While Key admitted “We sold a lot of copies to people who don’t necessarily play video games much,” he also added that hardcore gamers have started to mature and realize that there is a place for Just Dance in their lives, stating, ”We are finally getting respect from hardcore gamers because people are starting to understand more than anything that there is a time and a place where Just Dance is the right choice. If you’re going to have some people over to your house, what’s going to be your video game choice to liven up that party? Are you going to put Assassin’s Creed in there? Call of Duty? Or are you going to put Just Dance in there?”
In short, as gamers get older, their circle of friends expand, and a good majority of them aren’t interested in playing shooters on a LAN.
Key stated that more than a few hardcore gamers were skeptical of the title when it was first introduced. ”This is the biggest joke in the world.” That kind of stuff. But now, when you read it, you see “You know my friend introduced me to this game, and I understand what it’s all about,” Key described.
The game has also benefited from being released on the “hardcore” machines, giving UbiSoft financial opportunities they never had with the Wii version. In short, downloadable content. “Without going into specifics, the attach rate of DLC has been higher on the Kinect (than) it has been on the Wii. What we do keep in mind is that a large part of the audience that plays our games is not necessarily into downloading content, so there will be a learning curve. But they’ll get there,” Key stated, then admitted realistically, “So I wouldn’t say that the DLC is at the Rock Band level right now because we don’t have that 18-34-year-old male as our core customer like they do.”
And the future?
”I can’t predict what’s going to happen with the Just Dance brand, but the DNA of the brand requires an annual launch because we always contain the best new music from new artists from that year. So if we don’t do ever year, I think we would actually shrink. There will be some point, potentially, where Just Dance will level off…. We think we’re more of an annual, relevant franchise, more like a sports game. They have up years and down years, but they still do well every year. The industry counts on them. And that’s what we believe Just Dance can become,” Key mused.
Just Dance 3 was released on the 11th October, 2011, and Strategy Informer awarded it a 6.0/10 score in its review.
