Vocaloid is a singing synthesis program developed by Yamaha. It uses recorded sample of phonemes and diphones which it concatenates together with frequency control and various smoothing algorithms to make a song.

Vocaloid is just the engine, though. Since it relies on pre-recorded samples of a real human voice, Yamaha decided to license the program to other companies who would develop and sell particular voices that would be sold to consumers. Singers in a box, if you will.

One such company, Crypton Future Media, had the idea to develop characters to go along with the voice. After all, since they were selling particular voices it made sense to attach a face to the voice. Hatsune Miku was not the first such character, but she was the first to become really successful.

Hatsune Miku's popularity exploded and took Japan by storm. Part of the appeal is how open everything is. Anyone can write Hatsune Miku songs. Try getting your favorite human pop star to perform a song that you wrote. Most Hastune Miku songs are posted freely online (mostly on the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga, or NND) and some feature elaborate videos to accompany the song that are often collaborations of many, many people. There's even a free 3D rendering program called Miku Miku Dance (though usually just abreviated MMD) that was made by a fan for the specific purpose of creating Hatsune Miku videos.

And yeah, there are commercial products like this game as well, but even they are really inspired by the fans. Sure Sega puts everything into a nice package but they didn't write the songs. They're just licensing some of the more popular songs on NND. Even a lot of the costumes come from the PVs themselves, fanart, or submitted fan designs.

Thanks mate, and thanks to Kresnik.

And what is this game about?

Vocaloid is a singing synthesis program developed by Yamaha. It uses recorded sample of phonemes and diphones which it concatenates together with frequency control and various smoothing algorithms to make a song.

Vocaloid is just the engine, though. Since it relies on pre-recorded samples of a real human voice, Yamaha decided to license the program to other companies who would develop and sell particular voices that would be sold to consumers. Singers in a box, if you will.

One such company, Crypton Future Media, had the idea to develop characters to go along with the voice. After all, since they were selling particular voices it made sense to attach a face to the voice. Hatsune Miku was not the first such character, but she was the first to become really successful.

Hatsune Miku's popularity exploded and took Japan by storm. Part of the appeal is how open everything is. Anyone can write Hatsune Miku songs. Try getting your favorite human pop star to perform a song that you wrote. Most Hastune Miku songs are posted freely online (mostly on the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga, or NND) and some feature elaborate videos to accompany the song that are often collaborations of many, many people. There's even a free 3D rendering program called Miku Miku Dance (though usually just abreviated MMD) that was made by a fan for the specific purpose of creating Hatsune Miku videos.

And yeah, there are commercial products like this game as well, but even they are really inspired by the fans. Sure Sega puts everything into a nice package but they didn't write the songs. They're just licensing some of the more popular songs on NND. Even a lot of the costumes come from the PVs themselves, fanart, or submitted fan designs.

Well Wii is already out of the Japanese market.. may be some minor production will be seen later but I dout they can chart...

and 3DS is in a slump after burning most of its cartdrige.. until fall i think...

you are joking, right?