You better brush up on your top 40 hits from the last several decades because SongPop 2 is in the works.
Developer FreshPlanet is announcing today that it will release a sequel to SongPop later this year. The developer shot up the mobile charts with the original release, which is a head-to-head musical trivia games where people test their knowledge of songs and musical artists. SongPop 1 has already racked up more than 100 million downloads, but FreshPlanet chief executive officer Mathieu Nouzareth wanted to rebuild the game from the ground up for 2015 to give a better experience to dedicated players as well as new fans.
We spoke with Nouzareth, who told us what his team has in store.
“We’ve learned a lot from the first game, and now we’re ready to launch SongPop 2,” he told GamesBeat. “It’s going to be the same, but it’s also going to be different. When you have such a big success, you want to capitalize on it — but we also want to bring something new. The SongPop fans will be right at home, but we’ve also made some improvements.”
The first thing you’re going to notice is that SongPop 2 has a completely new interface. Everything about the look and feel is new and improved. Nouzareth said his artists worked hard to develop cute characters.
Additionally, gamers will now have the ability to play by themselves — without having to connect with friends or strangers in head-to-head matches. SongPop 2 will have a computer-controlled opponent that players can go up against.
“Another big new feature is the SongPop party mode,” said Nouzareth. “It is a regular event or a tournament. To give you an idea of what the events are like, it could be based on knowledge of ’80s music or rock or anything that we define. You compete in this event, and your goal is to be No. 1. You have to answer 10 questions, and the game will rank you on a global leaderboard.”
Perhaps the most important difference between the first SongPop and SongPop 2 is the amount of music everyone will have access to. The first game has six free playlists. In SongPop 2, the developer plans to let everyone try the entirety of its music library. That’s around 100,000 songs spread across 900 different playlists — players can then purchase the playlists to unlock them permanently.
“The lesson we learned from the first game is that there is no such thing as a typical music taste,” said Nouzareth. “The breadth of music that people like is really amazing. It’s very difficult to have a one-sized fits all music playlists. That’s why we increased the amount of tracks you can play with.”
SongPop 2, like its predecessor, will go live on iOS, Android, and Facebook. FreshPlanet intends to release it in the near future.