Tag Archives: Rock Band

Harmonix Goes It Alone

by Robin Parrish
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Harmonix Goes It Alone

Following reports last month that Viacom was looking to offload Rock Band developer Harmonix, today Harmonix’ PR guy John Drake posted a note on the Rock Band forums announcing the news: instead of being sold to another big publisher like EA or Sony, the Harmonix team has bought the company themselves. Harmonix is now officially an independent, privately-owned studio. An investment company named Columbus Nova provided much of the capitol that Harmonix needed to buy the company from Viacom. As a result, there is now a new company called “Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC.” What does all this mean for you? If you’re a Rock Band or Dance Central player, fear not. Read more »

Music Games Need a Revolution

by Robin Parrish
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Music Games Need a Revolution

News broke today that Harmonix — the creator of Rock Band — is being sold by its owner, Viacom. No buyer yet is lined up, but the bottom line is that Viacom wants to offload the company because it’s losing money. For years now, the music game subgenre has been in decline, with sales numbers receding faster than Donald Trump’s hairline. Enthusiasts still adore the games and eagerly await new releases, but music games seem to have over-saturated store shelves to the point that casual gamers no longer see the value in buying new games and controllers, when they’re usually little more than variants on the same old theme. Industry Read more »

Rock Band of the Future

by Robin Parrish
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Rock Band of the Future

This is how they would have played Rock Band in Back to the Future Part II. You know, if Rock Band had existed back in the 80s when the Back to the Future movies were filmed, so they could have predicted how Rock Band might look in the future. Only the future to them was 2015, which is just five years away from us in the here and now, and their late 80s predictions of our near-future are turning out to be so thirty years away. Anyhoo. Check out this brilliantly-made video that shows what everybody’s favorite video game music simulator might look like in the future. Something like this Read more »

Rock Band 3 adds piano

by Robin Parrish
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Rock Band 3 adds piano

A long-awaited holy grail of rhythmic games is finally coming to pass. Harmonix and MTV Games have just announced that Rock Band 3 is adding a piano keyboard to its collection of instruments — a collection that already includes guitar, bass, drums, and three microphones (for three-party harmonies). That’s seven players that can rock out together at one time. Before you get too excited, I should point out that the new piano peripheral is a small, two-octave keyboard, sporting just 25 keys. The drum kit is getting an upgrade that includes three cymbals, and the two guitars available for Rock Band 3 will have actual strings. Read more »

Jane's Addiction finally getting RB DLC release

by Mel
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Jane's Addiction finally getting RB DLC release

I just bought all of the Rock Band DLCs a little over a month ago and at this point I’m not even halfway through the songs because i keep going back to the songs that I love playing — which is surprisingly a lot. But despite being up to my eyeballs in Rock Band DLCs I’m already earmarking money for next week’s purchase because it’s gonna be an awesome bunch of songs. Harmonix and MTV Games has announced that Jane’s Addiction will be the featured artist for next week’s DLC release. Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking album will be finally released after so much delay. Actually, the first announcement of this Read more »

Beatles Rock Band release day will also be D-Day for Beatles remastered albums

by Mel
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Beatles Rock Band release day will also be D-Day for Beatles remastered albums

I remember being stoked about the announcement of The Beatles: Rock Band game that will be released on September 9. Being a longtime fan of the The Beatles I knew that this was a game that I will want to have. What made the game doubly interesting is that the songs in the game will be remastered versions of the originals. As Beatles fans well know, The Beatles catalogue has yet to be given a remastering treatment. The closest we got was the Love Soundtrack for the Cirque de Soleil show. It has remained unreleased up to now despite a clamor from fans. But that wait is now over. Apple Read more »

AK Rock Box Gaming and Storage Ottoman

by Jim
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AK Rock Box Gaming and Storage Ottoman

What does 38″ long by 22″ wide and 17″ tall ottoman mean? Well to some it may mean extra space to park crashing friends in a small flat, BUT now it seems the old ottoman has found new function… say in keeping your Rock Band controllers! I’ve been to some of my friends’ homes and well, you’d see the “organized chaos” with those Rock Band controllers left in a corner, on a corner table, under the Christmas trees (ha! yes, some of them still have their trees!). Still some of them would compromise by putting it in their coat closets and (much worse) under the kitchen sink. Read more »

Rock Band: The Beatles will feature previously unreleased material

by Mel
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Rock Band: The Beatles will feature previously unreleased material

A cursory look at what I usually blog about would immediately reveal how much I love music rhythm games. I am literally obsessed with it. Being a huge Beatles fan (one of my ultimate goals as a dad is to turn my children on to The Beatles) I was really quite excited when Harmonix announced Rock Band: The Beatles. I think it was a product aimed squarely at me. I always consider this upcoming game a coup for Harmonix and MTV Games because it is so hard to get permission to use The Beatles’ work for anything. The idea alone of playing to actual recordings of The Beatles is reason Read more »

Pearl Jam's Ten to get Rock Band treatment

by Mel
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Pearl Jam's Ten to get Rock Band treatment

Pearl Jam may not be as popular today as they did in their heyday during the 90′s but I still think that they’re one of the best bands in the world. I loved playing some of the Pearl Jam songs that have managed to enter the music genre, first with the added content for Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360, and then with Rock Band 2′s inclusion of Alive from their debut album. Now Peal Jam fans will have the opportunity to play all the tracks from their Ten album. Rock Band 2 will release the album as a DLC on March 24, 2009, coinciding with the release of Read more »

Nirvana goes Rock Band

by Mel
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I knew it was gonna happen. Harmonix announced that Nirvana will finally get the Rock Band treatment it deserves as it releases a seven-song pack from their album Nevermind. The seven songs (all of them master recordings) are: “Breed” “Lounge Act” “On a Plain” “Polly” “Something in the Way” “Stay Away” “Territorial Pissings” Xbox360 owners will get the songs on Oct. 21 while PS3 owners will get it on Oct. 23. This frustrates me so much because of my guitar problem. Have to rectify this immediately! Read more »