Get the Killzone 2 Soundtrack From iTunes, Just a Little Late

Joining a line of video game musical scores that fail to launch alongside the game itself is Killzone 2′s soundtrack, which you can now download from iTunes. This makes the perfect opportunity for me to rant about what seems like a tremendous missed opportunity. Aside from Killzone 2, there are two other games with killer soundtracks that I have in mind: Bit.Trip Beat for the Wii and LittleBigPlanet for the Playstation 3. Both soundtracks played a huge role in their respective games, and yet you couldn’t download them when the games were released. LittleBigMusic went on sale two months after the game, and didn’t even include the game’s excellent licensed tracks. Bit.Trip Beat’s soundtrack went on sale last month, seven months after the game’s release.

Now, when you play a game and it has a smoking soundtrack, you might want to listen to it while your excitement is still high. I might’ve paid $6 for the Bit.Trip Beat soundtrack back in March, but now I’m waiting to see if I can stream it on Napster and debating whether to just buy a few of my favorite tracks. Really, though, game publishers need to go the extra mile and give away at least a portion of these soundtracks. Give the players a few free tunes, and you’ll turn them into bigger fans of the game, making it more likely that they’ll buy the inevitable sequel. They might even buy some more of the soundtrack just to complete their collections. Like trailers and screenshots, game soundtracks should be a promotional opportunity, not an afterthought.