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User Control Music In Games

As it was predicted in spring at the E3 video game convention, music seems to take a major part of the games market. The new games are expected to feature more songs and more user control over them than before.

Electronic Arts` "Madden NFL 07" football game features this year 35 songs, up from 21 in recent years. And that`s just one of the smaller soundtracks. Large, open game-play video games like the "Grand Theft Auto" series took the soundtrack concept to new heights with "GTA: San Andreas" featuring a whopping 80 tracks that were later released on an eight-CD boxed set. Another high-profile game, "Saints Row" from THQ, will launch with 130 songs on its soundtrack.

The games also allow players to interact with the soundtrack and customize it to their whims. For instance, to replace the default soundtrack with a personalized one using whatever combination of tracks they choose from pre-made mixes. A big games company manager says: "The game itself is interactive, the story line is interactive, so to the extent that you can make it work, and it doesn`t mess up the experience, the music should be interactive as well".