One of the biggest trends in videogames in the last five years or so is the ascendancy of music games. Whether it’s Karaoke Revolution: Glee Edition or Rock Band and Guitar Hero, music-related games have been hot for a while.

Some of them are even quite specialized; you don’t get just generic guitar controllers, but can — for a princely sum — get something name-brand and fancy like a Gibson SG. The trouble is, eventually, all these music games are pretty much alike, so the choice comes down to the game’s selection of songs.

That’s why I like the Music Wars series, currently from Wolverine Studios. The developer, Antuan Johnson, got his start with a feature-slim freeware version and took it commercial a couple years ago with Music Wars: Rebirth.

That’s why I’m excited to hear he’s in the open beta stage of his next massive update of this game. By focusing on simulating the music industry itself, the focus is less on whether a person can hit all the notes in order, and more on one’s evaluation of talent and such.

The updated game is said to have a ton of feature improvements to make it a deeper game experience than ever.

I, for one, can’t wait.