Future music games expected to sell more than the previous generation.

Guitar Hero 5 screenshot

One of the major losers in the past year was the music video game sector, with sales down 46 per cent year-on-year in the US.

However, Harmonix founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos believes the best is still to come for the genre dominated by Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

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"I absolutely do not believe that rhythm-action gaming has reached its peak," he told Edge. "Of course, 2009 was a tough year with the recession, which especially affects music games given the relatively high price point of instrument bundles. But in the long term, people's passion for music isn’t going away, and rhythm gaming will continue to provide people with a deeper level of engagement with the music they love."

He added: "So, yes, I do think that future music games will exceed the sales success of the last generation."

Rigopulos is also convinced that user-generated content is key to the genre's future success.

"User-generated content will be absolutely critical to the ongoing success of the genre, I think," he explained. "I’m talking about a huge community of power-users - skilled music creators - providing their music to the audience. The launch of the Rock Band Network will be our next 'defining moment'."

Via Edge