Video Games Live stops short

The idea of concerts celebrating game music isn't terribly new, but it is most definitely gaining in popularity. After Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu experienced notable successes in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco concerts for his game music, longtime American gaming composer Tommy Tallarico, in May, announced a full-blown national tour celebrating the music of games, from Super Mario Bros., to Halo and Kingdom Hearts.

After kicking off with a successful July concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, organizers took a step back and spent months preparing the show for a 25-city tour of indoor venues, beginning with dates this weekend in Seattle and Vancouver. However, ticket sales for the tour weren't meeting expectations, and yesterday organizers canceled most of the shows. After performances Saturday in Seattle and Sunday in Vancouver, Video Games Live is calling it quits for the year.

Tallarico and Video Games Live cocreator Jack Wall posted statements about the cancellation on the tour's official site yesterday.

"If we are guilty of anything it is that we hoped that more people would have been supportive of the concept and idea," Tallarico wrote. "Sure people have interest (like everyone here today) but if that excitement doesn't translate into support through ticket sales... how can anyone put on a show?"

All is not lost, however. Tallarico and Wall are planning to resurrect Video Games Live next year, putting on shows one city at a time and focusing promotional efforts on the buildup to each one.

"We are resolved to reinvent how we do this and do it in a more controlled way so this never happens again," Wall wrote. "It is not lost on us that for various business reasons we had to pull the plug twice. The bottom line is that the goals we established for this tour were simply too ambitious. We clearly overestimated the demand for a concert that relatively few people understand at this time. That said we still firmly believe our audience is out there."

The first plug-pulling Wall refers to is an earlier incarnation of Video Games Live that never got out of the planning stages. Wall and Tallarico had hoped that the original roadblocks they faced could be overcome by having broadcasting giant Clear Channel Music Group supporting this tour.