Rock Band 4 coming to Xbox One & PS4

[Domingo]

http://www.wired.com/?p=1747464
http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/05/rock-band-4/

The best thing about it is that they're saying it will be a single game that they plan to update instead of trying to gouge us with yearly sequels and new accessories.
They're also apparently working on making older songs work, too. No clue how that will pan out, but I still have all of the songs from the first two saved on my 360. I bet the 3rd game can be bought for super-cheap now, too.

 

[Armenius]

Fuck YES!!! ...But no mention of PvP returning .

I think the way of getting old songs will work is, since your online service account (whether PSN or XBL) contains an entire history of your purchases, I think it would be easy to create a system to transfer/update a user's licenses for the new console and game. Harmonix has said previously that they wouldn't want to make a Rock Band for the new consoles without being able to transfer the music libraries from the previous generation, so this announcement makes me believe that they have worked out a solution with both Microsoft/Sony and the music license holders that makes everyone happy. The question will be what songs won't be able to transfer.

I'm so excited! I still have a blast playing some plastic drums every now and then.

 

[Demon10000]

I was more of a Guitar Hero fan, but I enjoyed Rock Band, too.

I would, without a doubt, purchase a new engine for this gen if it could play all of my old songs -- and thats going way back to PS2 (speaking more GH than RB at that point). I would love to play the original game again.

In fact, I made sure to get a PS3 that was backwards compatible with PS2 just to play these. Really sucked when I found my controllers wouldn't work, and my new controllers weren't recognized with the game....

 

[Domingo]

Personally, I don't care how they do it as long as I can keep most of my old songs. I haven't touched most of them in years, so it's almost like they're new again.
With the size of the media for the Xbox One and PS4, they could probably bundle all of the songs from the first 3 games on the disk if they really wanted to. I recently copied most of my songs to a different Xbox via a thumb drive and I think that all of the songs from the first two and 15-20 DLC songs was maybe 200MB, so cloud storage could probably work, too.

 

[Armenius]

Personally, I don't care how they do it as long as I can keep most of my old songs. I haven't touched most of them in years, so it's almost like they're new again.
With the size of the media for the Xbox One and PS4, they could probably bundle all of the songs from the first 3 games on the disk if they really wanted to. I recently copied most of my songs to a different Xbox via a thumb drive and I think that all of the songs from the first two and 15-20 DLC songs was maybe 200MB, so cloud storage could probably work, too.

It can't have been only 200MB... A compiled song that is made to run in Rock Band, with all the separate audio tracks and MIDI, amount to 20-100MB per song. Granted the MIDI isn't very large, but they use upward of 11 separate audio tracks as of Rock Band 3 in a single song. IIRC the on-disc soundtrack of Rock Band 2 was around 3GB, and the first game was around 2GB.

 

[Domingo]

I actually meant first two games (I never bought #3) but it only showed up as 200MB. The flash drive I used was only 1GB so it can't be all that big. It copied something like 400 items in total, counting my profile.

EDIT: Thinking about it - I guess technically it only has all of the Rock Band 1 songs and Rock Band 2 DLC since I just played #2 off the disk. That probably makes more sense.

 

[VladDracule]

They should make the setlist comprehensive of all the songs in the previous games. My wires got completely effed in my move to my drum sets. Im not even sure if they work anymore

 

[Armenius]

They should make the setlist comprehensive of all the songs in the previous games. My wires got completely effed in my move to my drum sets. Im not even sure if they work anymore

You can still find new drum sets occasionally being sold, and they only go for around $40 US these days. If you had a custom setup, I feel for you.

 

[XvMMvX]

It shouldn't have the "4" on the title. That implies that it will have a 5, 6 etc. Just needs to be a reboot rockband with a base song list. Then work on content and adding songs. Don't try and gouge us each year or so with a new "game".

 

[Armenius]

It shouldn't have the "4" on the title. That implies that it will have a 5, 6 etc. Just needs to be a reboot rockband with a base song list. Then work on content and adding songs. Don't try and gouge us each year or so with a new "game".

It sounds like they're serious about making it into the "platform as a service" concept they talked about a long time ago. From the Wired article:

Harmonix also says Rock Band 4 is the only version it will release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It will update the game with new features and add new songs, but it won’t release Rock Band 5 (or Rock Band: One Direction, etc.) on this generation of consoles.

 

[Tzzird]

I was more of a Guitar Hero fan, but I enjoyed Rock Band, too.

I would, without a doubt, purchase a new engine for this gen if it could play all of my old songs -- and thats going way back to PS2 (speaking more GH than RB at that point). I would love to play the original game again.

This.

I spent a lot on DLC songs for both GH2, GH3, and RB1/2. If they found a way to implement this for free or a very low cost transition fee ($0.15 per song) I would certainly consider this.

 

[Kinsaras]

This.

I spent a lot on DLC songs for both GH2, GH3, and RB1/2. If they found a way to implement this for free or a very low cost transition fee ($0.15 per song) I would certainly consider this.

Right from engadget link...

All your previously purchased content and any songs you ripped from previous Rock Band games to sequels will work in Rock Band 4, from Xbox 360 to Xbox One and PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4. It's two-thousand something songs. No joke.

 

[SeymourGore]

This seems like the perfect series to make a VR version for. You would be standing up on a stage, rocking out with your plastic guitar in front of a virtual crowd.

 

[MavericK]

Meh, new consoles only...no thanks. PC and then we'll talk.

 

[guitarguy6]

I was excited until I read that it won't have pro guitanightsmight still get it if my ps3 dlc will transfer to my ps4.

 

[Domingo]

I'll have to dig around, but I think I still have the wireless instruments I bought during the Circuit City close-out sale. Those were great...and it's tough to beat an 80% discount.

 

[SubyJay]

they need a way to transfer songs from xbox360 to ps4. like register online so they can see your purchases and the redownload on the new system

 

[Domingo]

Granted, the last thing we all want/need is another login to worry about, but they could go the route of Dragon Age Inquisition and have you register your old copies via some kind of Rock Band account to make the rights cross-platform. With the capacity of a Blu-Ray disk, there's no real reason they couldn't have every single RB song to date on the main disk (or a 2nd disk) itself. There's also the option of selling a "booster" disk of old songs for something like $6, too. I don't see that as a major problem.

 

[Viper87227]

Meh, new consoles only...no thanks. PC and then we'll talk.

Despite PC almost always being my platform of choice, I get why a game like this is console only. For one, the games primary focus is cramming a bunch of friends in front of one TV and rocking out. Not many people have a gaming PC hooked to their TV. Also, the game explicitly relies on extra peripherals to be played, meaning there is zero advantage from an input standpoint to playing on PC versus a console. I think even for people who do have a decent PC, just about any of them that also own a console would still default to that for the sake of playing on a TV plus the potential for having existing peripherals or purchased DLC.

My point is, I think the PC audience for a game like this would be exceptionally small. Probably too small to make it worth developing.

 

[MavericK]

Perhaps. Though we are forgetting that the last iteration of these games had online MP, so theoretically you could just play by yourself with friends (or random people) online.

I do agree with what you are saying, though. I guess my real issue is that the games really don't require any major graphical horsepower and yet they are only making them for newer consoles. I guess eventually support has to end for PS3/X360, but for a game like Rock Band/Guitar Hero where people have invested a bunch in DLC songs, peripherals, etc. it might make sense to have a version that is compatible with those systems/hardware. It makes me a bit nervous when they say they will TRY to make the peripherals compatible, because to me that just means they will ultimately come out and say it can't be done and you have to re-buy everything...plus a current-gen console.

I also imagine they will try to do something like they did with RB1/2/3 where you had to pay $6-10 or something just to import songs from the previous game that you already bought (and not even all the songs, at that). Which really sucked, but at least they had the feature, I guess.

Making the whole thing a "platform" is a great idea, though with RB3 they were already approaching that, since you could import most songs from the previous games and they were releasing songs for years after RB3 released. So now it just feels like they want to start over and require you to buy everything again, which is a bit of a hard pill to swallow considering how much I invested in the first go round.

 

[Viper87227]

Perhaps. Though we are forgetting that the last iteration of these games had online MP, so theoretically you could just play by yourself with friends (or random people) online.

I do agree with what you are saying, though. I guess my real issue is that the games really don't require any major graphical horsepower and yet they are only making them for newer consoles. I guess eventually support has to end for PS3/X360, but for a game like Rock Band/Guitar Hero where people have invested a bunch in DLC songs, peripherals, etc. it might make sense to have a version that is compatible with those systems/hardware. It makes me a bit nervous when they say they will TRY to make the peripherals compatible, because to me that just means they will ultimately come out and say it can't be done and you have to re-buy everything...plus a current-gen console.

Not forgetting about online play, but was it ever all the popular? I've never played it online, nor do I know anyone else who has. I imagine something gets lost in translation. I'm not saying there aren't people who will play solo and/or online, but I don't think that's their focus.

My guess is they aren't releasing RB4 for the previous generation is because there is no need. They recently started releasing DLC for RB3 again. My guess is that any future DLC will be fully compatible with both RB3 and RB4. In fact, sounds to me like they are stripping a lot of the features of RB3, and probably not adding anything new. I think the intention here is to bring back the people who stopped playing RB3 when they packed up their old consoles and nothing more. If you already have RB3, and your still playing it, this game won't be for you.

I also imagine they will try to do something like they did with RB1/2/3 where you had to pay $6-10 or something just to import songs from the previous game that you already bought (and not even all the songs, at that). Which really sucked, but at least they had the feature, I guess

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought the import DLC was only to import the on-disc tracks from previous games. I thought the RB1/2 DLC just worked on RB3. Everything I've read certainly suggests that they want all existing DLC to be fully compatible with both games, barring a few exceptions due to licensing issues.

 

[CEpeep]

PC and then we'll talk.

PC already has Phase Shift.

 

[Armenius]

The Epic Games virus has killed Rock Band for good. RIP. Good thing Clone Hero has online multiplayer now.

https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/epic-account-linking

 

[Domingo]

Ha! My friends and I busted out a Rock Band setup on an old 360 with a pile of DLC tracks. It's still a total blast after all these years. I'd be game for a new one for modern hardware, with or without an account.