Despite the Rock Band series being dormant for several years, a new report suggests that creator Harmonix is looking to revive Rock Band on PS4 and Xbox One.
Just under a decade ago, the music rhythm game genre made up a whopping 10% of games in homes. Plastic guitars and drum kits would be wheeled out at parties with everyone laughing at a missed note or competing to be the best, virtual rock god. But then in 2008, at the height of the genre’s success, the global recession hit and suddenly people had significantly less money to spend on things like plastic peripherals that could only be used with one game franchise. As a result, the genre soon died out with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock in 2011 and Rock Band 3 in 2010 being the last music rhythm games of their kind.
While those franchises died out, interest in them never really did. This has been demonstrated by the fever pitch surrounding the new Rock Band DLC that’s been released recently, as well as the excitement when it was revealed that Harmonix had released a survey about a new Rock Band game. And now it seems that they’re making good fan interest as a new source suggests that a new Rock Band game will be released on PS4 and Xbox One in time for Christmas.
That info comes from the (usually correct) publication Bloomberg. While their source didn’t do much more than confirm the game’s existence, it’s clear what a new Rock Band game would need in order to be successful: it would have to be cheaper. It cost gamers hundreds of dollars to buy those plastic guitar, drum and microphone controllers for the game before and today, in an age of massive free to play experiences people are less inclined to fork out that same kind of money. Therefore, a new Rock Band would have to be priced appropriately to win fans over once more.
Furthermore, with hundreds of games released as DLC for previous Rock Band games, it would be incredibly helpful to cash-strapped gamers if a new Rock Band game let us use all of that DLC. It’s not as though developer Harmonix would lose out as they could continue to sell those DLC track packs and make a profit. That would make buying the new Rock Band affordable, at least.
If the rumours are true, we’ll likely see the new Rock Band game at E3 in June. We’ll keep you posted.
Source: Bloomberg
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