Rock Band 3 (Keyboards!!!! And other "pro" instruments)

[Kane Knight]

I jump off my XBox 360 and do slashing windmills.

[Kalyx triaD]

Some stuff from My Chemical Romance this week.

[Kane Knight]

This week's more Rock Band Blitz tracks as DLC. I still think RBB is the better value, but it's cool that you can buy individual tracks.

Hoping that Queen's "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" is released as part of a pack like they did with MCR and Elton John. Also hoping for a pro track. Don't really care about most of the tracks being released unless they do see pro guitar upgrades for certain tracks (and they say they have six in the works). You know, since I have them all.

[Kalyx triaD]

Rick Springfield – “Jessie’s Girl” O X 1
Rick Springfield – “I’ve Done Everything For You” X
Rick Springfield – “Don’t Talk to Strangers” O

[Kane Knight]

• Aerosmith – “Walk This Way”

• Aerosmith – “Sweet Emotion” X

• Aerosmith – “Back in the Saddle”

• Aerosmith – “Dream On (Live)” X O

• Aerosmith – “Legendary Child”

• Aerosmith – “Lover Alot”

[Kalyx triaD]

Some cool ones in there.

Awaiting the lift from Metallica's exclusive deal with Activision so we can get a massive Metallica pack.

[Kane Knight]

Pro guitar met songs could be funnnn.

[Kalyx triaD]

Extreme – “More Than Words” X
Nazareth – “Love Hurts”
Peter Cetera – “Glory of Love” O
REO Speedwagon – “Keep On Loving You” O
Soft Cell – “Tainted Love” O

[Kane Knight]

Wish it was a better Extreme song.

[RoXer]

After More Than Five Years of Weekly Updates, Rock Band DLC Will Cease This April

by Alex Navarro (http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/alex/) on <time datetime="2013-02-18" pubdate="pubdate" itemprop="datePublished">February 18, 2013</time>

With 275 straight weeks of downloadable content under its belt, Harmonix is shifting its focus elsewhere.

<figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/39/2437641-rockbandstoremain.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2437641" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image">http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_medium/0/39/2437641-rockbandstoremain.jpg (http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/39/2437641-rockbandstoremain.jpg)<figcaption>I remember when the Rock Band music store was little more than a handful of Metallica songs, a couple of David Bowie tracks, and a weird cover version of Blur's "Beetlebum."


</figcaption></figure>Reliable constants in the game industry are something of a rarity, and few of them have been more constant over the last five years than Rock Band's (http://www.giantbomb.com/rock-band/3025-567/) weekly downloadable content. For 275 straight weeks, Harmonix (http://www.giantbomb.com/harmonix-music-systems-inc/3010-648/) has been pumping out additional track downloads for whatever version of Rock Band (save for The Beatles Rock Band (http://www.giantbomb.com/the-beatles-rock-band/3030-24667/), for obvious reasons) you might own.

Every week, a minimum of a track or two--or, in several cases, entire albums worth--would appear on the various online stores, and those who still played these plastic instrument games would eagerly await the chance to pay a few bucks for new songs. Of course, the numbers of those players have dwindled in recent years, as Harmonix and the game industry as a whole have shifted toward other trends, concepts, and projects. As a result, it wasn't difficult to see what was coming.

Yes, Harmonix has today announced (http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233673) that Rock Band DLC will be coming to an end. April 2nd will be the last official DLC release day for all Rock Band platforms. The studio hasn't yet announced what the final track(s) will be, but undoubtedly we will hear the Friday prior, as we regularly have for the last several years of our lives.

It's maybe slightly insane to think about a developer, largely of its own volition, braving the various labyrinthine content submission processes of Microsoft (http://www.giantbomb.com/microsoft-studios/3010-340/), Sony (http://www.giantbomb.com/sony-computer-entertainment-incorporated/3010-995/), and Nintendo (http://www.giantbomb.com/nintendo/3010-90/) on a weekly basis, just to keep players flush with new music, for all these years. But Harmonix has done it, week in and week out, since late 2007. Over the course of that time, the studio released over 4,000 songs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_list_of_downloadable_songs_for_the_Rock_Band_series) for the larger Rock Band platform. Some of those, of course, came from the Rock Band Network (http://www.giantbomb.com/rock-band-network/3015-7161/) crowd-sourcing initiative, and as it turns out, that particular platform will remain. However, it will only remain on the Xbox 360 (http://www.giantbomb.com/xbox-360/3055-1229/), where the XNA infrastructure has allowed would-be note trackers to license, build, and sell songs for the platform. On the PlayStation 3 (http://www.giantbomb.com/playstation-3/3045-35/) and Wii (http://www.giantbomb.com/wii/3045-36/), where Harmonix had manually added tracks from the 360 RBN store, RBN songs will no longer appear.

As we speed toward the next generation of consoles, this move was perhaps inevitable. There was never much hope that we'd see a new Rock Band sequel on a new platform any time soon, and with Harmonix finding success elsewhere with the Dance Central (http://www.giantbomb.com/dance-central/3025-2093/) franchise, and presumably working on other, non-franchised products, Rock Band's DLC initiative felt more and more like a zombie of itself, something that continued to push on for reasons it seemed barely aware of any longer. While last year's Rock Band Blitz (http://www.giantbomb.com/rock-band-blitz/3030-37879/) made for a potent reminder of just what a ludicrous amount of money many of us have spent on Rock Band DLC over the years, as well as how much fun said content could be, it wasn't an indicator of some forthcoming Rock Band resurgence. In reality, it turned out to be a kind of last hurrah for the series.

According to Harmonix's official posting on the matter, the last several weeks of DLC will see the last remaining Rock Band Blitz songs added to the official DLC library, along with several artists who have yet to appear in the Rock Band catalog. I wouldn't hold out hope for Led Zeppelin or anything, but maybe we can cross our fingers for some Electric Light Orchestra, at least. Or perhaps maybe a Hum song or two. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

[Kane Knight]

Harmonix has been clear that they have upcoming prpojects, none of which are Rock Band titles, so while this disappoints, it's not shocking.

[Kalyx triaD]

This day was certainly coming eventually. Pretty sweet deal for years, though.

[Kane Knight]

I was still kind of hoping for Rock Band 4 one of these days. Still, I knew that hope was slim.

[Kalyx triaD]

That's probably still going down, maybe some dramatic return next gen.

[Kane Knight]

I'm sort of doubting it.

But at the same time, I wonder if sales of DLC might have been hampered by limited availability of instruments.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

I haven't bought any DLC in ages and this still makes me quite sad.

[Kane Knight]

I just bought Aerosmith DLC. The fact that we finally get Aerosmith only at the end of the franchise's run with DLC (Well, sort of) saddens me.

[Kalyx triaD]

At least you got that. I pretty much gotta give up anymore Metallica.

[V]

:(

[Kane Knight]

At least you got that. I pretty much gotta give up anymore Metallica.

True.

[Kalyx triaD]

The Flys – “Got You (Where I Want You) X
Queensrÿche – “Silent Lucidity” O
Staind – “It’s Been Awhile”
Staind – “So Far Away” O

[Kane Knight]

Oingo Boingo's "Weird Science" drops Tuesday with keys and pro guitar.

[Kalyx triaD]

LOL

...Seriously, that's cool.

[Kane Knight]

I'm so buying it.

[Tom Guycott]

Oingo Boingo's "Weird Science" drops Tuesday with keys and pro guitar.

That is so 80's, it deserves it's own Keytar peripheral merely on principal.

[Kalyx triaD]

You can use the keyboard controller that way. Has a strap for just that.

[Kane Knight]

So do RBN songs with Pro Keys not have a "train" option?

I only have one I know of, and there's a practice option, but I like the "train" option. Especially since you can go ten percent slower. Very useful for dense sections with real notes.

[Kalyx triaD]

Don't know, never got a RBN song with keys in it. It may be something they could do but choose not to due to the extra programming involved.

Meanwhile, the final Rock Band official DLC was revealed:

"American Pie"

[Kane Knight]

Holy shit.

[Kalyx triaD]

Yeah.

Really funny 'why didn't I ever think of this for Rock Band' moment.

[Kane Knight]

Really? Because I was hoping for it since they announced keys. After all, Band Hero had it.

[Kalyx triaD]

January 13th, 2015:

Arctic Monkeys – "R U Mine?"
Avenged Sevenfold – "Shepherd Of Fire"
Foo Fighters – "Something From Nothing"

And I'm not even trolling.

[Fignuts]

I like Shepard of Fire and Something From Nothing.

Here's hoping this takes off again, and we can get more full albums.

[Disturbed316]

Does anyone still play this?

[Kalyx triaD]

I played my keys a month or two ago. I'd play more but I need a new guitar. Also a mic stand.

[Kalyx triaD]

Feb. 17th:

Tenacious D - "Rize of the Fenix"
Weezer - "Back to the Shack"