I was a weird kid. I grew up without exposure to a lot of popular music of the day, unfortunatly so I was always behind the curve on what my friends were listening to. But because of this, I had always had the fantasy of hearing some of my favorite video games in concert instead of these more well known bands. Never would I have thought years later that I was not alone in such endeavors. Nowadays, you have a plethora of concerts touring around the world. Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda's Symphony of the Goddesses , and Video Games Live are just a few of the big name concerts to emerge within the last few years. Many of these concerts are affordable to go see as well, selling seats for around $25.00; less than a brand new game in most instances (Steam sales excluded of course). In addition to these professional concerts, numerous tribute bands, remixes, and inspired renditions by fans assault the internet everyday. These showings of appreciation for music emphasis to the casual onlooker the importance of music and musical quality that many developers are now striving to implement in their games as well.
I haven't gotten the chance to see Distant Worlds yet, but it's on my list.
While we are long done with the days of 8-bit music, retro games such as Minecraft make use with the comparable graphics as it fits the nostalgia factor. Many franchises are hitting 20 and 25 years respectively, bringing about an awareness of the progress they’ve made throughout the last two decades in video games. While some companies are getting back to their roots with ports and reboots, others are shooting for more and more realistic graphics using motion capture technology. This new standard equally calls for quality musical composition, of which more and more composers and organizations are collaborating with. Pacific Symphony orchestra in Costa Mesa did the music for Diablo III. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, a Level 5 game for PS3 had the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra as its soundtrack for the game (and no wonder, with Studio Ghibli doing the art for it!). Even if Music isn’t your “thing”, you can't deny the power of presence that it evokes on a game.
Rawr! I'm a dragon!
Another interesting phenomena that has been taking place are the introduction of soundtracks in collector editions or on their own on sites like Amazon or itunes. The notion of being able to listen to your music from a legitimate copy rather than a rip from the game helps to bond fans further with the games they love. And while not everyone loves every games they play, you have to admit, it’s rather fun to drive on the highway blasting some fighting music (Soul Calibur V is a favorite of mine right now) on your way home after a day of work.
Not to mention an artbook, but that will be a post for later when I touch on concept art.
While classic composers like Koji Kondo, Shoji Meguro, or Nobuo Uematsu might not be household names yet, there are nonetheless a current stream of up & coming composers that are redefining the industry with the current pace of technology. Composers such as Jesper Kyd of the Assassin’s Creed series, Gustavo Santaolalla from The Last of Us, (normally a film composer) are taking center stage with their music. This focus on quality music rivals many tent pole films nowadays, so the next time you unwrap a new game (or finish downloading it) give a thought to who is making the music, you might just hear it in a concert near you.
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