Well, I hope that this leads them to invest in more creative enterprises rather than becoming "Activision: The Company who publishes Call of Duty"
Guitar Hero
Pick up your plastic guitars and rock out to your favorite rock songs from the 50s to the present!
Guitar Hero And DJ Hero DLC To End In March
wow Activision is such an asshole first they screwed up the Marvel DLC now GH and DJH which both have millions of copies floating around on the market. If Activision keeps acting like this they won't be around much longer. I think they only want to make COD exclusively and stop making any other games.
" GH died because they simply flooded the market and made everyone sick, but I dig Rock Band less and less because they seem so damn insistent on piling loads of shitty metal/butt rock dlc out the door every fucking week. As it stands, I seriously can't get anyone to play these games anymore and it usually begins and ends with a glance at the setlist, full of "what the fuck is this song?", followed by a trip to the music store and then a swift exit once it becomes apparent that everything new is complete trash. "You haven't been keeping up with the last 3-4 months of DLC huh? There has been a huge amount of classic rock and a smathering of other genres including a new Bob Marley pack released this Tuesday. While I admit there is a lot of metal on RBN, there is still a wide array of Indie, alt rock and even some hip-hop there.
Rock Band DLC is to the point now where you have to search out the music you want, much like iTunes. And really, thats a damn good position to be in if you ask me.
" @m2cks said:Hey, people are still buying them. Just not as much as they used to a few years back. It's kinda like the 2D fighting game situation in the 90s, even though they still have a dedicated fanbase that survives to this day.Ain't you quite the optimist? I cannot speak for anyone nor everyone statistically (casual, hardcore, or otherwise), but I personally vouch that Rock Band is light years ahead of the whole "rhythm/music" genre simply because of its extensive and continuous support of DLC as well as multiple complexities of multiplayer and party-play. Not to mention its rabid (and unwavering) fanbase it has acquired over the past 2 or so years (people started realizing that Rock Band can be just as challenging and rewarding as its Guitar Hero predecessors). Not to say you're not right in pointing out the limited scope of the games (the aforementioned "rainbow highway" that dominates the genre), but really I cannot see it failing in the next upcoming years. Who knows- this question could become the next "games=art" debate. "Yeah but what does that all matter if no one is buying the games? "
" @XII_Sniper said:2D fighting games don't have to pay ridiculous licensing fees so they can survive selling fewer copies. So it's not "kinda like the 2D fighting game situation" at all. The economics are entirely different. Guitar Hero is no more and Harmonix was sold for $50 and all its debt." @m2cks said:Hey, people are still buying them. Just not as much as they used to a few years back. It's kinda like the 2D fighting game situation in the 90s, even though they still have a dedicated fanbase that survives to this day. "Ain't you quite the optimist? I cannot speak for anyone nor everyone statistically (casual, hardcore, or otherwise), but I personally vouch that Rock Band is light years ahead of the whole "rhythm/music" genre simply because of its extensive and continuous support of DLC as well as multiple complexities of multiplayer and party-play. Not to mention its rabid (and unwavering) fanbase it has acquired over the past 2 or so years (people started realizing that Rock Band can be just as challenging and rewarding as its Guitar Hero predecessors). Not to say you're not right in pointing out the limited scope of the games (the aforementioned "rainbow highway" that dominates the genre), but really I cannot see it failing in the next upcoming years. Who knows- this question could become the next "games=art" debate. "Yeah but what does that all matter if no one is buying the games? "
So yeah, what does that all matter if no one is buying the games (in enough quantities to make the games profitable and therefore viable) indeed.
Classic Rock is another thing that there's way too much of. I'm not even saying this out of personal preference, but none of the people I ever played RB with (mostly girls 20-23) want to play fucking Allman Brothers Band songs. I'LL play Ramblin' Man all day and night, but no one else will. And they put out like 10 songs for one artist/band and it's like "OK, well Johnny Cash is pretty cool, but the only song everyone knows is Ring of Fire and it's not even there...so great. We'll get Walk the Line and call it a day". I'd rather see them do 5 or 6 songs from different artists/genres every week than to see them put out 8 songs from Bob Marley that are all boring as hell. And again, not even that I don't like Bob Marley, but who wants to play that many Bob Marley songs unless you're a huge fan of Bob Marley? They need to work on getting those fun songs people just like to play and have fun with, stuff like Walking on Sunshine isn't terribly fun to play, but everyone knows it and you can get into it and have fun with it despite the fact that it isn't the greatest song ever. Those are the kinds of songs they need to work on getting out there more. I'm not going to be able to get a group of supremely casual players into jamming on the entire London Calling album, you know what I'm saying?" @Peanut said:
" GH died because they simply flooded the market and made everyone sick, but I dig Rock Band less and less because they seem so damn insistent on piling loads of shitty metal/butt rock dlc out the door every fucking week. As it stands, I seriously can't get anyone to play these games anymore and it usually begins and ends with a glance at the setlist, full of "what the fuck is this song?", followed by a trip to the music store and then a swift exit once it becomes apparent that everything new is complete trash. "You haven't been keeping up with the last 3-4 months of DLC huh? There has been a huge amount of classic rock and a smathering of other genres including a new Bob Marley pack released this Tuesday. While I admit there is a lot of metal on RBN, there is still a wide array of Indie, alt rock and even some hip-hop there. Rock Band DLC is to the point now where you have to search out the music you want, much like iTunes. And really, thats a damn good position to be in if you ask me. "
And again, this isn't out of personal preference. I don't play Rock Band alone, I always ALWAYS play it with a large (5-10) group of people and I'm often the one who drags it around to people's houses and more and more people couldn't give less of a shit, specifically because of the track list. I thought I could at least pull a solid month out of Rock Band 3 thanks to the brand new track list, but it hardly lasted a week. Too much focus put in the wrong places. Music snobs and people who take these games way too f*cking seriously.
" @hpv said:Because the "*Hero" name is still a bigger commercial draw than Rock Band and Harmonix is the only company left doing serious work in that area. Until they announce that they're shutting Rock Band down later this year or next year, obviously." Harmonix should buy the *Hero names from Activision. "Why? "
" @Nettacki said:In the end, there's still people buying the games. It's simply not as high as it was before." @XII_Sniper said:2D fighting games don't have to pay ridiculous licensing fees so they can survive selling fewer copies. So it's not "kinda like the 2D fighting game situation" at all. The economics are entirely different. Guitar Hero is no more and Harmonix was sold for $50 and all its debt. So yeah, what does that all matter if no one is buying the games (in enough quantities to make the games profitable and therefore viable) indeed. "" @m2cks said:Hey, people are still buying them. Just not as much as they used to a few years back. It's kinda like the 2D fighting game situation in the 90s, even though they still have a dedicated fanbase that survives to this day. "Ain't you quite the optimist? I cannot speak for anyone nor everyone statistically (casual, hardcore, or otherwise), but I personally vouch that Rock Band is light years ahead of the whole "rhythm/music" genre simply because of its extensive and continuous support of DLC as well as multiple complexities of multiplayer and party-play. Not to mention its rabid (and unwavering) fanbase it has acquired over the past 2 or so years (people started realizing that Rock Band can be just as challenging and rewarding as its Guitar Hero predecessors). Not to say you're not right in pointing out the limited scope of the games (the aforementioned "rainbow highway" that dominates the genre), but really I cannot see it failing in the next upcoming years. Who knows- this question could become the next "games=art" debate. "Yeah but what does that all matter if no one is buying the games? "
" @ShaunassNZ said:Ohk, so with doing this, you're saying they'll generate lots of money, or some sort of money? Have you considered they would actually have to BUY the "*Hero" name (which if Activision were told about this, they'd make them pay up), then, they have to rebrand everything, lots of average people won't know about this change, actual GH fans (the ones that have really dumb excuses for liking it) will get annoyed, and with saying that average people won't know about the change, they'll have to spend money to advertise the change." @hpv said:Because the "*Hero" name is still a bigger commercial draw than Rock Band and Harmonix is the only company left doing serious work in that area. Until they announce that they're shutting Rock Band down later this year or next year, obviously. "" Harmonix should buy the *Hero names from Activision. "Why? "
So long story short, they'd be fucking stupid to buy the "*Hero" name.
In the end, there's still people buying the games. It's simply not as high as it was before. "That's not really a great argument. Someone's always going to buy something if you put it on a shelf. The fact of the matter is they lost money making and selling Rock Band 3, so no matter how much they sold, it wasn't enough to be worth it. Music games can't make anyone money, which is the ultimate goal of any commercial video game. So yeah it's a pretty dead genre, financially. It costs a lot of money to make a music game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and if they don't sell, why bother making them? It'll just result in Harmonix closing it's doors for good. I'd rather see it try and recover.
" @Nettacki said:This, this, and more of this.In the end, there's still people buying the games. It's simply not as high as it was before. "That's not really a great argument. Someone's always going to buy something if you put it on a shelf. The fact of the matter is they lost money making and selling Rock Band 3, so no matter how much they sold, it wasn't enough to be worth it. Music games can't make anyone money, which is the ultimate goal of any commercial video game. So yeah it's a pretty dead genre, financially. It costs a lot of money to make a music game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and if they don't sell, why bother making them? It'll just result in Harmonix closing it's doors for good. I'd rather see it try and recover. "
" @Nettacki said:Hmm, you know, those are good points. I probably should have thought this out more. Well in any case, I'm just hoping HMX survives long enough to get something out of this.In the end, there's still people buying the games. It's simply not as high as it was before. "That's not really a great argument. Someone's always going to buy something if you put it on a shelf. The fact of the matter is they lost money making and selling Rock Band 3, so no matter how much they sold, it wasn't enough to be worth it. Music games can't make anyone money, which is the ultimate goal of any commercial video game. So yeah it's a pretty dead genre, financially. It costs a lot of money to make a music game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and if they don't sell, why bother making them? It'll just result in Harmonix closing it's doors for good. I'd rather see it try and recover. "
I'm still waiting for free-roaming space trading and combat games to become popular again, though that's... a genuine lost cause I'm afraid. A relic from the glory days of PC gaming.
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