"The sky is the limit"

As the SingStar community continues to grow, senior producer Tamsin Lucas reveals what's next for the global phenomenon.

When SCE London Studio's prototype department started researching vocal pitch recognition, little did they know they were on the verge of a worldwide hit.

What started as an experiment has grown into a series that has sold 12 million copies in Europe and turned an entirely new, casual audience onto gaming. Groups of friends singing together at home have become a global community, at the centre of which are My SingStar Online and singstargame.com; online areas where users can share videos of their best and worst performances, rate each other's talents and even have a say in which songs appear on forthcoming releases.

The figures speak for themselves: 140,000 fans have registered on My SingStar Online and visitors to singstargame.com have shared 20,000 videos of their singing ability or lack thereof - captured with PlayStation Eye - that have been viewed a total of 2.5 million times. The series' concept is simple: make the player the star, and the two online communities not only provide the stage, they get fans involved - singstargame.com ran a poll for UK visitors to decide the musical direction of a forthcoming title, and let them choose the tracks they want to see.

Talking to eu.playstation.com, Tamsin Lucas, senior producer of SingStar said: "We're very community driven and it's actually a great help to have such an enthusiastic group of people to give us ideas and feedback.

"We've been delighted with My SingStar Online and with SingStar Vol.2 coming in June, we're hoping more and more people will add their videos."

Perfect harmony

SingStar Vol.2's new feature, Harmony Duet mode, offers a refreshing new challenge to those who enjoy singing with friends. Each player's lyrics are colour coded and well separated, so there's no risk of confusion, and tracks included on the disc, such as California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas, are an excellent choice. It's a great feeling when the two parts come together for a chorus and you hit a perfect harmony, for which both players gain extra points.

"We found that people really enjoy singing duets," revealed Lucas. "So we added this mode and a number of special tracks in response.

"Another new feature in Vol.2 is Remote Play for PSP, which lets you download tracks, create playlists and share videos with friends when you're out and about."

SingStar Summer Party is the latest title on PlayStation 2 and includes a brilliant track list of summery music, including Girls and Boys by Blur and Wham's Club Tropicana.

"We still have a strong following on PlayStation 2, so we have released a title to accompany their summer parties. It contains the kind of music that you would want to sing along to while you're having a barbecue with friends - fun, upbeat tracks from all genres," said Lucas.

More in store

The SingStore continues to grow and is now home to over 400 songs. Users have embraced this feature, downloading on average six songs each.

When asked about future plans, Lucas said: "SingStore is updated every two weeks and the team is working hard on licensing more songs and getting them up - the sky is the limit. We would like to get to the stage where we can release entire albums, but for the time being we are focused on releasing great tracks across all territories."

SingStar continues to go from strength to strength: SingStar Summer Party adds to the great variety of titles on PlayStation 2; SingStar Vol.2 builds on the success of its PlayStation 3 predecessor and introduces the excellent Harmony Duet mode; and the SingStore continues to grow.

But what really ensures the success of the series is its community. Fans not only entertain each other with their videos on My SingStar Online and singstargame.com, they shape future titles with their suggestions and feedback. And what's more, Tamsin Lucas and her team are listening.