SingStar Extras to offer new game modes

By Tom Bramwell Published 6 April, 2009

Paid-for or free download additions likely.

Sony plans to launch a new section of the SingStore called "SingStar Extras" soon and use it to distribute paid-for or free gameplay updates for its monstrously popular music game series.

Series director Dave Ranyard revealed the plan in a wide-ranging interview with Eurogamer exploring the series history and Sony's ambitions for it in the future.

"I'm happy to say we'll look at new gameplay modes... The Store as well - as far as I'm concerned that can benefit from feature development just like anything else, so as content increases we may well work on the storefront," Ranyard told Eurogamer.

"We do have a new section to the storefront coming called SingStar Extras where you can buy, or get for free, other things than just songs, so that's where you might buy features in the future, or you might get the features for free. So we are looking at the storefront in that way. Basically, the Store's going to evolve as it gets bigger, and it is getting bigger by the day."

Asked when we might see new gameplay feature announcements, which Ranyard said could happen after the launch of wireless microphones last month and voice controls in late April, he said: "I think E3 is a good place to watch."

Ranyard also spoke about the series' relative popularity in Europe compared to the USA, where it has a harder time replicating the huge PAL sales. Over here we've bought over 16 million units, compared to fewer than 2 million in the US.

"When we look at the States, we launched SingStar a lot later, and actually, if you look at it for how many units it's sold for the time it's been out, it's not actually that different to Europe, believe it or not. People forget - it was a little bit of a slow-burner in Europe to start with," he said.

"Obviously I'd love it to be doing exactly the same business, and you see a lot of music game business in the States, but I do have confidence that things that we're doing on the content side and the feature side will elevate its status in the US in the next 12 months."

For more on SingStar, including how songs are licensed and implemented, accusations that the SingStore focus is too narrow, and how the community impacts the game's ongoing development, check out today's SingStar: Past, Present and Future feature.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (5) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dr_lha #1 3 years ago

    As a resident of the USA, and Singstar player, let me tell you, the US Singstore is hilariously European influenced. I don't think they've done anything to make it cater to the US market at all. The Christmas Song for example was Wizzard/Roy Wood's I Wish It Could be Christmas Every Day, which nobody in the USA has heard of, hell one week the Singstore listed Chaz and Dave as a new song. Chaz and fucking Dave! As a ex-pat Brit I find it entertaining, but Americans must be baffled.

    Perhaps they need to work on marketing and licensing a bit better in the USA. For one thing, I don't think I've ever seen a single advert for Singstar on TV here.
    Edited by 1 at 06/04/09 @ 12:49

  • spiny #2 3 years ago

    dr_lha : Perhaps because euro music is...good?

  • Doctor_What #3 3 years ago

    @ dr_lha: You could just finish your sentence earlier: "Perhaps they need to work on marketing and licensing a bit better".

    The Singstore content really sometimes feels the B-sides of great artists. There are a small bunch of classics on there, but you will for example get huge bands like U2 with no songs from their best album (Joshua Tree) instead you get their very unwhelming output from the last decade. I'm sure it's licensing issues rather than stupidity, but they need to find some way to solve it.

  • dr_lha #4 3 years ago

    spiny: I like it as a "Euro" myself, but you have to cater to the audience in the USA, I guess they have with Singstar Country, but the Singstore is pretty half-arsed. Also: Where is Singstar Queen in the USA?

  • konniehuqfan #5 3 years ago

    it's nice to have a euro-centric game for a change.