Nintendo Okie

I just finished playing Solatorobo this week.  One really cool thing about Solatorobo, all first run copies of the game come with a soundtrack CD.  I have never understood, NEVER, why more games don’t do this.  I realized it adds more overhead to production costs but without providing soundtracks, players usually wind up pirating the music just to listen outside of the game.  Hear my plea, developers and publishers.  Make more soundtrack CDs!

They don’t even have to give them away free; they can sell them separately.  Most game studios and publishers have website where they could add an online store.  They don’t have to worry about keeping a store room full of CDs, just burn them when they are ordered.  They could go to Wal-mart and buy some blank CDs and bring in some kid to burn them.  Stick them in a paper sleeve and drop them in the mail.  Please, anything.  Throw us a bone.

I can see how burning CDs and mailing them out would be a hassle.  When somebody pays for a CD, they typically want a case and some cover art.  There is a simple solution to this.  While I hate mp3 quality, it would take a minimal amount of effort to upload some music files to iTunes or Amazon.  The distribution service will take a percentage off the top of sales, but it’s still better than not selling the music at all.  With no option to buy soundtracks, we are given no choice but to capture the music we love and upload it to YouTube.  Okay, so maybe we don’t have to upload it to YouTube.  I know that isn’t really legal but developers and publishers don’t seem to mind too much.  I’ve never had trouble finding a soundtrack on YouTube.  There can’t be too many accounts getting banned.

While I’m at it, why don’t we get more art books?  I don’t mean those pathetic little pamphlets some try to pass off as art books.  I want a hardback collection of concept arts, messages from the developers, and behind the scenes stories.  Yes, I realize this is a lot harder to make than a simple soundtrack CD but I really love that kind of stuff.  I flipped out while looking over the art pamphlet that came with Metroid Prime Trilogy; and it’s the equivalent of a postcard book.  Now imagine those same pictures, and many more, in a 9×12, collector’s book.  You know, something like this.  Be still my heart!  Coffee table books are a good way to display your video game enthusiasm in a way that doesn’t seem too nerdy.  They are great conversation starters.  Also, so many artists work hard on things we only see in a background for a few minutes.  Why not give fans the opportunity to fully appreciate all that work?  The same goes for music as composers and musicians work hard to create wonderful sounds; then we have to jump through semi-legal hoops to listen to it in our car.

Recently, Nintendo added a video showing the recording of Skyward Sword music to their 3DS, video service.  If you haven’t seen the video check it out here.  It’s really awesome.  This is the kind of stuff I eat up; most people do when they are excited about something.  For the bigger games, these kinds of things become preorder bonuses.  I’m fine with that.  It gives fans a chance to grab their swag.  Thanks to ebay one can usually find it after the fact as well.  Sad to say, all that will disappear once all game distribution is digital.  I wonder how many that welcome the digital future truly realize how much we will miss from not having brick and mortar stores.  I suppose when we are downloading all our games it would be easy to add in a zip file full of mp3 and videos.  Bandwidth costs nothing compared to driving a truck across the country.

I guess I am asking a lot of people.  It’s really hard to make a video game and here I sit demanding they do more.  While an art book is a huge task, uploading some files to the internet is something you could do while you’re sleeping.  The music is already written; just give me a chance to download it, people.  It would making editing these podcasts so much easier.