Rock Band 4

Overview

Five years after Rock Band 3, and three years since the release of Rock Band Blitz, Rock Band 4 brings the Rock Band franchise back to consoles. This is the first entry to appear on the Xbox One and Playstation 4. Rock Band 4 removes the pro guitar and keyboard features introduced in Rock Band 3, with Harmonix stating that they want to focus on the core vocal, guitar, bass, and drum features. However, pro drums and vocal harmonies are supported.

The game makes changes to the previous Rock Band formula by allowing for "freestyle" vocals, which give players score for skilful improvisation on vocals. Songs can be strung together into "shows," where crowds may ask for encores and between-song banter lets vocalists earn some extra points for working the audience. Drum fills have a new dynamic option that feeds drummers new drum fills to activate overdrive. This can be toggled to "static," which feeds drummers the existing drum fills.

Mad Catz have produced a new set of instruments that come bundled with the game, promising better build quality for more precise control. Mad Catz have also released a "band in a box" bundle that includes the game, a microphone, a wireless drum kit, and a guitar. They have also released a guitar bundle that includes the Stratocaster controller and a copy of the game. Those who attended PAX East 2015 were able to pre-order a special Penny Arcade-branded guitar. Some legacy instruments are also supported, although a special adapter was produced to allow wireless Xbox 360 instruments to connect to the Xbox One.

On the 1st of March, 2016 Harmonix announced a crowd funding campaign on Fig to raise $1.5M in order to port Rock Band 4 to PC. However the campaign failed to reach its funding goal, ending up with a total of $792,817 from some 1,674 backers.

On the 7th of March, 2016 Harmonix announced a new co-publishing deal with Performance Designed Products (PDP) after ending the previous co-publishing deal with Mad Catz following financial difficulties. PDP will take over manufacturing the instruments and original Mad Catz instruments will remain compatible.

Setlist

Previously purchased downloadable content for Rock Band games (which includes songs exported from other Rock Band games) is supported at no additional cost as these songs become available on the new platforms. However, this only applies to versions of the game in the same console family, i.e. songs purchased on Xbox 360 are be playable on Xbox One and songs purchased on Playstation 3 are only playable on Playstation 4. Rock Band 4 also features a new set of 60 on-disc songs.

Pre-Order Bonuses

A Pre-Order of Rock Band 4 comes with a 30 DLC song-pack featuring selection of songs by Harmonix bands. Most of the songs have appeared previously in Rock Band.

A pre-order from Amazon.com comes with 4 additional songs:

Playstation Plus members who pre-order the digital version on Playstation 4 will receive 10 different songs:

Xbox Live members who pre-order the digital version on Xbox One with receive 12 different songs: