Harmonix bringing Rock Band back

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Grabthehoopka
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:16 pm

Harmonix bringing Rock Band back

Post by Grabthehoopka »

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/arch ... -band.aspx

So, it would appear that Harmonix does not intend on letting the Rock Band franchise die. While part of me wishes that lessons were learned last time, and audiences are ready for "peripheral-based music/rhythm" games to make a comeback while avoiding the economic bubble that resulted in these games getting so swiftly killed the last time, I feel like this is a recipe for disaster.

Matt, as somebody who probably deeply analyzed, lived, and breathed the rhythm/music genre for a time, what are your thoughts on this? If these make a comeback, what are the chances of, oh, making a deal with activision or whoever will publish these games and get retro/grade included as, like, extra on-disc content or something?
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matt
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Re: Harmonix bringing Rock Band back

Post by matt »

I suspect it's going to be a much more niche audience like Rocksmith this time around. Basically they are only going to get the die hards and enthusiasts. While there is probably a market for that, they will have to be realistic with their budget if they want to keep doing updates.

It would be nice also if they viewed the game as a platform - maybe included 20 songs and the instruments in the base pack and kept selling that and updating it with DLC rather than making sequel after sequel. It might be hard to convince retailers to keep it on store shelves since they take up a lot of space and new games are constantly coming out. Actually, it might be difficult to convince retailers to stock many of them in general because I think retailers got burned pretty badly. I know I picked up quite a few peripherals for $10 each when they were doing fire sales.

I think there is 0 chance of including Retro/Grade on disc. Since the game made such a little impact, I don't think any publisher would think that it'd add value to their music game package. Plus, it would be a beast to port...
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
Grabthehoopka
Posts: 316
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:16 pm

Re: Harmonix bringing Rock Band back

Post by Grabthehoopka »

Oh that's right, I forgot these were next-gen. Yeah, I wasn't really serious about the retro/grade question, but now it looks a bit stupider in retrospect :D

From what I recall, that's sort of what they did with Rock Band. The Rock Band store got updated on a regular basis, and they kept it running with new content all the way til last month, I think. (the last song they added was American Pie, which is a wonderfully appropriate and bittersweet choice).

I like to think that after the peripheral-music-rhythm-whatever bubble burst, seeing as how Harmonix didn't go bankrupt, they must know what they're doing, so I think you're right.
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matt
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Re: Harmonix bringing Rock Band back

Post by matt »

Yeah, it should be interesting to see what they do. Closing the store is a bad sign for the viability of a digital only Rock Band storefront. I think part of the issue was that Rock Band 3 wasn't really for sale, so they couldn't expand the audience. It was only the original audience who would eventually get bored and moving on. To be truly successful, I think they have to keep getting "fresh blood" into the platform.

Maybe if they make it F2P and pay for the songs, that could work. It might be more like Karaoke band at that point if they didn't have peripherals...
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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