How much of Guitar Heros heritage comes from earlier games like Dance Dance Revolution?
Welch: Certainly, I think games like Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution, Donkey Konga, and a few others really paved the way. Guitar Hero started out really as an opportunity to play that perfect marriage between the hardware and the software. On the software side, it was about that promise that you deliver of being the musician–in this case the lead guitarist–or about really becoming a rock star, and I think that fantasy is primal. It has been heightened in the last five years by the popularity of iPod and iTunes, getting your music anywhere, anytime, any way you wanted, and it is important that music and your participation as a fan can play in that interaction. What does it mean for the market that there is both Guitar Hero and Harmonix’s Rock Band now? Welch: I think it speaks volumes in terms of the interest that consumers have in music-based gaming. And certainly success breeds competition. I believe that there is room in the space for multiple products to exist. As I’ve
