Perhaps it could have had a successful life as the busker – the ‘Unplugged’ of the Rock Band franchise. Perhaps Harmonix got it wrong when marketing Rock Band 4. While the party ecosystem among my friends wasn’t there to support it, as Harmonix probably wanted it to be, Rock Band 4 actually wormed a way into my home by being the mindless solo game of choice. And Rock Band 4 actually became the late night, wife-gone-to-bed, game of choice. I’d forgotten the tracks that I’d bought, and was giddy when I saw them again on the Network.
#ROCK BAND 4 BAND IN A BOX UPDATE#
The main joy was a simple one: I wanted to update Rock Band to the Xbox One. While it offered barely anything new (Freestyle was fine, but I couldn’t have cared less about the drummer being able to count in a song), and in fact stripped out a fair few things from Rock Band 3 (it didn’t launch with online play, for example), Rock Band 4 felt like something I needed back in my life. Rock Band 4 actually got a fair amount of play in this household. A game had to have a VERY good reason to clog up my broom cupboard.Īnd yet. Personally, peripherals were becoming the bane of my existence – toys to life were on the downward curve, and I had Skylanders and Infinity toys out the wazoo. It felt so new back in the days of the first Rock Band, and that enthusiasm was enough to get over the hump of constructing the drum-kit, say. Rock Band parties round a mate’s house also felt outdated – they were so 2008 – and we just didn’t have the desire to pop round and get all the kit out. Foo Fighters! Eh, it’s just Feast and the Famine). Rock Band 4’s packaged songs felt limp, which was probably to be expected after so many years of mining them (Aerosmith! No, wait, it’s just Toys in the Attic. Rock Band was already a live service to me – the Rock Band Network had been housing my songs for years, so I’d already treated it in the way they intended. I’ve been a lifelong Guitar Hero and Rock Band fan, but I remember Rock Band 4 coming out and feeling a slow-motion shrug. I can only imagine the contract negotiations and royalties that got that move greenlit.īut something had been lost.
The generosity in that statement got two-fingerhorns up from me – they could easily have eyed the cash and made a choice that flicked a finger to the consumer. The plastic gathering dust in your loft would port over to Rock Band 4, and the tracks in your Rock Band Network library would too. There weren’t thousands of pounds (weight or £, your choice) of peripherals either, and the emphasis was on continuity. Freestyle solos and freestyle vocals allowed you and your mates to scat or noodle like there was no tomorrow, and that was kind of fun. Gone was Rock Band 3’s elitist messaging of ‘this is for the real musicians’, and in came the message of ‘party!’. It was mutually assured destruction.Īt least Rock Band 4 got its messaging right. Plus, the market was barely ready for a single guitar-centric rhythm action game, yet Rock Band and Guitar Hero decided to make comebacks at almost exactly the same time (Guitar Hero returned with Guitar Hero Live, one month later). The sales of Rock Band 3 were so incredibly low – 7,400 sold – that the magnitude of improvement had to be ridiculous. Released five years after Rock Band 3 nearly wiped Harmonix and MadCatz off the map, and three years after any other packaged Rock Band product, Rock Band 4 always felt like a crazy proposition.
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