DVD Talk Forum - The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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As with the previous announcement regarding the wind down of RB DLC, we’ve tried to address as many of the expected questions in a convenient FAQ. You’ll find a number of anticipated topics addressed below, and we’ll be on hand to respond to other questions in this discussion thread. Hopefully this FAQ will serve as a helpful resource for people looking for more info.

1. Is this the end of Rock Band?

This is the end of weekly Rock Band DLC. Rock Band remains an essential part of the history of Harmonix, and the franchise will always be near and dear to our hearts. We don’t have any Rock Band titles in active development at the moment, and we’ll no longer be releasing weekly DLC, but you can expect us to continue to support the existing titles and the extensive song library. We’re not breaking up the band, but we are taking a break from 5+ years of weekly performances.

2. Why not switch to a monthly or semi-weekly DLC schedule instead?

As we transition more and more of our resources onto new projects in development, it’s not possible at this time to maintain that kind of regularity in DLC releases. The weekly release schedule is something that we are incredibly proud of, and we’ll be wrapping up DLC with over 275 weeks of consistent releases.

3. Is there any chance you’ll release Rock Band DLC again?

While we’re no longer actively pursuing content for release, we still have the technical capability should the right band and the right opportunity arise. We don’t have anything planned for release at the moment, but it’s not something we’ve ruled out.

4. Will the Rock Band Network continue to release content on a regular basis?

The current plan is for Harmonix to continue to support the backend technology that powers Rock Band Network on the Xbox 360 for the foreseeable future. Users on the Xbox 360 should be able to submit new content, test, and release as they have been for the last 3 years. It's important to note that this architecture relies on other technologies not directly in Harmonix's control, including the XNA architecture for submission. In the event that our ability to keep RBN up and running changes, we'll make sure to let everyone in the Creators community know with as much lead time as possible.

Unfortunately, PS3 submissions for RBN tracks are submitted in the same manner as standard Harmonix-released DLC and require constant Harmonix production attention. As a result, the last PS3 RBN release planned on our schedule is on April 2nd.

5. Are you shutting down Rock Central servers?

Rock Central servers, leaderboards, and the Music Store should continue to run without interruption for the foreseeable future.

6. What does this mean for the RockBand.com community on the forums?

We hope that RockBand.com will remain a meeting place for fans of the series. The forums will stay open, and posters can still expect to see Harmonix devs answering questions and engaging in conversation. Some outdated site features will likely be phased out in the coming weeks, and we’ll address those changes as they happen.

7. What will happen with Rock Band World and the content posted there?

Parts of Rock Band World will remain operational, but with weekly DLC ending we will no longer be updating with weekly Goals and Tournaments. We may update with additional Goals in the future, but they will be significantly less frequent.

8. What are you going to show on the livestreams in place of weekly DLC?

The livestreams have always been a platform for Harmonix content and we plan to continue on the same weekly schedule. We hope to use the livestream to showcase new Harmonix titles as we get closer to release, but it’s still likely we’ll be discussing Rock Band in some way, whether it’s running through the extensive back catalog, or interviewing devs, or hosting Q&As with the community. You can subscribe to the livestream here: twitch.tv/harmonixmusic

9. Do you have some big, crazy, extra special thing planned for the final DLC release?

We have DLC scheduled through the next few weeks, including what we feel is an appropriate track for the final release on April 2nd. Just prior to that, on Thursday March 21st, we’ll be hosting a big Rock Band show in Boston to coincide with PAX East. This event will be held at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square, and it is open to non-PAX attendees as well, so keep posted for ticket preorder info in the next few days. Hopefully we’ll see a lot of you there!

10. What about these new IPs you’re working on? Are any of them Rock Band related / instrument based music games?

Harmonix has several new projects in the works, but unfortunately no Rock Band news at the moment. You can stay tuned to HarmonixMusic.com for future project announcements.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

It would be nice if everything went to half price once this all ends. I have been holding off on any DLC purchases hoping for another large sale. Any possibility of this or is it just wishful thinking on my part?

I hate to see it happen but nothing lasts forever. :(

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

I blame Smash Mouth.

My big "end of the line" wishlist thing is that I hope they do a RBB-compatible RB3 export.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

:( An amazing run. Very sad to hear. I wonder what the "appropriate" final release track will be.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by Mad Dawg (Post 11582846)

:( An amazing run. Very sad to hear. I wonder what the "appropriate" final release track will be.

"Can't Stop" by RHCP is probably my biggest want from an already in-game band and I'm hoping the week that brings Give It Away as an individual download will bring a new RHCP track or two. If that's the case (and there's no evidence of this, it's 200% wishful thinking) then the title alone would make it an appropriate sendoff.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

I'd guess "The End" by The Doors if it wasn't for that motherfucking spoken-word section in the middle.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by MWB (Post 11582866)

I'd guess "The End" by The Doors if it wasn't for that motherfucking spoken-word section in the middle.

Maybe it'll be a cover by Muse.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by chuckd21 (Post 11582880)

Maybe it'll be a cover by Muse.

Wouldn't that be the ultimate "fuck you" to the fans?

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

So. . . six more Tuesday DLC releases after tomorrow. As many as what, three of those are gonna be Blitz tracks?

EDIT:

Remaining non-singled Blitz songs:

"Always" - Blink-182 O
"Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)" - Shinedown O
"Give it Away" - Red Hot Chili Peppers XO
"Jungle Boogie" - Kool & the Gang XO
"Kids in the Street" - All-American Rejects O
"Shout" - Tears for Fears O

(Courtesy some Rock Band forums dude)

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

Sad news, but it was certainly one of those its coming things. At least RBN will continue for now, though that will probably shrivel up too once Rock Band DLC stops. I do agree that they should run at least a few sales on the RB3 stuff like *caugh* Billy Joel.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by chuckd21 (Post 11582880)

Maybe it'll be a cover by Muse.

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Originally Posted by pinata242 (Post 11582885)

Wouldn't that be the ultimate "fuck you" to the fans?

Just wanted to look this up out of curiosity:

Muse tracks in Rock Band: 1 ("Hysteria" - DLC, 2008)

Unique Muse tracks in Guitar Hero: 8

"Knights of Cydonia" - GH III disc
"Exo-Politics" - GH III DLC
"Supermassive Black Hole" - GH III DLC
"Stockholm Syndrome" - GH III DLC
"Assassin" - GH World Tour disc
"Plug In Baby" - GH5 disc
"Uprising" - GH Warriors of Rock disc
"Resistance" - GH Warriors of Rock DLC
"Supermassive Black Hole" - Warriors of Rock DLC

Weird how after all their big gets over the years, Harmonix just couldn't seem to lock any more Muse down like Guitar Hero did. Wonder why.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

Sad to see it come to an end.

Exciting to see what new artists are going to be added during the final weeks.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

Appropriate final track: "To The End" by Blur.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by MWB (Post 11582893)

6 weeks, 6 songs, you just answered your own question.

Curious what this means:

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but you can expect us to continue to support the existing titles and the extensive song library.

I can't imagine how much it takes to "support" titles & songs by not releasing any updates in over a year.

oh well, it was fun while it lasted, I guess with no shot of a new RB on next-gen, my ps3 will at some point become a full-time RB unit. I'm going to wait on any DLC until it all eventually goes on sale.

Can't imagine what else they're working on, they drove RB & Dance-whatever into the ground. Kinect-Hacky-sack?

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

Sad to hear, its been a good run though. I have to say though in the last year RB has been pushed aside at parties with friends. Everyone wants to play Dance Central on Kinect instead, or Singstar/Lips.

Last time we played one of the guitars stopped working, and that kinda killed it. Glancing around here, can I assume it is starting to get hard to find replacements?

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by MWB (Post 11582936)

Looking at this list upsets me for several reasons. I hate that GH locked up the rights for so long. I hate what GH did to the genre in general. I hate what GH did to specific artists by taking advantage of them (specifically Axl Rose and GH III fiasco).

That being said, if by some miracle the final RB track was "Paradise City", i'd flip my lid.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

What did Guitar Hero do to Axl Rose?

Also, I don't think I've played Rock Band in more than a year. I used to adore the game but when RB3 came out I lost interest for some reason.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

As I've personally spent 5 years of my life playing and 11 annual salaries on games, hardware, and DLC, I think it's only fitting that I finally get Sponge's "Molly (Sixteen candles down the drain)" at the end!

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by Supermallet (Post 11582977)

What did Guitar Hero do to Axl Rose?

Axl said they could use "Welcome to the Jungle" in GHIII as long as it didn't have any likeness of Slash or any Velvet Revolver songs. Slash was all over the thing, and Velvet Revolver songs were available as DLC. That's pretty juvenile, but if those were the conditions that Activision agreed upon...

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by Supermallet (Post 11582977)

What did Guitar Hero do to Axl Rose?

They put Slash in the game and on the cover of GH III, along with "Welcome to the Jungle," and Velvet Revolver DLC. Axl was pissed because he thought the game made it look like Slash was representing GN'R, when Slash had been out of the band for over ten years at that point, and Axl was trying to move on with GN'Rs current lineup.

Axl filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Activision a couple years ago over the whole thing.

EDIT: What Adam said.

More in the spoiler:

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Axl Rose unhappy with Slash, Guitar Hero: rants long and hard (December 2008)

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Axl Rose has been setting the gossip blogs on fire by getting into flame wars with his fans online, and now he's posted a long-winded take on why he decided to keep the Guns N' Roses name for Chinese Democracy, along with some of his thoughts about the time it took to create the record. In the rant, he also goes off on Slash and Activision for the use of "Welcome to the Jungle" in Guitar Hero. His words can be somewhat hard to parse, but we'll do our best.

"[Slash] being Guitar Hero’s fine but not when Activision in using Jungle, having Yahoo use Sweet Child unauthorized, claims no involvement with Slash, his or anyone's image or VR or anyone or anyone's music in either camp in promotion or commercials etc," he wrote. "I wasn't broadsided. I read about it as it moved along but Activision continually denied it right up to the release. That’s some low life chicanery on all their parts."

Axl's main beef, if these words really did come from him, is that Slash used that as an excuse to appear solo under the name Guns N' Roses. That keeps the guitar player fresh in the minds of rock fans as the guitarist for that band; Rose argues that he's Guns n' Roses now, so for Slash to come back and continue to cash in on the song is wrong. Or something.

"Yes Slash was in Guns and on Jungle (and the whole I came to him for his riff is as much crap as him saying he brought Locomotive and Coma in as complete songs) and he has rights to perform it but not to be represented in this context in association with Guns. And since they weren't granted the license it’ll take some sorting."

No one but the lawyers has access to the actual licensing Activision put together for Guitar Hero, but it's doubtful that the publisher would have licensed the song without the ability to put the name "Guns N' Roses" next to it. Rose seems to think that since he owns the name, the "live" performance by Slash under the name Guns n' Roses is dirty pool.

It's doubtful any of this will go further than an Internet rant, but the whole thing is interesting reading and—prepare the hate for the comments—I thought Chinese Democracy sounded pretty good.

Still more: Axl Rose suing Activision over inclusion of Slash in Guitar Hero 3 (November 2010)

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Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has unleashed a November rain of litigation against Activision, filing a $20 million lawsuit against the publisher for allegedly associating Guns N' Roses' music (specifically, "Welcome to the Jungle") with former GnR guitarist Slash and his new band Velvet Revolver in 2007's Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.

Activision had permission to use "Welcome to the Jungle," but according to court documents obtained by Radar Online, broke its contract with Rose by including imagery of Slash in the game and offering music by Velvet Revolver as downloadable content. The juxtaposition "exploits the prior association between Slash and Guns N' Roses, promotes Slash's and VR's (Velvet Revolver) separate interests and includes VR tracks as available downloads, all of which was and is directly contrary to the contractual obligations of Defendants," according to the filing.

Indeed, Rose's filing asserts that Activision explicitly promised not to use images of any former members of GnR in the game. Even more surprising, Activision EVP of Music Affairs Tim Riley is quoted as saying "Come on Beta, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet" in response to rumors of Slash's inclusion heard by Rose's rep Beta Lebeis."

Whether Rose's claims of treachery on Activision's part turn out to be true or not remains to be determined, but one fact is incontrovertible: he is really, really late in noticing.

Even more: Axl Rose Loses 'Guitar Hero' Lawsuit Because He's Always Late (February 2013)

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February 11 2013, 3:39 PM ET
by Kyle McGovern

Chronic tardiness costs frontman $20 million

Game over for Axl Rose's lawsuit against Activision Blizzard Inc., the makers of the now-defunct Guitar Hero video game franchise. Blabbermouth reports (via the San Marino Tribune) that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Palmer dismissed the Guns N' Roses frontman's suit against the company on February 7.

Rose filed a $20 million claim against Activision in late 2010, accusing the corporation of fraud and breach of contract. The lawsuit alleged that Rose only approved the use of GN'R's "Welcome to the Jungle" in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock because Activision agreed they would not include any songs by Velvet Revolver, a band featuring several ex-GN'R members, including guitarist and Rose's apparent nemesis Slash. Not only did Guitar Hero III feature several tracks by Velvet Revolver, but it also allowed fans to play as an avatar of Slash. The top-hatted guitarist even appeared on the October 2007 release's cover.

In August 2012, a judge tossed out Rose's fraud claim because the notoriously tardy singer waited too long (a full three years) to file the complaint and missed the two-year statute of limitations. The court agreed to assess the breached contract accusation, but as SPIN reported earlier this month, it looked as though the "Jungle" star's lateness was going to cost him that case as well. Now it's official: After hearing more than two hours of arguments (a small portion of a years-long feud between Rose and Slash) Judge Palmer has thrown out the remaining causes of action.

In a deposition, Rose said he waited so long to file the lawsuit because Activision offered him "a separate video game and other business proposals worth millions of dollars to resolve and settle" the dispute. According to the 51-year-old trading card icon, the company suggested several projects, including a potential GN'R-themed Guitar Hero game and another entry in the series that would be focused on songs from Chinese Democracy.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by stingermck (Post 11582972)

Things go in cycles. It seems like people think playing in a fake band is just lame and silly now, but dancing around like fake Usher is "cool". I'm hoping this too will pass yet again (DDR anyone?), and the cycle will return to RB.

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Last time we played one of the guitars stopped working, and that kinda killed it. Glancing around here, can I assume it is starting to get hard to find replacements?

Regular new guitars are expensive and harder to find. They are as much if not more than the pro guitars now.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by MWB (Post 11582993)

Axl filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Activision a couple years ago over the whole thing.

Indeed. So the outcome is that we never get DLC from the original GnR and Activision puts a bad taste in every artist's mouth about licensing their material for music games in general.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

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Originally Posted by Kelkee (Post 11583021)

Indeed. So the outcome is that we never get DLC from the original GnR and Activision puts a bad taste in every artist's mouth about licensing their material for music games in general.

And the Kurt Cobain/No Doubt avatar stuff didn't help matters any.

Worth noting:

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In a deposition, Rose said he waited so long to file the lawsuit because Activision offered him "a separate video game and other business proposals worth millions of dollars to resolve and settle" the dispute. According to Rose, the company suggested several projects, including a potential GN'R-themed Guitar Hero game and another entry in the series that would be focused on songs from Chinese Democracy.

Appetite for Destruction full-album was my most-wanted Rock Band DLC from the beginning. I was hopeful that the Chinese Democracy DLC might eventually lead to Appetite down the road, but after all the lawsuit stuff started, I knew that was probably never gonna happen. Too bad. What a clusterfuck.

Re: The Official Rock Band Thread of Music Game Evolution

Is the song "Don't you (Forget About Me)" in the game yet?

No Led Zeppelin songs... :sad: