Harmonix brainstorming 'reimaginings' of Rock Band, new motion games

He thinks there's diehard guitar hero fans who are upset that GH is dead, but haven't already tried Rockband? Seems very, very doubtful.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Dhani Harrison back at a wedding in the summer (he is a close friend of the groom). I asked him about the then upcoming Rock Band 3, to which he said that it was pretty much done, and continued to talk about the next project called "Rock Band: NF" which he said stood for "New Frontiers", which he said would change the formula around a bit. When I asked what would be so new about it, he replied "that's what we're trying to figure out". This was pretty late on and he was thoroughly drunk at this point, if you're wondering why he would give away this information.

This is perfectly legit btw, I have no reason to lie. I also asked him if there was anymore DLC coming for Beatles RB, and he said that he didn't know at that point, but hoped their would be more. I then said that I would love Revolver to go on there, to which he said that he was pushing for Revolver to be DLC from the start.

Rock Band 3 is a really, really nice game. Between keyboard and pro guitar, I'll still be scratching the surface over the next year, and it's still a party favorite around here. I really hope that they are able to support the DLC for another year or two.

On the Wii and PS3, there are singing/gesture games. Yes, the Lips microphone has a gyroscope and it can detect some movement, but I imagine INIS will be announcing a Kinect Lips game at E3. Unfortunately for some, dance games are one of the big motion games across all three platforms. Ubisoft has to have a Just Dance for the 360 in mind as well.

There is a lot of innuendo in this article, that Harmonix is unaware of something that the blogger, and the rest of the world, knows so well.

Two mega-companies have gotten out of the rhythm game business, that's all we, or anyone, really knows at this point. The reason for the decline in sales of rhythm games could be precisely because of the mega-companies involvement--in the way the franchises were pushed, and that the franchises made a new generation of plastic instruments a part of the sales pitch, at least a couple-few times. Would Harmonix have done it this way? We know from Bungie and Halo, that Microsoft made key decisions about cost and packaging that Bungie wouldn't have made (ODST costing $60 instead of $40, as was Bungie's stated intention.) If a developer like Harmonix owned the right to market its own way, the outcome could have been different, and it could be better in the future.

As long as people love music, and as long as a smart developer like Harmonix, which has proven with Dance Central that it can make a relevant music game, even after the rhythm game gold rush, then taking a glass half full attitude seems more wise, than foolish. At least to this rhythm gamer.

I've never played any Guitar Hero or Rockband games, but I got RB3 because of the possibility of using a real guitar with it. I think the big mistake was to have the Fender Squier not be available until...well..today.

Making all new DLC incompatible with RB2 was a terrible move and I think its really going to hurt the genre. There are still a lot of people who dont want to buy yet another music game, they just want the songs. Platform dependency is something that desperately needs to be eliminated.

Continued Updates to Rock Band 3 for the year... Awesome!

Now if they could make the stage kit work without having to be the Microphone controller when I have 4 people playing...

Oh and add more songs I like. there is never enough songs I like.

Don't worry Alex, just keep cranking out that good DLC and you'll be fine. You already got $7 of my money on reserve for that NIN pack coming out

music games in general need a "re-imagining" because playing with a plastic instrument got a little old. The real instruments gave it a fresh feel but it was headed in that direction either way. I have no clue whats the next step but i hope they figure it out before they run out of money

Ugh, don't go the Guitar Hero route. The genre doesn't need a reboot. It needs DLC forevermore. And get some more bands we haven't seen in Rock Band - U2, Pink Floyd, etc.

I think this music genre is finally dieing out.

I would have bought Rock Band 3 day one if I had one of those job things. Will be the first game I purchase whenever I get back to work.

I'm still waiting for them to patch Rock Band 3 to have a feature Guitar Hero 5 had. Why with drop in drop out functionality can I not play with two drums, two guitars.... heck even four guitars? Guitar Hero could! Don't get me wrong, I'm strictly for Rock Band, as I think the experience is better but it really sucks playing with a friend that also.... only likes drums. :(

RockBand 3 would probably sell more if they fixed the problems! I know that it is at least keeping ppl from buying it on the Wii

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR THE WII - IT IS BROKEN OUT OF THE BOX AND HARMONIX /EA/ NINTENDO ARE CURRENTLY DOING NOTHING TO FIX IT.

For me, this is a family game. We were so excited to be adding a keyboard and a lot of new music to our collction.
We got it as a family gift for Christmas.
From the very beginning it was frustrating.
The first thing we noticed was that the Bass (kick) drum is out of sync. Try all you want with various calibration methods and it will never be there.
Then we noticed the vocal problems. The vocals don't register accurately and it is impossible to go into overdrive vocally.
Then it gave us the high pitched screeeeeach over the speakers.
Then it crashed after a song.
It is very frustrating to play and we usually just give up and go back to RB2 or GH:5

Here is a link discussing on the problems on the RockBand.com forum:
[...](Amazon won't allow an outside link so Do a search for "Confirmed and condensed List of RB3 bugs for HMX to patch on WII")

1. Bass pedal out of sync no matter what you do to calibrate

2. Dreamscapes sometimes appear in all of the songs you play in a setlist, or randomly for no reason, even when not on All instrument mode.

3. High pitched noises while starting some songs with the mics connected, this wont go away unless you go back to the song listing. This will also cause the mics to get stuck with some kind of feedback and become unresponding untill you wait some time or disconnect them (as if the buzz is still reverberating for some time)

4. Random Freezes while finishing a song (score screens), making setlists, connecting to the music store. Sometimes the loading icon will remain and you have to reset the console, sometimes the music will just stutter and after some time you are able to continue.

5. Shaky arrow on vocals, it goes all over the place even when it is registering your voice kinda ok (not perfectly like it did on RB though)

6. Overdrive not activating when playing with a little of high volume

7. Some talkies in the songs dont register at all, maybe it has something to do with number 6

8. You cant hear yourself at all through the speakers when singing, only if you lower the original track to a minimum and still your voice comes out strange or really low or distorted (maybe it has something to do with mic sensitivity once again)

9. Pedal hooked up to Keyboard does not trigger Overdrive (I believe this is a universal issue across all platforms)

10. During the load screen between songs in a setlist, the Wii cut off all power/connections to the USB ports (i.e., all accessories attached quit working & the status lights on my USB hub indicated no connection). This led to having to press RESET to do anything else, as even activating the Wii Remote wasn't helpful since the other instruments couldn't "drop out."

11. When the game decides to do Dreamscapes instead of venues, characters do not show at all, not one of them. Therefore, since while playing online the game always chooses Dreamscapes, we cant see other ppl characters.

12. Issue: vocal volume (noted already) example here: [...] -- that has the track vocals turned all the way down and my mic turned all the way up. It's a direct cap so that's what is getting sent to the sound system. The band sounds just fine, the vocals are quiet as a mouse. In the video you also can see the jumpy vocal cursor issue.

13. Issue: unreliable taps. I think in some cases it is due to song timing slightly speeding up or slowing down but I am regularly missing taps on certain songs (this is not normal). I've switched to using the WiiMote because using the mic is an invitation to fail.

14. Breakneck Speed always disabled in Practice Mode

15. Some character models sometimes break during the performance, showing strange polygons out of their arms or instruments, this goes on to the cutscenes if you dont log out and re-login (I guess it reloads the character models)

A discussion of these and other issues can be found at the rockband forum:

Love ya Harmonix keep putting out great games that bring my non-gamer friends together with the gamer ones

Hm... Yeah! How about 'Dance Central' for the PlayStation Move. I BET! It would sell better than the Kinect version did if they released it for both the Move and a hacked down version for the Wii like Just Dance. IT would sell better than Just Dance because it has Harmonix name on it. That would trump Ubisoft. But, I guess EA doesn't want to stepn Ubisofts toes, they rather crush Activision.

Isn't it awesome how not only are the console wars PS3 vs Xbox 360, but also Electronic Arts vs Activision. Everyone used to hate Electronic Arts, but now they've discovered there's a greater evil and they develop Call of Duty.

I don't think the market is asking for anything new, I think they just shrunk.

Don't reinvent the wheel, just scale back down with the market. Maintain that core, and maybe the seed will grow again.

Don't screw this up, Harmonix.

I think the Rock Band franchise could continue to live on as a platform, as they've been doing with DLC, but they need a way to actively keep it in the mind of gamers. I expect that creating hype for DLC will get harder and harder as time passes, if the Rock Band franchise doesn't get any other kind of "news" which can be sent out.

Not to mention they need that hype to bring newer consumers on board. Typically you use a sequel for that, but that's probably not the safest move for them.

I can think one example of Guitar Hero enthusiasts never trying Rock Band being almost the entire GH population of Australia. Seriously, it's ridiculous how many people here shun Rock Band because "the notes are too hard to hit" or "I simply don't like it". Those two excuses are the only two anyone ever gives me and they're not even halfway decent.

I am looking forward to new Harmonix games.:)

Though I still can't even get my "Well Connected" achievement even though everything is linked and my profile updated from what I played in the game! I need that 6 pt achievement since uneven numbers drive me insane! *Ahem*, cough cough. But yeah. RB3 is a good time.

Well, I'll be sticking with them as long as they're around. Any conversation or interaction I've ever had with HMX folk (cons, forums, etc) has always shown the studio to be made up of great people. And those great people have always made great games with their feet hanging in a pool of music/rythm heritage and purpose.

I would perosnally love a new game-y rythm game like Frequency. There have been some indie projects (like Audiosurf) come out but nothing from a western developer with a larger budget in a long time. Ok, minus DH Hero. I wish I had easier access to foreign games like DJMax Technika. But I don't. IIDX, Pop'n, all that stuff is fun but Harmonix handles charting in a very different way than those developers because their not influenced by a long history of rythm games that has created a standard of sorts, an expected flow. And that really not only affects the charting but also the presentation & execution. There's also, of course, the obvious localized music aspect.

Best wishes to them with the RockBand platform. Me, I'm looking forward to their other unannounced projects and the future of Dance Central.

They just don't get it - with our expectations of RB3, we are now spoiled. We don't want to just *pretend* that we're playing the instruments - make a game that actually TEACHES us how to play! The drums and singing do a pretty good job, but the guitar is bad and the piano is terrible. Let's get some real piano/guitar tablature into the game! And the *actual* notes, not just some poor interpretation of the treble-notes (like the keyboard for RB3)!

They just don't get it - with our expectations of RB3, we are now spoiled. We don't want to just *pretend* that we're playing the instruments - make a game that actually TEACHES us how to play! The drums and singing do a pretty good job, but the guitar is bad and the piano is terrible.

Let's get some real piano/guitar tablature into the game! And the *actual* notes, not just some poor interpretation of the treble-notes (like the keyboard for RB3)!