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Don't Expect Rock Band 4 Anytime Soon

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Harmonix focused on continued downloadable content for the time being.


 You'll keep rockin' on the same disc...for now.
 You'll keep rockin' on the same disc...for now.
The soft commercial response to Rock Band 3 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock prompted MTV Games to sell Harmonix and get out of games and Activision to send Guitar Hero into at least temporary retirement. Harmonix has no plans to ditch music video games, however, and in an far-reaching interview with Game Informer today, VP of strategy and business development Chris Rigopulos talked about the future.

Harmonix has already promised an announcement next month at E3 (another Dance Central, easily the most well received Kinect launch title, seems likely), but Rigopulos threw cold water on speculation we'd be seeing Rock Band 4. 

"We’re not planning a Rock Band 4 disc release in 2011," he said. "Rock Band 3 is a big game with lots of available music content and lots of new goals and challenges. We want to give our fans the time to explore that fully. But rest assured that Harmonix is still developing new ideas and concepts to advance the Rock Band franchise, and we look forward to sharing those when the time is right."

There's wiggle room there, of course, by specifically saying "disc release." Harmonix could implement new features into Rock Band 3 through a significant patch, but by all accounts, folks are happy keyboard tappin' on Rock Band 3. Having recently reduced the price to $19.99, there's now a very small barrier to entry.  
Patrick Klepek on Google+
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Rock Band 3

74 Comments

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copycatzen

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Edited By copycatzen

this is good news, I just want DLC
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StrikerTheLizard

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Edited By StrikerTheLizard

How about some more Mastodon and some In Flames, Opeth, Gojira and Katatonia instead?

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swoxx

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Edited By swoxx
@JJWeatherman said:
"

Harmonix could implement new features into Rock Band 3 through a significant patch    

Iiiinteresting.

Meh, whenever Harmonix gets around to a RB4, it'll be fine by me.
"
Indeed, RB3 and DLC will keep me going until then
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MikkaQ

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Edited By MikkaQ
@Kyreo said:
" I didn't even think there WAS going to be a Rock Band 4. "
Yeah it wouldn't make a whole lick of sense.

Though I'd totally play a Queen: Rock Band, if they treated it with the same reverence as the beatles stuff. 
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PerryVandell

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Edited By PerryVandell

I didn't think they would. The rhythm game genre seems to have been sucked dry. Hopefully Harmonix will be successful with whatever they eventually do.

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Delusibeta

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Edited By Delusibeta
@Methodis said:
" GH Skips 2011: RIP GH
RB Skips 2011: Harmonix are a smashing sucess! 

More biasm please.
"
Difference: Activision said they were killing off Guitar Hero, including DLC. They retracted the "formally killing off" statement later, but they seem to have ceased the DLC stream. Compare and contrast with Rock Band, who has kept up with a constant stream of weekly DLC to this day and made no statement saying that the franchise was done.
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Schizoid

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Edited By Schizoid

You know what'd be amazing? Pink Floyd DLC. Roger Waters would sooner kill himself than hear his music in a video game though.

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deactivated-5865c6a5c9438

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Edited By deactivated-5865c6a5c9438

I'm totally cool with this. I like Rock Band as a platform. I hope they keep trending towards teaching real music skills while still offering the easy "fake" modes.

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Trebz

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Edited By Trebz

I couldn't see another Rock Band selling very well in the near future.


Everyone who is casually into music games burned out years ago and all of the hardcore fans pretty much agree that this is an almost-perfect installment. I'd rather see Harmonix continue Dance Central or start something new.
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SeriouslyNow

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Edited By SeriouslyNow
@Methodis said:
" 
More biasm please.
"
Is a biasm something that only Charlie Sheen can have or can we all share?
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drjota

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Edited By drjota

So this is when they announce another Amplitude game,right?

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Enigma777

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Edited By Enigma777

Don't worry Patrick, I wasn't. 

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bornagain888

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Edited By bornagain888

I play RB3 every other day and have yet to learn pro-mode on the keyboard so ya, RB4 can wait.
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MormonWarrior

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Edited By MormonWarrior

They really need to fix the pro keys mode for keyboardists like me...if they just give an option to put the note names above the notes, it would be way more manageable. No matter how much I play it, I just can't line up their weird, confusing notation with the keys - and I'm a very advanced pianist!

If anybody knows how I can get Harmonix to hear me out, please let me know.

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wolf_blitzer85

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Edited By wolf_blitzer85

That's crazy, a Rock Band 4 wasn't even close to being on my mind.

With that said, Rock Band 3 still kicks ass.

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deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff

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Edited By deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff

No reason to do this anyway. The genre is overplayed right now. I'd prefer them to just release as many pro-songs as possible, and good stuff. Not "Snoop Dogg" and full albums of 70s soft rock.

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xxizzypop

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Edited By xxizzypop
@Methodis said:
" GH Skips 2011: RIP GH
RB Skips 2011: Harmonix are a smashing sucess! 

More biasm please.
"
The difference is that Harmonix's disc releases are often iterative on a series, adding new, interesting and fun features, all while providing a steady, constant stream of DLC since the release of RB1.

Activision fell off with GH:III, unable to find a good artistic and creative direction, failing to iterate significantly with either hardware or game play in a meaningful way, and unable to figure out how to do DLC correctly until recently, something that they just recently axed for all music-rhythm games.

Harmonix is looking for ways to keep the series alive, fresh and innovative. Activision put it in a casket and is waiting to dig up the corpse until the market has forgotten about their oversaturation of the market.
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GreggD

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Edited By GreggD
@DryvBy said:
" No reason to do this anyway. The genre is overplayed right now. I'd prefer them to just release as many pro-songs as possible, and good stuff. Not "Snoop Dogg" and full albums of 70s soft rock. "
What exactly do you consider "70's soft rock"?
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craigbandicoot

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Edited By craigbandicoot

It's good to see that they will still support the Rock Band series. With Rock Band 3 being (in my opinion) possibly the ultimate beast of the whole music game genre, its hard to see what they can add to make it seem appealing.

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JazGalaxy

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Edited By JazGalaxy

personally, I think Rockband needs to move further in the Music Education realm.

Sure the people who played the game as a fad petered out, but gaming is  fad-centric, where music tends to be less so.  Get the game away from consoles and into music stores.

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deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff

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Edited By deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff
@GreggD: I just call everything 70's soft rock that doesn't actually rock my socks off. All in all, it's another way of me saying "sucky music".
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GreggD

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Edited By GreggD
@DryvBy:Well, I just find it odd that you consider the Clash to be sucky.
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deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff

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Edited By deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff
@GreggD: No, not at all. I'm on the PS3 right now, and given the current state of affairs with the network, I haven't seen the newest Rock Band 3 songs. The last I really saw was like Fleetwood Mac. I just saw The Clash was posted, which I'm all for.
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GreggD

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Edited By GreggD
@DryvBy: Alright, cool.