It’s no secret that the music game genre is a little… crowded these days, as Activision Blizzard continues to release at least one Guitar Hero game every year, which is now accompanied by what will be annual entries into the DJ Hero franchise. Harmonix, too, has its Rock Band franchise spilling out all over the place, with no less than five series entries to date, with a sixth releasing this past week.

With all of this choice and a resultant market deluge, sales of titles in the music game genre have been on the decline for a while, with a string of less than stellar Guitar Hero games, worse than expected retail performance by The Beatles: Rock Band (and the invisible releases of Green Day: Rock Band and LEGO Rock Band), as well as underwhelming initial sales numbers for the original DJ Hero.

Market analysts paint a dire picture for the music game genre, with some even suggesting that Activision Blizzard approach MTV Games and Harmonix, hat in hand, with a proposal to merge Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the future! Imagine that!

It’s a pity, though, that analysts can only see in numbers, because this year’s crop of music games is particularly tasty.

We’ve got Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock seemingly signalling a return to form for the ailing franchise, Rock Band 3 releasing with a host of new features and new peripheral support, and DJ Hero 2 arriving on the market with many improvements and additions over the original game.

Not only that, but we’ve got a new dark horse entry to the genre in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString – a music game that touts the use of a ‘real guitar.’

But these games mean nothing without consumer interest. Even with new features, improvements and innovations, these franchises, and the music game genre itself, will wither away should gamers decide that they’ve had enough of playing virtual music on plastic guitars, drums and turntables.

Conversely, consumers could reward one franchise over the other for remaining innovative and keeping fresh, and support that game over the others so we can continue to play that specific brand of music game.

Have you had enough of music games, or has the new round of games piqued your interest? Are you going to pick up Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Rock Band 3 or DJ Hero 2? Or even, perhaps, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString?

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