Musical Experiences Thrive in Video Games
(Image credit: Epic Games, People Can Fly, and Arian Grande)
Bowie was Right Again
Concert goers have a growing list of venues for performance events, with video game experiences becoming mainstream. Interactive experiences within seasonal games provide great alternatives for live events, and many of these shows have done well within the last year. While Lil Nas X was not the first musician to host an event on Roblox, his success has shown viability for the platform as it now expands. Other games have or will present future shows as part of seasonal updates or onetime occurrences. The Load Screen covers how these events have risen and how older games offered similar experiences but lacked flexibility.
Last year, Roblox restarted its record launch parties with Ava Max’s Heaven & Hell album from the Roblox Ava Max press release. Other groups have followed her footsteps in the game, and the band Why Don’t We held a similar Launch Party in March, as listed in this Business Wire Why Don’t We Announce Exclusive Launch Party on Roblox article. However, those are only meet and greets for fans, and Roblox had other events in store for their players.
(Image credit: Roblox Corporation and Lil Nas X)
Concertlike events have made their way to Roblox, starting with their famous One World: Together At Home Virtual Concert with Global Citizen. Lady Gaga curated the event and had over 50 celebrity participants, not just musicians, shown in this One World Roblox blog. The company has since branched out to individual concert experiences, and their first one with Lil Nas X set a high bar while opening the door for more artists with over 30 million visitors; according to this Roblox Explosive Lil Nas X Concert blog post. The next performance comes on September 17 to 19 with the Twenty One Pilots Concert Experience; check out the Roblox Twenty One Pilots page for more information.
Other studios have implemented musical events within their games too. Electronic Arts held an event called Sims Sessions on The Sims 4. As listed on the EA Sims Sessions page, the experience was a nine-day festival with musical acts Beb Rexha, Glass Animals, and Joy Oladokun performing hits in Simlish, the language used by characters in the game. While the choice for singing may not resonate with everyone, it fits within the world of The Sims and can reach a worldwide audience. The Sims Sessions was available on all its current platforms, including PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)
Recently, even Epic Games and Fortnite have gotten into the interactive experience action with the Rift Tour featuring Ariana Grande. Since the YouTube streams of the Rift Tour event were very successful, expect more in-game events like it from Epic Games, and The Fortnite Presents the Rift Tour article recaps the entire event. However, the gaming platform has more in store than just Fortnite experiences.
At the last PlayStation Showcase in September, Epic Games announced a new event type with Radiohead. The Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is a stand-alone product not bound to any particular game, so no rules apply other than what the band wants included for appropriately commemorating their albums Kid A and Amnesiac in November. The bold step taken by Epic Games Studio represents the first concertlike event that should set a more significant standard for unique album release experiences in the future.
Other companies have offered game concert events, like Wave, which started as a VR concert venue. As noted in this Wave tweet from January 15, 2021, VR adaption has not grown much, and musicians need a viable audience. Since then, artists like Alison Wonderland and recently Pentakill have performed live events on Wave. The company has also worked with John Legend and The Weeknd, so head to the WaveXR website for details on new concert experiences hosted by their platform.
Musicians have long sought video games as a viable venue, but this was extremely difficult until the current game production cycle developed, where titles change instantly with update implementation. For early developers to get a concert experience into a game, they would have to work with the musicians from the start of development since games could not change once published. However, David Bowie saw the future of in-game musical experiences and worked closely with game developers at Quantic Dream. In 1999, they used his talents and likeness for the soundtrack and a character in Omikron: The Nomad Soul. During the gameplay, he performs several songs in the made-up band called The Dreamers with 90s era music videos to go with them. See Polygon’s David Bowie tribute page for more information, including a good breakdown of his role.
Interactive experiences, including concerts, have long been sought after in video games, and David Bowie was among the first in this area. While those events would remain an outlier for many years, even in VR, the current game production cycle and its many updates have opened a new venue for musicians and their fans. The Load Screen team looks forward to more accessible musical experiences, especially Radiohead’s stand-alone Kid A Mnesia Exhibition.
