Harmonix: no Rock Band 3 in 2009
Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 2:24pm by David
At a conference during CES, Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopolous said:
“We’ve actually made a choice to break out of the annual release cycle for Rock Band this year,” Rigopolous told the assembled press and industry members. “[This is] partly because the annual cycle places limits on the choices you can make as a developer. We’re trying to take a long term view.”
I can’t tell you how happy this makes me feel inside; I think a year off would be great and really build an appetite for it in 2010.
Do you think this is a good or bad decision?
[source]
January 8th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Trends show “rhythm games” peaked in 2008. This could be part of it.
Personally, I’d like to see someone come along and give this genre a “paradigm shift” shot in the arm. Really make it about skill, not an elaborate game of Simon. Commercials for Rock Band, et al, make the players look like they’re really rocking out, when what they’re really doing is playing a pattern with no room for improvisation.
The fan base is there, as sales of these kinds of games have shown. Now let’s take them to the next level, no? Dare I say it, they might want to look for inspiration with… Wii Music!
January 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Well, even though I’m not a fan of the Rock Band series either cause I plain out right suck at the game or maybe cause I really don’t have a feel for those kind of music games. I can probably see some fans possibly getting mad at seeing no Rock Band 3 coming out for the XBOX 360, PS3 & Wii. Then again, maybe Rock Band DOES need a break. I mean it is one of the best selling games out there next to Guitar Hero in the music genre of video games. I think Harmonix made a 50/50 good move here.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Why create a new game when you can just milk the DLC money? I’d rather have regular good updates in the Music Store than have to feel the need to purchase new software in a year.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
You forgot to mention why they are taking the year off from Rock Band…
….it’s so can they focus all their energies into creating what will be THE Beatles video game experience.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
the dlc is such sweet sweet succor, that who cares? rb3 will be all the better for this too.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Great decision. There doesn’t need to be a Rock Band 3, at least not yet. 2 was such an improvement over one in almost every way. My only gripe is not being able to blacklist songs for choosing “random”. All they need to do right now is to continue releasing DLC and RB2 will continue to thrive.
Honestly I’m not a big fan of the Beatles game idea, but then again I don’t care for the Beatles music anyway. I do like how they’re aiming to make it its own experience rather than releasing DLC on a disc (at a higher price point than it normally costs; fuck you AC/DC and Walmart.)
@ Jack: Have you not rocked out along with your favorite songs before? That’s what the were aiming for with the commercials. People aren’t trying to do solos over the twelve-bar-blues or anything, because that’s not the point. The point is that it IS an “elaborate game of Simon.”
Things like the drum fills or similar mechanics are as far as “improvisation” is going to get in the rhythm genre (not counting of course outside-gameplay things like freestyling in DDR), because you CAN’T change the base mechanics of a rhythm game to something like that anyway. Rhythm games by definition are triggering a button to match a position on screen in time to music. That’s it. GH and RB are DDR with instruments instead of feet. Amplitude is DDR with a spaceship, etc etc. Wii Music is not anything close to a rhythm game (save bells.) You’re not going to get people from playing the rhythm genre to the “next level” because they’re completely different besides the fact that they include MUSIC.
Aaaaanyway… (sorry that was so defensive.)
I know Harmonix commented that they wanted to really perfect the idea and mechanics of a music creator for the Rock Band series, and I think that this break of cycle is a good opportunity for them to work towards that. I think it would be a cool idea to release the music creator as its own game, as long as there’s enough to do to warrant a release, and then be able to export your tracks as DLC-type files to use in the RB games.
I also wouldn’t mind a sequel to Amplitude (HINT HINT!)
January 9th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Yeah, the idea that rhythm games are just Simon really only applies to the guitars. For drums, well, playing drums is Simon.
Anyway, Harmonix (and MTV) are playing it safe. Why invest money in hardware when they can keep selling overpriced DLC. $2 for a song is outrageous if you ask me, but whatever.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
No more disk swapping, at least for a year. Heavens be praised.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:02 am
It’s about time IMO. It got annoying seeing Guitar Hero one year then not even a full year later Guitar Hero 2. Then the next year there was GH Rocks the 80’s and GH 3. Following that year was tthree more GH games, Aerosmith and World Tour and On Tour. At least Harmonix got it right the first time with RB.
RB releases in 07.
Ass load of new DLC for everyone for a year while RB is made better with better instruments for RB2.
RB2 releases with the option to download the ENTIRE first games song list for use in RB 2 without disc swapping (at least on 360)
Continue releasing DLC songs throughout the year.
*gasp* you have over 500 hundred songs in just one game.
GH however got annoying. If there was a song you wanted to play in the first GH you would have to dig out the PS2, and the game disc just to play that one song instead of letting users download the entire first game’s album into GH2 on 360. Then allowing both games to expand upon GH3, so on and so forth without the need for disc swapping. Then of course add the Drums and vocals to pre World Tour songs. But as long as they keep making them people will keep sinking money into it.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
This is really old news. They’re not making Rock Band 3 this year because they are working on the Beatles game, of course..
@ neko kurama
“Honestly I’m not a big fan of the Beatles game idea, but then again I don’t care for the Beatles music anyway. ”
So you just don’t care for rock music then, right? Because that’s basically what I hear when someone says that they don’t care for the most influential band on the planet.