rock-band-3 posts (Subscribe to this feed)

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Dhani Harrison, The Beatles: Rock Band contributor (and son of the late, great George Harrison), spoke about his involvement in future iterations of the popular rhythm franchise. "I'm working on Rock Band 3 and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game," Harrison explained toward the end of the interview. "Give me a couple years, it's going to happen."

We wish Harrison and the entire Harmonix crew the best of luck in this endeavor, if only so they can finally stymie the infinitely deplorable "why don't you learn how to play a real instrument" contingency. Man, we hate those guys.

Sure, The Beatles: Rock Band developer Harmonix has been busy working on next week's big release for some time now, but did you know it's also working on "re-energizing" its "core franchises?" Harmonix PR overlord John Drake told CVG as much, saying that while the studio is ready to refocus on its existing portfolio, it's been busy making sure it got The Beatles game 100 percent right. "We were terrified while making the game, hoping we don't make [Apple Corps] mad at any point -- they're really nice and easy to work with, but this is The Beatles, you can't afford to mess this up."


Considering the longtime rhythm game developer more or less re-energized its Amplitude and Frequency franchises with Rock Band Unplugged, we're taking a wild stab in the dark here when we suggest Drake's likely talking about Rock Band 3. And does "re-energizing" in this case mean "adding Project Natal functionality?" We're not sure yet, but we've got our fingers as uncrossed as possible, just in case.

It's no surprise that Harmonix is working on expanding the Rock Band franchise in some way. This year brings The Beatles: Rock Band, but what will the future hold? MTV Games head Scott Guthrie talked to MCV about "what is effectively the next game, or 'Rock Band 3'." Guthrie doesn't deny that the next major release from Harmonix could be another artist collaboration a la The Beatles, but whatever the next project is will undoubtedly reflect a major change for the franchise.

"We aren't standing still," Guthrie notes. "We will keep moving into new areas and look at new technologies that our platform holder partners are also developing, such as Project Natal from Microsoft. We're working with them to pull some things together."

Obviously, with Project Natal barely in its infancy, it's unlikely we'll see much of a Natal-enabled Harmonix project any time soon. It certainly is an interesting concept, one that has us wondering how exactly Natal could possibly enhance the plastic instrument experience. Certainly, Harmonix must be wondering the same thing.

[Thanks, Nick!]

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has revealed that the developer won't be releasing a third Rock Band game in 2009, Lego or otherwise. Speaking at a CES conference, Rigopulos said Harmonix has deliberately opted to "break out of the annual release cycle," as sticking rigidly to such a schedule "places limits on the choices you can make as a developer."

Though he didn't mention it, we also suspect the mysterious Beatles game is a factor in Harmonix's decision to put Rock Band 3 on ice. If Activision can follow this example and resist releasing a new Guitar Hero game this calendar year, 2009 could be those rarest of things: a year where we don't end up having to buy another bunch of plastic instruments. Our closets are already sighing with relief at the thought.


[Via Game|Life]

Yesterday, during a keynote speech at Billboard's "Digital Music Live," conference, Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopolous (center-right) revealed the developer will not release a sequel to Rock Band 2 in 2009.

"We've actually made a choice to break out of the annual release cycle for Rock Band this year," Rigopolous announced at the conference. The Harmonix CEO cited a partial reason for decision was because, "annual cycles place limits on the choices [a developer] can make" and Harmonix would like to think long-term with its music platform.

According to Crispy Gamer, when asked about EA's reaction to the promise of not releasing Rock Band 3 this year, Rigopolous confirmed they were understanding of the decision. "They know how important this series is and they're willing to give it the time it needs," he said.

Currently, Harmonix is hard at work developing a new title based on The Beatles catalog of music and indicated with that license sewn-up, the developer would like to work on bringing Led Zeppelin into the genre, in the future.

[Thanks, Patrick Y.]

We were wondering why EA would pit an upcoming Beatles/Rock Band hybrid against the next numbered iteration of the series this fall, and now we have our answer: It won't. According to Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopolous, who spoke at a Billboard CES session today, the company will be breaking the annual release cycle and avoid releasing Rock Band 3 this year.

Are we alone in hoping Harmonix avoids releasing it in 2010 also?