Dance games step into void left by other genres

ByABC News
October 10, 2011, 8:54 PM

— -- Video-game makers are displaying some deft footwork these days.

When interest in music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band declined, developers simply sidestepped and took a spin at making dance games.

A new line has begun hitting stores:

•Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft, $40, out now, for Nintendo Wii and Kinect; out Dec. 6 for PlayStation 3; ages 10 and up) features more than 40 songs (Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green, the Pointer Sisters and LMFAO); available for the first time on Xbox 360 or PS3.

•Dance Dance Revolution II (Konami, $50, out today, for Wii, ages 10 and up) has more than 50 songs, including tracks by Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. The game lets players use the wireless Wii remote and two dance pads for increased difficulty.

•Dance Central 2 (Microsoft/Harmonix, $50, Oct. 25, ages 13 and up) adds voice commands so players can say "Xbox, dance" or "Xbox, pause." Artists include Daft Punk, Donna Summer and Lady Gaga.

•Everybody Dance (Sony, $40, Oct. 18, ages 13 and up) has a 20-player party mode and songs by Outkast, OK Go and Willow Smith.

Consumers bought more than 8 million dance games last year in the USA, a fivefold increase over 2009, according to market tracking firm the NPD Group. So far this year, sales of dance games are three times that of 2010. "2011 is poised to be the biggest year ever for this genre," says NPD's Liam Callahan.

Gesture-based controllers bring a new twist to the genre popularized by Dance Dance Revolution, which came to PlayStation in 2001. In DDR, players match movements on screen with fast footwork on a floor pad connected to the system.

But the success of Just Dance— 15 million sold worldwide since Ubisoft launched the Wii series two years ago — showed that players liked the freedom of movement that the motion-tracking Wii remote allowed. "Motion gaming (made) it more natural, where you can actually dance in front of the television," says Ubisoft America's Tony Key.

Xbox 360's Kinect and PS3's Move motion controllers should make them into more realistic dance machines for Just Dance 3. Both are considered technically superior to Wii's motion tracking since they use cameras. (Kinect tracks players' bodies; Move tracks the handheld wireless controller in 3-D space.)

Also new in the Xbox 360 version of Just Dance 3 is a "Just Create" feature that lets players add their own dance moves.

Other dance-related games coming from Ubisoft: Just Dance Kids 2 ($30 Wii, $40 Xbox 360, Oct. 25; PS3, early December, all ages), The Black Eyed Peas Experience ($50, Xbox 360 and Wii, Nov. 8, ages 13 and up) and ABBA You Can Dance ($40, Wii, Nov. 15, ages 10 and up).

With dance games targeting various ages and game systems, "we should be able to bring the dance juggernaut into even more homes," Key says.

In developing a sequel to the 2.5-million-selling Dance Central game, developer Harmonix "really focuses on multiplay," says CEO Alex Rigopulos.

To promote Dance Central 2, publisher Microsoft today launches a three-chapter video marketing campaign — a girl and a boy who play the video game are destined to meet on the dance floor.

Overall, dance games have helped gamemakers keep the music genre alive and "further cement video games' place as a pop-culture staple," says Scott Steinberg, author of MusicGames Rock, a new book on the video game industry.