Fansite Friday/Direct Song

Title: Special Edition: Direct Song

Date: 3 June 2005

Number: 45

url: http://www.guildwars.com/events/press/interviews/fansite-friday45.php

This week's Fansite Friday is quite a bit different than usual. With the advent of an exciting affiliation between ArenaNet, NCsoft, and a fledgling company called Direct Song, we have a few fan questions to answer about that new company. But we also wanted to hear from featured composer for Direct Song, Jeremy Soule. So here are your questions, our answers, and a bit of insight from Jeremy, too. We hope the info is music to your ears!

Q&A

Question: What is the Direct Song link that just appeared on the Guild Wars site?

Answer: Direct Song is a new way to expand your gaming experience by allowing you to acquire Guild Wars music to which you can listen independent of the game, or which you can actually add directly into the game. There are a few things that Direct Song offers right now, or will offer in the near future:

• You can purchase the Special Edition of the original soundtrack for Guild Wars (which includes four bonus tracks)
• You will soon be able purchase Direct Song Expansion Pak No. 1, which I hear is going to contain a lot of new music, and will be incorporated into the game itself to, as they say on the site, "add new depth to Guild Wars and breathe more life into your gameplay."

Ok, well, I don't know that I need more life in my gameplay. I'm already jumping in my seat when those flippin' Mursaat show up. ;) On the other hand, if Jeremy Soule wrote it, I need to have it. Excuse the fan-ness of it all, but in my opinion, the only thing better than the music in Guild Wars is twice as much music in Guild Wars.

Which leads to the second question…

Question: Just how much music will be available? And will Jeremy Soule continue writing for Guild Wars in the future?

Answer: As you may know, the original Guild Wars soundtrack features the industry standard’s worth (approximately 60 minutes) of unique music, from town tunes to battle songs to the music that infuses the explorable areas. According to Jeremy, “Direct Song Pak 1 is the world’s first game music expansion product and it will contain as much or more new music than is currently in Guild Wars. Direct Song will also periodically be giving away free “mini-paks” which will accomplish neat things like change up the menu screen music or contain an inspired-by mystery song from a celebrity artist. I’ve enjoyed working with the great people at ArenaNet and NCsoft and I am excited to finally have a way to deliver hours of music into enormous games like Guild Wars.”

And we're delighted to have our partnership with such a great composer continue into the future. I can't wait to see what sort of audio delights are to come!

Question: Is Direct Song for Guild Wars only, or will other titles have similar ties with Direct Song?

Answer: Guild Wars has the privilege of being a sort of "pilot program" for Direct Song. We're the first featured title of what will probably be many featured games in the future, including several games that were nominated for excellence at E3. As Jeremy tells us, “Direct Song has valued relationships with a number of publishers but we’re very excited to be launching our first service with ArenaNet and NCsoft. It’s truly a groundbreaking opportunity.”

At the current time, Direct Song is offering the Special Edition Soundtrack. This ought to make a lot of people happy, as the Collector's Edition sold out quickly and many fans have written to ask about obtaining the soundtrack. And in the weeks and months to come, you'll find samplers, individual sound tracks, and a lot more. (Perhaps the music for Grenth's Footprints and Sorrow's Furnace? Only time will tell!)

Just to give a little more info on the system, with Direct Song, you can sample the tunes before you purchase them, and you get the opportunity to download more than just once, ensuring that if you reformat your hard drive, upgrade your computer, or decide to share the joy of Guild Wars with your notebook system, you can do it without an additional charge. It all sounds like a pretty great musical acquisition system, and we’ll see more details on these options in the coming weeks.

Question: What is Jeremy Soule working on now?

Answer: And according to Jeremy, he will be spending the rest of this spring and summer working on… ?

"All things Guild Wars! Stay tuned!"

Thanks a lot to Jeremy Soule for answering a few questions, and to all the nice folks at Direct Song for making our lives more tuneful.