Welcome to part two of VideoGamer interview with Harmonix design director Rob Kay. Yesterday he answered questions on the controversy over Rock Band's pricing in the UK as well as Xbox 360 exclusivity and the dispute with Guitar Hero publisher Activision. Today, VideoGamer brings you his thoughts on the future of Rock Band, from DLC to "crazy blue sky" thinking, and why it can help you play drums in real life.
VideoGamer.com: On SingStar PS3 there's a video creation tool and you can upload your own videos. Any plans for something similar with Rock Band?
Rob Kay: I think it's a cool feature. I haven't actually seen it myself. We've talked about ways of recording performances and we've riffed on that idea. We haven't got anything in the works right now. But I wouldn't rule it out for the future.
VideoGamer.com: Harmonix as a studio - is it Rock Band and Rock Band only for the foreseeable future or does the team fancy doing something else?
RK: Music in gaming is where we're at, it's been our reason for being for many years. We want to do justice to Rock Band and what it's creating. We see possibilities for taking it forward. But we're also full of ideas for other games within musical gaming. We're structuring ourselves internally so that we can both deliver all of this music and incremental upgrades to Rock Band, while also devoting enough of our time to just real blue sky crazy s$!t.
TheGamer Writes "Harmonix has proven plenty of times it can make Rock Band work without instruments."
I mean, yeah, but was anyone saying otherwise? The fact is people liked the plastic instruments rather than pressing buttons on a controller. They enjoyed the simulated experience.
"Work"? No, but to be good? It's absolutely necessary. Not having the accessories is like playing a lightgun shooter with an analog stick sure it works, but one experience is completely unique and fun as hell, and other is torture trying to make do playing in a way it was never meant to be played
"trying to make do in a way it was never meant to be played"
I disagree. The accessories were a fun gimmick (and very marketable) but they were added AFTER the genre had been well established with games like Frequency and Amplitude (both also made by Harmonix).
The gameplay formula is different on a controller - there's a focus on switching lanes and contributing to all of the instruments.
Never played Frequency, but Amplitude and Rock Band Blitz were really good. I would love to get more of that kind of game. It's basically a different part of the genre, and stands on its own.
The insurmountable difference in popularity between Amplitude and Rock Band proves my point
Popularity isn't proof of quality. If it was, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now. lol. Our disagreement wasn't over which one is more popular. Amplitude and Blitz just aren't "torture" to play.
Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live failed to revive their sub-genre, and Rock Band 4 caused Mad Catz to have to file for bankruptcy. Doesn't mean that instrument-based music games are bad.
It does mean that there's too much overhead and risk for anyone to take a gamble on a big budget game that needs instrument accessories now though.
For the genre to thrive, for now, it needs to do so without the instrument accessories. That's just a fact, unfortunately.
VR games like Beat Sabre (a new sub-genre) and traditional music games make more sense and are more viable right now.
*"If quality is always proved by popularity, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now."
I think CHEAP plastic instruments is THE reason why the instrument-genre ‘died’.
People invested in buying the game AND the peripherals, so the guitar, the dj-set, the drum, whatever, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. Great fun, great music, etc.
But then the instruments would break. A button would stop working, or your hits wouldn’t register, and that kind of hardware failure would end in you not being able to play the game as intended, and thus you not getting the scores you deserve.
So, now you had a great game, but a broken instrument, and nobody is gonna buy a new plastic instrument every 3-6 months in order to keep playing the game.
A solution would have been to release better quality instruments (obviously), at a slightly higher price, so you could have kept the new games coming and the genre alive, but sadly, that didn’t happen.
The only issue I ever had with any of the hardware was the drum pedal on the original rock band set stared to crack in half. The reason I, and other friends I know who played, lost interest is they weren't putting out new tracks that we were interested in anymore. I think earlier this year I looked through the releases for the last 2 years or so, and there was maybe 3 songs I would have bought.
Yeah I had this happen too with my drum controller, I ended up attaching a metal strip to it which fixed it up nicely.
Bust a Groove, Gitaroo Man and Parrapa the Rappa were such good games. Neither needed any extra peripherals
Player 2's long-form feature about kids and video games continues with a look at introducing toddlers to games for the first time.
Music rhythm games dominated the video game market in the mid-2000s. Unfortunately, the genre would fall from grace shortly after finding success.
More like faded away than failed. Failed implies it was new and didnt take off... that is not the case. Rhythm games were hugely popular but the lights dimmed and the show is over.
You would think the current situation would cause a resurgence but im actually seeing more people picking up real instruments and learning to play. My son is one who started out on GH and now he plays real guitar.
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I also got into playing guitar through Guitar Hero and Rock Band. And I know at least three other people who did the same.
Still get Rock Band out a few times a year. I really don't think you can say it failed when they're still bring out DLC every week! They must be making enough money from it to keep the licensing going!
Basically the reason the artist Prince did not want his music on those types of games. As he believed it was better for kids to actually learn to play a real instrument than to play with toys that really did not teach how to read music and how to actually play an instrument correctly.
A lot of music now a days is just done on a sound board and the creator has no real clue if the music was put on a sheet in front of them to play. The term musician has taken on a new meaning in recent times.
I lost interest when they stopped allowing you to use the controller to play with, just couldn't get into playing with the guitar.
Rock band 4 allows controller. Though I just bought RB4 again so I can replay my favorite music rhythm game.
I didn't know that. I haven't played a lot of Rock Band, but have a lot of Guitar Hero, I'll definitely check it out.
Not the sole reason, but over saturation by Activision releasing 5 GH games in one year, charging full price for all of them while only Metallica and GH5 were worth it.
I dont think these games failed at all. People aren't going to keep buying games and peripherals over and over. All songs need to work on either rockband or guitar hero thru updates. Guitar hero live was actually good but rockband with all its songs and same equipment killed it.
I'm sure part of the reason they faded away, at least over the long term, was that you couldn't download them digitally.
As far as Rock Band goes I hope they stay focused on new songs and upgrades rather than trying to sell new discs and controllers that do ostensibly the same thing <cough>guitar hero<cough>.
That would be awesome to see a song creation tool. It would keep me coming back.
there is not one mention of why it was decided that Rockband would be a timed exclusive for the 360 and why the European customers got shafted severely on the pricing.
Now, we always have had to pay a premium for games in europe, but more than double the price of the same thing in the US?
I am actually glad I imported this for the PS3, I actually SAVED money.
so, EA,, Harmonix -F*** You
At the price they're going to throw it out at in the UK then they can keep my copy. I guess I won't be playing this game yet afterall until they stop taking the urine.
They expect us to pay over £150/$300 for all the kit.
So then, this beckons a very interesting question. The interview talked about DLC and getting exclusive DLC getting released in other regions. Like, UK stuff getting released in the US.
So, what would happen if that were true, and the PS3 version hasn't been released yet in the UK? Does that mean that PS3 owners wouldn't get it until that version was released in the UK? Or would we get it at the same time as Xbox 360?
I guess that's just a question that will be answered when and if we get to that bridge. :/
But Muse? Dude, that would piss off a lot of people if we didn't get some Muse over in the States. XD