CES: Harmonix Skipping New Rock Band, Only Doing Beatles This Year?

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Brad

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Edited By Brad
When reached for comment, John Lennon described the Beatles as
When reached for comment, John Lennon described the Beatles as "bigger than Rock Band."
I hemmed and hawed earlier this week about signing up for Twitter. The whole thing seems a little too insular and self-promotional for me to be comfortable with, which is obviously why I'm going to link you to my feed right this very moment.

Anyway, I'm suddenly glad I started paying attention to the service, as a random glance at GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley's own Twitter feed just now revealed this interesting line.

At CES panel, Harmonix's Alex Rigopulos says they are focused on the Beatles game this year instead of a yearly RB release.

That doesn't entirely exclude the possibility of a Rock Band release this year; the wording might just imply the bulk of Harmonix employees are slaving away on the Beatles game, with perhaps a skeleton crew still putting together a new retail disc. But taking a year off would certainly fit with Rigopulos' comments in the past about Rock Band being an ongoing platform rather than a series of one-off sequels. I'm sure their gangbusters DLC business is turning a nice coin for them on its own at the moment, anyway.

We'll follow up with more definitive word as it comes.

UPDATE: Paidcontent.org has some more info out of that panel, with Rigopulos confirming the focus will be on growing the DLC library, which has already yielded a whopping 30 million song sales. Though he qualifies that with "I don’t think we’re going to be iTunes tomorrow." There's also this tidbit about a possible new peripheral.

Keyboards coming to Rock Band? Rigopulos told a questioner he wasn’t the first to ask if keyboards were coming to Rock Band. “The only answer I can give now is maybe.” As for the need to include a keyboard in the Beatles game for songs like Yesterday—“that has occurred to us.”

Innnnnteresting. Thanks to Sam Houston for the tip.
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Brad

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#1  Edited By Brad
When reached for comment, John Lennon described the Beatles as
When reached for comment, John Lennon described the Beatles as "bigger than Rock Band."
I hemmed and hawed earlier this week about signing up for Twitter. The whole thing seems a little too insular and self-promotional for me to be comfortable with, which is obviously why I'm going to link you to my feed right this very moment.

Anyway, I'm suddenly glad I started paying attention to the service, as a random glance at GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley's own Twitter feed just now revealed this interesting line.

At CES panel, Harmonix's Alex Rigopulos says they are focused on the Beatles game this year instead of a yearly RB release.

That doesn't entirely exclude the possibility of a Rock Band release this year; the wording might just imply the bulk of Harmonix employees are slaving away on the Beatles game, with perhaps a skeleton crew still putting together a new retail disc. But taking a year off would certainly fit with Rigopulos' comments in the past about Rock Band being an ongoing platform rather than a series of one-off sequels. I'm sure their gangbusters DLC business is turning a nice coin for them on its own at the moment, anyway.

We'll follow up with more definitive word as it comes.

UPDATE: Paidcontent.org has some more info out of that panel, with Rigopulos confirming the focus will be on growing the DLC library, which has already yielded a whopping 30 million song sales. Though he qualifies that with "I don’t think we’re going to be iTunes tomorrow." There's also this tidbit about a possible new peripheral.

Keyboards coming to Rock Band? Rigopulos told a questioner he wasn’t the first to ask if keyboards were coming to Rock Band. “The only answer I can give now is maybe.” As for the need to include a keyboard in the Beatles game for songs like Yesterday—“that has occurred to us.”

Innnnnteresting. Thanks to Sam Houston for the tip.
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Drebin_893

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#2  Edited By Drebin_893

Thank god.

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chililili

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#3  Edited By chililili

Yeah I think they should take a year off too, make everything in the platform better

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matthew

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#4  Edited By matthew

I like the idea of Rock Band not coming out this year - leave it some growing/breathing room.
If they're really going to do this Beatles game justice, I like the way they're heading right now.

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Deathawk

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#5  Edited By Deathawk

Wasn't the Rock Band franchise originally suppose to be only one game, but then Harmonix wanted to fix some stuff so they put out a new one? I'm pretty sure that's what I heard.

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cbirdsong

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#6  Edited By cbirdsong

I have no problem with that. I just hope at least some the Beatles songs can be exported to the RB platform AC/DC style, because who wants to switch discs to play Helter Skelter?

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Phished0ne

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#7  Edited By Phished0ne

They never explicitly said it would be one release but everyone gleaned it from Rigoupolus' comment that they wanted it to be a "platform".

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CleverLoginName

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#8  Edited By CleverLoginName

Wouldn't really see the point for another one, everybody has hit their limit for doofy peripherals. What I would guess most people want is just more tracks to play, which they have been doing perfect on.

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dtran1212

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#9  Edited By dtran1212

this genre gonna die fast

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kush

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#10  Edited By kush

It's nice to see that they don't want to go retail and bundle crazy like Guitar Hero...I don't need 13 plastic guitars and 7 plastic drum sets.

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Shane394

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#11  Edited By Shane394

Alright, now that I think about it, this and more DLC will satisfy my Rock Band needs

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BawlZINmotion

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#12  Edited By BawlZINmotion

It makes sense. Any upgrades or additions should really just be handle via DLC. Maybe do special edition band-specific release with the peripherals to keep them in circulation for new potential customers.

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TheHBK

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#13  Edited By TheHBK

I am pretty sure Harmonix got it right by going this way, its all about DLC for these games at this point and Guitar Hero might head this way too, one can only hope.  You can only do so much new stuff before it is just DLC and the new disc or even new hardware packs are just there to renew interest in a couple years.

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Hexpane

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#14  Edited By Hexpane

DLC is the way to go, they need WAY more DLC and WAY MORE variety soon

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Media_Master

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#15  Edited By Media_Master

Great!, sOMONE listened

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IncredibleBulk92

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#16  Edited By IncredibleBulk92

It makes sense that they'd focus on The Beatles game, they are just about the first people to get their hands on those masters.  Apple has been trying to get those for years.  If I were the first to get my hands on those tracks I would definetely spend as much time as possible making it as good as I could make it.

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#17  Edited By TheLawnWrangler

it was a great move on Harmonix's part. Just as long as they keep releasing good dlc week by week, i wont mind, also this Beatles game sounds great. Are there going to be cutscenes? I heard someone say that in a bombcast once. If so, it'd be interesting to see what Harmonix could do with that!

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zoozilla

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#18  Edited By zoozilla

Good - I can never see the point in trying to rush a franchise game every year.

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RHCPfan24

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#19  Edited By RHCPfan24

I am glad they are focusing on this one game. Let us hope it is good.

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dsplayer1010

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#20  Edited By dsplayer1010

I'm scared to know how you obtained that quote

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dpaul

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#21  Edited By dpaul

"As for the need to include a keyboard in the Beatles game for songs like Yesterday"

I think it'd be even more important for the Beatles songs that actually have keyboard-based instruments in them.

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#22  Edited By Grape

Yes! I love The Beatles!