I have a confession to make. During a call with Harmonix' Nick Chester and Matt Boch to discuss Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, I momentarily lost my journalistic composure and was overcome by my inner fanboy. I hastily blurted out "Where's Rock Band 4!?"
See, Rock Band is something I'd describe as my warm blanket game, specifically because it transcends being just a game. It's a stealthy teaching tool, an extended lesson in music appreciation, something that inspires people to start real bands, an experience that brings couples and family members together using one of the most powerful bonds we know: music. And having recently resurrected my Rock Band Pro Drums setup thanks to the generosity of a friend, I'm more hooked on it than ever before.
I'm not alone.
"3 years after we've launched Rock Band 3 as a retail title and the quote/unquote 'music games are dead' hyperbole, there are literally hundreds of thousands of unique people still playing the game monthly," Nick Chester, Harmonix PR & Communication Lead, tells me in a voice dripping with enthusiasm. "And we haven't even released any DLC in forever. There's a hardcore base of players still actively interested in this game."
13 million copies of Rock Band titles have been sold to date, netting more than $1 billion in total sales. And the company who pioneered DLC did pretty well in that respect, too, citing more than 130 million downloadable song purchases.
But back to the present tense. After asking the question from personal interest, I doubled back and asked Chester if they genuinely felt some pushback from their community about Rock Band 4. More specifically, is there a perception from Harmonix that people want more Rock Band on current-gen consoles like the Xbox One?
"We get this question all the time no matter what we announce," Chester explains in a voice that seems to say "It's all good, we're used to it." He continues: "'Hey we're making Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved!' 'Uh, where's Rock Band 4?' 'Hey we made a twin stick shooter with a team of less than 10 people!' 'Great, but where's Rock Band 4?'"
It's one thing when consumers ask for it, but what about when one of the most influential retail partners starts asking?
"I recently went to the GameStop Manager's Conference to show off Fantasia in September, and people are like 'Hey man people are asking us about Rock Band all the time. When are you bringing it back?' If people are hearing that at retail, maybe there's something going on. Maybe people are ready for it again," says Chester.
It's probably safe to say that part of what triggered the decline of games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero was the reliance on expensive, space-consuming plastic instruments. But Harmonix took it in stride, doing what they do so well, and adapted. Games like A City Sleeps, Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, Rock Band Blitz, and Dance Central relied on, at most, one prevalent peripheral in the form of
But what if, when a hypothetical Rock Band 4 is released, people didn't have to invest in those peripherals again? I put it to Nick Chester directly, asking if it's even technically feasible to bring last-gen instruments from Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, over to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4? Is compatibility an option?
"That's an excellent question," Chester said. "We would love for that to happen and we'd do everything in our power to make sure there's compatibility with those instruments if we were to make another Rock Band game. We've already committed to building this huge library of downloadable content that we'd hope to be able to bring to another generation of consoles. We've already done that a little with Dance Central Spotlight, and we know it's possible. That thinking carries over to the instruments as well."
Beyond a pure desire from fans, beyond things like cost and compatibility, I'm sure the licensing headaches associated with publishing a new Rock Band game in the age of Twitch keep Harmonix execs up at night. In fact, I think I heard Chester audibly groan when I brought that up! But I'll leave you with his closing thought before we course-corrected back to our Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved discussion (which I'll be writing up next week):
"We love Rock Band, it's in the company's DNA. We own the IP. And when the time's right we will absolutely come back to it. There's a whole bunch of factors to take into consideration before jumping in that pool again, but there's a desire for it, absolutely."
Do you want Rock Band 4? What would be your wishlist of songs and features?
