VIDEOGAME THOUGHTS ON ROCK BAND NETWORK!

Harmonix Music Systems recently announced the Rock Band Network, a revolutionary new system intended to offer bands the chance to get some exposure on the ever growing popularity of Rock Band. It's already been received with great excitement and it's truly understandable considering how such a service could change the face of both user generated content and downloadable content forever. One should recall the questions asked of Harmonix back when Guitar Hero developers Neversoft announced GHTunes, a iTunes like service for their latest Guitar Hero game. Many questions were asked on what Harmonix would do next to compete with this new and exciting addition to the music rhythm genre. I recall being very cautious of what I saw in GHTunes, ever since we gamers were first given our first demonstrations of it. 

GHTunes was somewhat doomed from the start by high expectations (not exactly helped by Neversoft) and the rather rough 'Music Studio' in which many of the user generated tracks were to be created. Sadly the feature looked broken from the start. It was a brave and worthy attempt to get a foothold over Rock Band, but one that for the most part failed especially when put up against the more professional offerings of Rock Band's weekly DLC. While it will be interesting to see what Neversoft eventually do with the music studio, they should be given credit for making the first brave jump in an attempt to advance the music rhythm genre. But while HMX simply told the gaming media that 'they were working on something' and kept all cool about it (something Harmonix does damn well) we all knew they had something in the works. It seems quite amusing to think that most of us thought they would develop a user generated system that would be for the gamers rather then for the actual bands and musicians.

But little did we know that they would eventuallly unveil the Rock Band Network. A service providing the ability of allowing any band or anyone the chance of adding their own created content into the Rock Band game, technically this will work very much like usual DLC for us gamers but the new network will get it's own special section within the game. Most importantly though, is that it opens up the possibility of lesser known bands getting some exposure within Rock Band's large community and gives them a chance to earn a little cash along the way. While the exact details have yet to be announced, the DLC will still have to cost money (just like your usual RB DLC) but the author can dictate the pricing within a certain degree. This is the type of service that could be the true next step in the original ideas first considered by Neversoft with the music studio, though no one can deny that this is one massive step and a step that could please all involved. The bands get a chance to be on Rock Band, Harmonix Music Systems have even more songs they can use for PR purposes and we gamers get a whole selection of tracks we can spend even more of our money on. 

As you can probably guess already, there is a whole set of positives that could be taken from RBN if it appears to be a success. It's set to go into beta in early August and will eventually make it's way to the Xbox 360 in a greater degree later this year. For now it's only for Xbox 360 as that as a better framework for Harmonix to use, though they have stated their interest in seeing many of the most beloved community tracks making an appearance on the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. One would guess that that comes in the form of special community track packs every week or so, depending on the amount of tracks created within RBN. Of course you won't be able to just throw up a track for folks to download, HMX have said that a filtering process will be undertaken with each track to make sure it's worthy of being part of the already huge RB tracklist. How quick the filtering process of these songs will take as yet to be known. 

It's tough not to find myself rather excited about the Rock Band Network, mostly because I've already put in so many hours of entertainment into the game already. I've probably spent way to much money on the game with over 500+ songs on my 120GB Xbox 360 harddrive already, the idea of spending more is actually rather interesting especially if the quality of these community tracks are as good as the HMX made ones. One larger concern for me is the idea of HDD space, while I have enough for now, the Rock Band DLC tracks can take up some space and I do wonder if eventually I come across the issue of space. Though one cannot deny the possibility of Microsoft soon announcer a much larger harddrive for the Xbox 360 and with the PS3 one doesn't exactly have to worry about space.

Of course we should not forget that it's still early days for the system and there's much we do not know, but I am indeed rather interested in finding out more. While I can't ever see me being the type of person who will create music tracks for the RBN, I'm sure I'll be one of the many who will gladly spend my money on more tracks for me to enjoy. But most importantly, is the impact it could have on the music industry, bands and downloadable content as a whole. Gaming is ever changing and as we have seen this year alone, there are exciting times ahead. The Rock Band Network might not be the instant success many might hope for, but it could be the start of a true revolution in user generated content. A revolution being teased in a number of more recent games such as the PS3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet or even Activisions Guitar Hero: World Tour. There far from perfect, but they could be the true and honest future of videogame downloadable content. A future where the community, be them musicians or gamers could decide how a game would develop over time. 

The future is still a dark place for now, we don't know what might appear in a year or so. What impact would new technologies such as Natal or the Playstation Motion Controller have on the music rhythm genre or any genre at that. Will space become an eventual issue for systems like the Xbox 360 or will Microsoft cure that issue with much larger HDD's for purchase and will we ever get the chance to place a song about how amazingly cool Mr T is thanks to the Rock Band Network? So many important questions that need answering!!!

What do you think of The Rock Band Network and what impact will it have on downloadable content?

Thanks for reading,
TrueEnglishGent (JosephBayliss).
Follow me on Twitter for some reason: JosephBayliss