Rock Band theme by Skyker
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| Rock Band | |
|---|---|
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| Genre(s) | |
| Developer(s) |
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| Publisher(s) |
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| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Nintendo DS, mobile devices, iOS, Oculus Rift |
| First release | Rock Band November 20, 2007 |
| Latest release | Rock Band VR March 23, 2017 |
Rock Band is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero series, the main Rock Band games has players use game controllers modeled after musical instruments and microphones to perform the lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums and vocal parts of numerous licensed songs across a wide range of genres though mostly focusing on rock music by matching scrolling musical notes patterns shown on screen. Certain games support the use of "Pro" instruments that require special controllers that more closely mimic the playing of real instruments, providing a higher challenge to players. Players score points for hitting notes successfully, but may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both local and online multiplayer modes where up to four players in most modes can perform together.
Harmonix had worked with Red Octane for the Guitar Hero series first released in 2005; when Red Octane was acquired by Activision to continue Guitar Hero in 2007, MTV Games, a division of Viacom at the time, acquired Harmonix to expand the concept to Rock Band, and served as the game's publisher and manufacturer for the instrument controllers, with distribution handled by Electronic Arts. In 2009, due to saturation of the rhythm game market, sales of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band dropped; Harmonix's investors were able to buy the company from Viacom and making Harmonix an independent company, giving them more flexibility in options for the series. Harmonix transitioned to Mad Catz in 2011 for the publication and instrumentation controller manufacture. By 2013, Harmonix stopped producing downloadable content (DLC) for the current Rock Band 3, though stated that it would consider its options for the series upon the arrival of the next-generation of consoles. Following the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Harmonix released Rock Band 4 in 2015 for the new consoles. While Mad Catz initially manufactured the new instrument controllers. the game was not as financially successful, a partial cause for Mad Catz to declare bankruptcy and requiring Harmonix to switch production to Performance Designed Products (PDP) for ongoing instrument controller manufacture.
To date, there have been four main games in the series, two band-specific spin-offs (including The Beatles: Rock Band), and several additional spin-off titles and Track Packs. Harmonix has continued to supported Rock Band through a persistent DLC model through January 2024, with routine releases of new songs on a weekly basis as well as the ability for players to import songs from previous games into newer ones, and as of January 2024, the latest title Rock Band 4 supports over 3000 songs from this approach. Harmonix had also offered the Rock Band Network to allow bands and labels to publish their songs as Rock Band tracks that can be purchased by players, though the service has since been discontinued; at the height of this service, over 4,000 tracks from 1,200 artists were available for Rock Band players.[1][2]
By 2009, over 13 million copies of Rock Band titles have been sold,[3][1] netting more than $1 billion in total sales.[4] Over 130 million downloadable song purchases have been made by 2009.[1][2][5][6][7][8][9]
History[edit]
| 2007 | Rock Band |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Rock Band 2 |
| 2009 | Rock Band Unplugged |
| The Beatles: Rock Band | |
| Rock Band Mobile | |
| Rock Band (iOS) | |
| Lego Rock Band | |
| 2010 | Green Day: Rock Band |
| Rock Band 3 | |
| Rock Band Reloaded | |
| 2011 | |
| 2012 | Rock Band Blitz |
| 2013 | |
| 2014 | |
| 2015 | Rock Band 4 |
| 2016 | |
| 2017 | Rock Band VR |
Transition from Guitar Hero (2005–2008)[edit]
Prior to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Harmonix had already established itself as a company that made game products that focused on music interactivity. Born out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the first product made by Harmonix was The Axe: Titans of Classic Rock for DOS-based computers, challenging the player to use four keys on the keyboard to match notes in several songs.[10] Looking to find a place for this type of game, Harmonix' founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy looked to Japan where music games like PaRappa the Rapper were becoming popular. This led to the creation of Frequency and its sequel Amplitude for the PlayStation 2; both games featured the concept of matching notes for specific instrument tracks along lanes. However, in retrospect, Harmonix found that players had difficulty initially understanding the game, as the presentation was an abstract concept that did not immediately connect the gameplay to the music.[10] The idea of making an easy connection between the game and the music was used as a basis for their Karaoke Revolution games, which including using avatars singing and dancing in time to the music to strengthen the connection; this series was financially successful and helped grow the company.[10]
Harmonix was approached by RedOctane to help develop the software for the first Guitar Hero game, itself based on Japanese games like Guitar Freaks. Harmonix used their previous experience in note-matching techniques from Frequency and Amplitude, as well as the lessons learned in developed Karaoke Revolution to create the Guitar Hero software. Harmonix was less concerned on developing gameplay, and instead more on connecting the player to the music, working to track the notes of the songs appropriately on the five-button controller as to make the player feel like they are playing the real instrument.[10] Guitar Hero would go on to be a major success and found the basis of the Guitar Hero series.[10]
As the success of the Guitar Hero series grew, Harmonix and RedOctane were purchased by MTV Games and Activision, respectively, in 2006; MTV paid $175 million to acquire Harmonix.[11] RedOctane continued to publish the Guitar Hero series, bringing Neversoft on board for development duties. Harmonix was contractually committed to completing one final title, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, during and after the purchase negotiations.
With MTV Games, a subsidiary of Viacom, Harmonix took their experience from developing Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution to create the Rock Band series. According to Harmonix Vice President of Product Development, Greg LoPiccolo, the Harmonix team had already envisioned the possibility of different instruments before they were finished with the Guitar Hero series;[12] Rigopulos noted that the Guitar Hero work was only a partial approach to this, limited to what they could do on a "shoe-string budget".[10] Harmonix also embraced the idea of Rock Band as a platform rather than a software title, and took steps to incorporate downloadable content to extend players' music libraries without having them need to buy a new software disk. Rock Band was considered a success, leading to the development of sequels and spinoff titles. Viacom, under the terms of the acquisition, paid out $150 million in performance-based bonuses to Harmonix in early 2008 for their 2007 results, and were planning on a similar amount by the end of 2008.[13][14] The Rock Band series scored what was considered a major coup by journalists when it successfully negotiated the rights to use the music of the Beatles in a video game, long considered a "holy grail" for music games.[15][16]
Rhythm game saturation and decline (2009–2014)[edit]
By 2009, the market for rhythm games in general started to fall. The market had become saturated with titles, mostly from Activision's expansion of the Guitar Hero series, and consumers affected by the late-2000s recession were less likely to buy costly instrument controllers. Viacom had already reported significant losses on the Rock Band series, and sales of The Beatles: Rock Band did not meet their expectation.[17] Viacom sought a refund on the $150 million already paid for the 2007 bonuses following its reassessment of the series' 2009 performance.[18] Harmonix, anticipating the slowness of the market, developed Rock Band 3 with the introduction of several new features, most notably including the capability to connect real MIDI keyboards, MIDI guitars, and MIDI electronic drum kits, to create a "disruptive" game in the ailing rhythm game market by expanding to include real instruments.
Though Viacom continued to support the series throughout 2010, it announced that it was seeking a buyer for Harmonix, citing the series' continued profit losses and Viacom's inexperience at being a video game publisher.[19][20][21] Harmonix was eventually sold at the end of 2010 to Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, an affiliate of investment firm Columbus Nova, LLC that included Harmonix shareholders.[22] Though the net liability of the sale was valued at nearly $200 million, including existing unsold inventory and ongoing music license fees, analysts believe that Harmonix-SBE paid only $50 for the company, taking on the total financial liability that Viacom was able to write off in their books.[23] The MTV Games division at Viacom was later closed.[24]
As a shareholder-held company, Harmonix retained the rights to the Rock Band and Dance Central franchises, and continued to support and develop the games.[25][26] The company still faced some fallout from the sale, laying off about 15% of its staff in February 2011.[27] In the same month, Activision announced that it abandoned ongoing development of planned Guitar Hero titles, which many journalists considered to signal the end of peripheral-based rhythm games.[28] Though Harmonix considered the closure of Guitar Hero as "discouraging", they affirmed that they would continue to develop Rock Band and Dance Central and support their downloadable content for the immediate future.[29] Other journalists believed that without competition, Harmonix no longer needed to develop under the same pressure, allowing them to polish and innovate for future titles in the series, bringing a likely future resurgence of the market.[30]
In March 2012, Harmonix affirmed that it had no plans for a fourth major release title within the year, but was still strongly supporting the game through downloadable content through the year.[31] By early 2013, the company stated that while they may come back to Rock Band at a future time, they were shifting resources to develop new titles, and later announced that it would discontinue its regular downloadable content for the series after providing over 275 continuous weeks of such content.[32]
Reintroduction for eighth-generation consoles (2015–current)[edit]
Rigopulos stated at his keynote at the 2014 Penny Arcade Expo East that the studio had plans to bring Rock Band to eighth-generation consoles "at some point" and with "guns blazing".[33] Rigopulos states that the studio was "waiting for just the right moment in the new generation of consoles to bring it back".[34] Following two sets of unexpected DLC releases in early 2015 as a survey sent to Rock Band fans, the industry started to speculate that Harmonix was looking to revive the series. Bloomberg reported that Harmonix was working on a new version of Rock Band for the next-generation of consoles in late February.[35]
Rock Band 4 was officially announced in March 2015, for release later in October 2015 on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Rock Band 4 supported nearly all previous content released for the series, including imports from the Rock Band 3 and all prior official DLC.[36] Initially Rock Band 4 was released in partnership with Mad Catz for production of the instrument peripherals and co-publishing, but the game did not sell as well as expected leading to a US$11 million loss for Mad Katz, who subsequently terminated the agreement by June 2016 and temporarily had entered a period of bankruptcy.[37] Harmonix switched to Performance Designed Products (PDP) to continue hardware manufacturing and co-publishing with the release of the "Rivals" expansion for Rock Band 4.[38][39] Harmonix attempted to crowdfund the development of Rock Band 4 for personal computers through Fig (which Harmonix's Rigopulos had become a board member of), but this failed to meet the target goal, though Harmonix had not ruled out other means to bring the series to personal computers through other means.[40] Harmonix continues to support Rock Band 4 with weekly DLC and, with the introduction of its "Rivals" gameplay mode, eight-week seasonal challenges for players to earn new cosmetics, and as of April 2020[update], supports over 2,800 songs.
A separate Rock Band VR title was developed for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and released in March 2017.[41]
Harmonix was acquired by Epic Games in 2021, but has continued to support Rock Band with DLC into at least 2024. As part of Epic, Harmonix developed a new mode for Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, which was released in December 2023. This mode mimicked much of the Rock Band aspects within the Fortnite game.[42] With this new game, Harmonix ended its weekly DLC for Rock Band in January 2024, though all online service would remain active for the foreseeable future.
Games[edit]
Main games[edit]
Harmonix has released four mainline titles in the Rock Band series: Rock Band (2007), Rock Band 2 (2008), Rock Band 3 (2010), and Rock Band 4 (2015). Each game provides from 57 to 84 songs on-disc with support for additional songs to be purchased as downloadable content. The games feature a variety of modes, including single player career modes, offline and online cooperative modes as part of a band, and competitive modes. Most songs from earlier iterations can be exported for play in future versions for a small licensing fee. However, premium or upgraded DLC content cannot be transferred to Rock Band 4.
Band-specific games[edit]
In October 2008, Harmonix, along with MTV Games, announced an exclusive agreement with Apple Corps, Ltd. to produce a standalone title, titled The Beatles: Rock Band, based on the Rock Band premise and featuring the music of the Beatles. The game was released on September 9, 2009, coinciding with the release of remastered collections of the Beatles' albums, and features a visual and musical history of the Beatles with United Kingdom-released versions of songs from their albums Please Please Me through Abbey Road. The game also has been supported by downloadable content, with three full albums, Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Rubber Soul, available to purchase. Though branded as a Rock Band game, the title remains as a standalone game in the series. It includes a function to add new songs to the game disc.[43]
Following on the success of The Beatles: Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band was released in June 2010. It includes the band's songs, including full albums for Dookie, American Idiot, and 21st Century Breakdown, avatars of the band's members and venues after real-life performances of the group.[44] The track list is fully exportable to other Rock Band games.[45]
Several bands stated they were seeking to or working with Harmonix to develop band-specific content for the series. The band Pearl Jam worked with Harmonix and MTV Games along with Rhapsody on a Rock Band-related project that was to be released in 2010, allowing for users to vote for their favorite live versions of the band's music. In August 2011 it was rumoured that the Pearl Jam related project would be released as downloadable content,[46] but Harmonix spokesman John Drake later clarified that while a Pearl Jam-based game was deep in development, it was ultimately cancelled.[47]
The band U2, after declining an option to place themselves in a Rock Band game in 2008, were reconsidering their stance after seeing the success of The Beatles: Rock Band, according to bassist Adam Clayton.[48] Similarly, Queen were in behind-the-scenes talks about a possible title for their group within Rock Band, according to Brian May.[49] Even though no game based on the band was released, Lego avatars of the band members appeared in Lego Rock Band. Roger Daltrey of The Who had stated that a Rock Band-title based on his group's music would be available in 2010;[50] however, no such title was released in 2010, or after that year for that matter. Though Janie Hendrix had stated she allowed for Jimi Hendrix's works to be used for a Rock Band game to be released in 2010,[51][52] this was later clarified as licensing several full albums from Hendrix to be made as downloadable content.[53] Harmonix had also considered standalone band games for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but neither project proceeded past developing concept art and cinematics.[47]
Spin-offs[edit]
Harmonix and MTV Games have worked with TT Fusion and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create Lego Rock Band.[54] The game includes songs that are "suitable for younger audiences."[54] The game also includes the "fun, customization and humor of the Lego videogame franchise" by allowing players to create their own Lego-style avatars. The game added a new "super easy" gameplay mode in order to accommodate younger players. The game, which was released on November 3, 2009 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii consoles, supports all existing Rock Band instruments.[54] The game is able to utilize selected existing downloadable content for the other Rock Band games that have been deemed acceptable for the game's audience, except on the Nintendo Wii, and all songs on the game's main setlist can be exported for use in other Rock Band games.
Harmonix had planned to release a spin-off of Rock Band for Japanese audiences in co-development with Q Entertainment. The title, initially announced in 2008, would have featured J-pop music, and would have been "the first US-originated rock music game to be heavily localized for the Japanese market".[55][56] Japanese artists had expressed interest in the venture, such as X Japan.[57] Harmonix has since stated that this project has been discontinued, but have considered the inclusion of popular Japanese music within Rock Band's regular downloadable content.[58] Alex Rigopulos later clarified that they found it difficult to license Japanese music for such a release, and had considered both the cost of manufacturing and shipping instrument controllers to Japan, and the limited space that many Japanese players would have in their homes.[47][59]
Rock Band Blitz is a downloadable title in the series released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in October 2012. It is similar to Rock Band Unplugged, using gameplay similar to Frequency and Amplitude. The game included 25 songs (23 new to the series, and two that were previously unavailable to export due to licensing issues), but can use any previously downloaded song in the player's library; the 25 songs were also available to be played within Rock Band 3. Unlike the previous games in the series, Blitz is designed for use with a standard console controller, using buttons on the controller to switch tracks and match notes. The single-player game is designed with numerous "arcade" elements including a number of power-ups that make it more a score attack game than previous titles. Released alongside the game was a Facebook application, Rock Band World, that connected to players' games, offering challenges and tracking players scores in both Blitz and Rock Band 3.
Shortly after release of Rock Band 3, Harmonix began work on Rock Band Sessions. Instead of matching notes as in the main games, Sessions would have players making their own music in songs where several of the other instrument tracks were already completed; one example given by Daniel Sussman was to complete a bass line atop existing guitar, drums, and vocal tracks. If the player opted, they would have been able to allow the pre-existing track to be played instead and only provide their own music in certain sections of the song. Sessions was originally conceived as a multiplayer title but Harmonix found that having multiple players attempt to make their own music at the same time was too chaotic, and instead reworked it as a single-player game, with the player able to work each track separately and eventually bring them together in a final song. Though Harmonix had developed a working prototype for the game, they found that it would not adapt well to their existing licensed song library and would be difficult to use in future Rock Band games, and that they did not feel this was a type of game they could sell to their player base at full price. Sessions has been shelved, though some of the lessons they learned were used to help develop Rock Band 4, and may come back to the title at a later date.[60]
Harmonix also was involved with BandFuse: Rock Legends, released in November 2013, which for a time was referred to as "Rock Band 3.1".[citation needed]
In 2015, Oculus VR announced at The Game Awards that they would be partnering with Harmonix to make a virtual reality Rock Band game for the Rift titled Rock Band VR, to be released in 2016.[61] Harmonix began work on the title in October 2015. The game, focused solely on guitar players, uses the Oculus Rift Touch controllers in addition to the headset, one which is attached to the guitar controller. These provide the player with a first-person view of their guitarist on stage which reacts to the player's movements. In a demonstration at the 2016 Game Developers Conference, the game was set up so that the player could see the note tracks located on the floor monitors on the virtual stage, requiring the player to look down to track them, but Harmonix stated they were exploring other means to provide this input. The player can engage other actions in the VR world by looking at certain stage elements, such as by keeping their focus on a foot pedal, they can activate pyrotechnics on the virtual stage. The game was released on March 23, 2017 and shipped with 60 songs on release[62][63] and has 21 DLC songs. It was nominated for "Best Game Audio Article, Publication or Broadcast" ("Steve Pardo: Creating Rock Band VR") and "Best VR Audio" at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.[64]
In November 2021, Harmonix was acquired by Epic Games. They developed Fortnite's music game Fortnite Festival, which released on December 9th, 2023.
Portable games[edit]
Rock Band Unplugged was developed by Backbone Entertainment and was released for the PlayStation Portable in North America on June 9, 2009[65] and later that year in Europe. The game uses the PSP's Wi-Fi capabilities to provide an online store for additional downloadable content from music providers.[66] The gameplay is similar to the previous Harmonix games Frequency and Amplitude, with the player using the face buttons on the PSP to match notes; after completing a length of a phrase on a given instrument, that instrument will then play by itself for a while, allowing the player to switch to another instrument.[67] The DS versions of Lego Rock Band and Rock Band 3 use a similar gameplay system to Rock Band Unplugged.
A mobile phone version of Rock Band was developed by EA Mobile to work with various phones; the game was released to Verizon users on September 16, 2009. The game features many of the same modes as the main Rock Band series, including the ability to play with other users through the software. The game offers the ability to play any of the four instruments on 25 songs selected from the existing Rock Band library.[68] A version simply titled Rock Band for iOS was also released in October 2009, with gameplay described as similar to Tap Tap Revenge and allowing up to four people to play together with Bluetooth connections.[69] Rock Band Reloaded was released on December 2, 2010.
Gameplay[edit]
The Rock Band games are score-based music video games that combine elements of two of Harmonix' previous efforts: Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution, allowing up to four players to play on lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. Rock Band 3 expands this number to seven, including a keyboardist and two harmony vocalists. Players use these instruments to play scrolling musical "notes" on-screen in time with music.
Rock Band titles' gameplay and on-screen interface use a combination of elements from Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution.[70] Rock Band has up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass.[70] The colored notes on-screen correspond to buttons on the guitar and drum peripherals.[70] For lead and bass guitar, players play their notes by holding down colored fret buttons on the guitar peripheral and pushing the controller's strum bar; for drums, players must strike the matching colored drumhead, or step on the pedal to simulate playing bass drum notes. Along the top of the screen is the vocals display, which scrolls horizontally, similar to Karaoke Revolution. The lyrics display beneath green bars, which represent the pitch of the individual vocal elements.[70] When singing vocals, the player must sing in