Harmonix hit with layoffs, intended to align with 'current product development plans'

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

Happened to me as well; GH2, 3 and Rock Band I played so much and I bought RB3 with the keyboard and just was not feeling it anymore :-\

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

me too man, don't tell anyone here but i skipped out on RB3... i just don't have the same passion and drive to play music games as i used to. I do miss "drumming" sometimes though. I should ebay the 3 plastic guitars and the 2 drums sets i have :-\

@copa I assume most of that goes to Viacom (through the dried husk of what was once 'MTV Games.')

Given the current litigation, I don't expect a penny more of that makes it to Harmonix than the people at Viacom find absolutely necessary.

@Lerkero I'm a fan of music/rhythm games, and Harmonix has really set the standard from Frequency through GH/RB and Dance Central.

If there's anyone I want to continue exploring that field, it's Harmonix. Whether that requires new hardware for each game is a separate point.

@Lerkero Yea Rock Band DLC would be cool accept for the fact that all these new Rock Band 3 songs they are releasing aren't able to be played on either of the two previous versions of Rock Band. They would make a lot more money if they would have had just kept all these new RockBand 3 songs compatible with the older versions like RockBand 2 did when it came out. I bought tons of songs for Rock Band 2 but now there are no more new songs being released. Why alienate 2/3 of your customer base by trying to force them to update to RockBand 3. EPIC FAIL HARMONIX

@tankjonson It's called progress. Just be thankful that the content is forward-compatible. And it's not that uncommon. DLC released for GH:WOR can't be played in GH:5 or GH:WT.

The main reason the compatibility was able to be maintained between RB1 and RB2 is that there were no changes to the DLC structure. For RB3, since you have keyboards broken into their own track, how's RB2 supposed to know WTH to do with that when it sees it?

You either need to suck it up and get RB3 so you can have all the music available plus new DLC, or you need to just stick with RB2 and ignore those posts talking about what DLC is coming out this week, since clearly it is upsetting to you.

@tankjonson

downvoted for what? speaking some truth.. you guys realize that not EVERYONE got RB3 but if anyone says that you give them grief over it... it could have been because they thought it was the same exact game as RB2 (which IT WAS) but with features they did not want to spend extra $$$ on (real guitar, drum add-ons).

I didn't want a real guitar, i didn't want drum cymbals, and i didn't really need a keyboard peripheral to add to the 5 plastic instruments i own... so because i was uninterested in anything RB3 offered (thats right, sue me) i get automatically as$ed out of the future DLC...

ok i get it, progress, i actually understand that explanation because its true but think about this, how many RB2 players never upgraded to RB3??? so now those RB2 players won't be able to buy the new DLC that could have given MORE $$$ to Harmonix. They shot themselves in the foot right there IMHO, they could have made some extra $$ if they catered to both, but i'm not an idiot and i know thats extra work and probably a headache to make multiple versions... but don't rag on somebody because he makes a good point.

RB3 didn't sell well, and now they only cater DLC to that crowd only, making DLC not compatible with RB2 and RB1 was probably not the best way to go for a company that is suffering

@PR0F3TA Just to be clear. You *DO NOT* have to invest in any additional hardware to play RB3. All of your existing peripherals will work just FINE. Heck, they even added back in support for the stage kit in the latest title update...

@Uncle Jesse Too bad they knowing released the Wii version with bugs, because they knew we wouldn't be able to wait to play it. It soured me on spending any more money on the series.

Except they didn't get the controllers out with the game. Only now, 4 months later, when I've finally got the MIDI adapter, can I confirm that Pro Drums is a joke.

Sorry, but flams don't involve the high tom, dual-cymbal crashes don't involve hi-hats, and the ride cymbal is certainly not an acceptable open-hat alternative.

It doesn't help that the RB3 setlist is mostly Boston hipster trash that's played non-stop at dive bars across Allston/Brighton.

@jsx92

If you're using an e-drum kit (I assume you are since you're using the Midi-Pro) you can just map open hi-hat to blue (51) and closed to the usual 22. Unless your kit doesn't support mapping those separately, then you're out of luck.

As for flams, the RB kit isn't going to be able to tell if you hit one pad with two sticks and that was the best alternative.

If you want to play accurate, true-to-life drum pieces, maybe you shouldn't rely on what is basically a karaoke game for instruments.

You do have a point with the music choices, HMX has always had a pro-Boston-local-scene bias, but hey, that's why there's 2500 other songs for you to download.

@jsx92 You're pointing out compromises that Harmonix had to made, and I think they made the right decisions. Unless they expanded the kit with a hi-hat pedal and at least one other drum, which would drive costs up significantly higher than they already are, there have to be some tough calls. It makes far more sense to me to play open hi-hat on the blue cymbal (which usually corresponds to the ride) than to just play both open and closed on the yellow. If you want to learn the basics of drums, learning to hear the difference in those sounds and to understand that there is a difference between the two is far more important.

You have to draw the line somewhere, and as someone with an Ion kit with three cymbals, I am loving the hell out of pro drums.

@wcarnation I know several of them (I live in Boston)

Quality people.

@Chico

"isn't affected" or "is unaffected"

Whoops!