Gaming Friday: Music and Gaming - Now and What's next?

I have to admit it, this is another week where gaming got me thinking about what could be coming next. Music.

Music is such a part of the basketball experience (or the sports experience in general) and we've not nearly gone where we could go in the world of gaming. For now, you have the ability to drop your own music and listen to it while playing or use the gaming soundtrack. And gaming soundtracks really haven't been incredibly impressive thus far.

EA Sports announced this week the new soundtracks that will power NBA Live 10 and Madden 10. On this site, you're able to sample what's coming. The Madden soundtrack is pretty heavy - a mix of rock and rap that will amp you up including Rage, Kid Rock, and the Beastie Boys. NBA Live goes more in the Hip Hop zone - De La Soul, Matt & Kim, B.o.B., among others. Listen here.

Many things to take out of this but here are my top 3.

1. Music is more important than ever, and the mixes that have been created are very true to the sports. You definitely take a listen to the soundtracks and feel like you are in a Hoops world or a Football world. Hopefully the gameplay will also feel like the sport!

2. Bringing music to the community of gamers makes sense. But there's more that can be done here (foreshadowing alert!)

3. Madden and NBA Live are being connected more closely. These releases were together. That means that, simply, the thinking in one game is affecting the other, which is a good thing. I think it shows us things will be changing more quickly.

Where can this go?

I think one space is if you look at what happened with NCAA Football 10 and their Team Builder feature. Create a team, offer it up for download, let others play with or rate your squad. In music, let a DJ or fan (or both) mix music and offer it for download.

Then, keep this all game relevant. Connect this to iTunes, and have built in features that allow you to use different tracks at different times. For example, on a BIG run, when a player fouls out, post game, warmups, training... basically anywhere the game should feel a little different should be powered by gaming.

I'm excited to see this step. It's simple - not an overwhelming number of tracks. But it is a symbol that games are going to start feeling more natural.