Launch Sales One Tenth Of ‘Wii Fit’ Debut Mark, Nintendo Not Panicking [MTV]
Wii Music sells under 81,000 in Oct [GameSpot]

(Sorry, couldn’t resist)

Starting this weekend street performers will be hitting up malls from Atlanta to Los Angeles to hang-out and “perform” on the game for shoppers.

Hit up the jump for the break down of this weekend’s stops and the link for next weekend’s.

Nov. 15-16
Atlanta: Perimeter Mall Toys “R” Us
Boston: Natick Collection
Chicago: Water Tower Place
Dallas: West Village
Los Angeles: The Commons (Calabasas, Calif.)
New York: South Street Seaport
San Francisco: Stonestown Galleria
Washington, D.C.: The Market Common Clarendon (Arlington, Va.)

Wii Street Music [Wii Music]