Mar 5, 2015 Rock Band 4 will be released this year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, longtime series developer Harmonix Music Systems has announced. “When we stopped developing Rock Band 3 [in 2010], clearly the market needed a break,” Harmonix Chief Creative Officer Alex Rigopulos told IGN. “But since then we’ve been paying close attention to what our community has been saying about it. There’s been this steadily growing crescendo of fans saying, ‘Hey Harmonix, what the h---? It’s time! Why haven’t you announced a new Rock Band? We’re ready for it!’” Crucially, your purchased songs from previous Rock Band iterations will transfer to the new generation of consoles, with a few notable exceptions. First, as your purchases are tied to your console account, Xbox One players will only be able to import Xbox 360 DLC, and PS4 players can only bring in PS3 DLC. However, there will be no import fee to bring your DLC into Rock Band 4. Due to licensing restrictions, Rock Band 3’s on-disc music will also not be available in Rock Band 4, though Harmonix told IGN that it’s possible that a deal could be reached in the future for this to happen. Songs from The Beatles: Rock Band will also not be making the leap to Rock Band 4. (IGN has assembled a FAQ wiki for all of Rock Band 4’s “What about…?” questions) Meanwhile, backwards compatibility with your old plastic guitars and drums are still up in the air, as both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 utilize different wireless controller communication protocols than their predecessors. Harmonix is in active discussions with Sony and Microsoft, with the hopes of getting permission to create sold-separately adapters that would plug into your console and enable your last-gen instruments to work. “It is a challenge, but it’s something that [Sony and Microsoft are] working actively with us on,” Rigopulos explained. “I am confident that we’ll be able to find workable solutions.” Harmonix adds that they’re getting back to the “core” Rock Band experience, and thus keyboard will not be supported (though the vocal harmonies added in The Beatles: Rock Band will be). Furthermore, Harmonix has no intention of releasing yearly sequels that, once upon a time, helped saturate and destroy the music game market. In fact, they don’t plan to release any sequels. Rock Band 4, they say, will be a platform that they add to over the course of the console generation, adding new features as well as new music. “Going forward, our goal is to view [Rock Band 4] as more of a live service where we can gradually and incrementally append new functionality to the core experience rather than having $60 annual title updates,” Rigopulos said. “You shouldn’t expect a Rock Band 5 in 2016.” Finally, Harmonix is offering pre-order exclusive instrument colors if you plunk down money on Rock Band 4 via their website. http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/05/rock-band-4-announced-for-ps4-and-xbox-one
Mar 5, 2015 This is incredible news. Especially happy that we may even be able to use our old DLC and instruments on the new consoles, even if I'll probably just buy some of the new instruments. Hype.
Mar 8, 2015 Did they ever make like collapsible versions of the instruments? They were always awkward to try and find a place to put em.
Mar 8, 2015 Mostly the drums, the guitars weren't much of an issue, but the drums... those mother f---ers were quite large. I too hope they make them easy to stow away.
Mar 8, 2015 Yeah hopefully they do something about the drums. I have nowhere to stash those things in my bedroom lol
Mar 12, 2015 A new GH is rumored to be revealed at E3. Is it really gonna do any harm by coming back? I always preferred it over Rock Band anyway. GH3 and GH: Metallica are two of my favorite games ever.
Mar 12, 2015 Yeah... honestly, I think we have Guitar Hero to thank for Rock Band going away in the first place. With all of the band centric games and yearly entries from Guitar Hero, the market for these games became over saturated. And that's on top of s--- like Rocksmith and Dance Central. They tried to treat what was always more of a casual/party game to the average gamer into something like Call of Duty. What I've heard (not sure if true) is that Harmonix is planning the new Rock Band to be sort of a one off... something that you buy once and you always have on the current gen systems, with new songs/albums/etc being released on the ONE game. Rock Band 3 had the right idea with that, it's just that nobody bought it. Now that people seem to be excited again, it has a real chance to succeed. New games and Activision falling for the same mistakes again could threaten that.
Mar 13, 2015 Trust me, Activision, as greedy as they are, know that they f----- up by releasing that many games and won't do it again. And sure, you can blame GH for RB declining in sales, but really, people just weren't as interested in rhythm games in general anymore. And I preferred GH because I preferred the gameplay itself. I always liked GH's timing window better for example. Just felt more right I guess. Also, keep in mind I only really liked the games that were geared towards more hardcore players (GH3, Metallica, WoR). I felt like RB was geared more towards casual players. Not that they were easy, but there were never any songs like TtFaF or TDWDtG in RB. I like RB too btw, so I'm not shi--ing on it. I owned RB2 and even bought a good amount of songs for it. I look forward to both new entries in each series. And I agree with @AwkwardTom. I think GH just needs to stick to guitar and make that their main focus. After they introduced drums and vocals they felt like they needed to start putting a bunch of songs in their games that were only fun for drums and vocals (thinking it would appeal to wider audience) instead of songs that were guitar oriented. All they really did was alienate their fanbase. So yeah, leave the full band gameplay to RB. They did the drums and vocals better anyway.
Mar 13, 2015 d--- people still play these games?... I guess casual gamers mostly. Are these really that fun?.. I haven't played nay one.
Mar 14, 2015 When I actually got good at them, yes, they were unbelievably fun. But they're not games you play for years on end. Hence why they died off. People got sick of them. But people have been asking about them again so they're bringing them back. It really is a good time especially with the next gen consoles being out. GH and RB have been gone for what, five years now?
Mar 17, 2015 I think it'll be cheaper to just buy my songs again... I don't really care. I love supporting good companies.
Apr 14, 2015 Guitar Hero Live was just revealed and... I don't think I'm gonna like it. The controller's buttons are 3 x 2 instead of 5 x 1. They're trying so hard to be innovative. Almost like they're jealous of Rock Band and Rocksmith. Think I'll just go with Rock Band 4 tbh. Really disappointed with the reveal.
Apr 15, 2015 ^Just hoping they bring back DJ Hero now tbh. Unless of course they decide to get 'innovative' and f--- with the controller for that too...
