The causes of the great video game crash of 1983 were complex, but over-saturation of the market and poor quality game releases were major factors in the outcome. In the past two years, the once thriving music game industry went through a similar downturn. At one point, the genre seemed invincible, and yet it still crashed, hard. The similarities between the great video game crash of 1983 and the demise of the music genre are impossible to ignore.
Harmonix has confirmed that there will be no new Rock Band game this year. They have no immediate plans for a sequel, but are currently working on new concepts to advance the Rock Band franchise. The good news for all you Rock Band fans out there is that there's plenty of DLC planned for this year instead. Reportedly, tracks from Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga, and the Foo Fighters are planned to be available for download later this month.
Big news from Harmonix today: the complete set list for Rock Band 3 has been revealed! It's an excellent mix of tunes across five decades, and with the addition of keyboards, there's a bit more pop included. Don't worry, though, there's still plenty of rock and roll. We've also got a trailer featuring the new keyboard gameplay. But seriously, why are you still reading this? Check out the track list and tell us what you think!
The demo for the latest band-centric music game, Green Day: Rock Band, is now available for download. XBLA and PSN users can check out "Welcome to Paradise" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to decide whether this title is worth the gaming buck this unusually busy summer season. But a preview of the upcoming Green Day game isn't the most interesting part of the demo.
Microsoft has launched a brand new dedicated music store section to Xbox Live featuring all the music downloads for Rock Band, Guitar Hero and the Lips franchises.
The sales numbers for DJ Hero are in, and they are disappointing at best. 122,300 copies of the game were sold across all platforms. That's very low for a music game, especially one that was as heavily promoted as DJ Hero. Ars Technica attempted to explain the low sales, and fans of co-op will likely appreciate this particular reason:
LEGO Rock Band. It's a mix of two of the greatest casual game franchises. What could have been just a cookie cutter track pack is actually an innovative addtion to the Rock Band franchise. Adorable characters, hilarious cut scenes, and a fun song list will keep people of all ages interested. For Co-Op Casual Friday this week, we bring you our full review!
Last year we applauded Microsoft's entry into the music genre with Lips. Unique LED and motion sensitive microphones, plus a packed song list with plenty of co-op options made for a great party. Lips is back with the first sequel, called Lips #1 Hits. But is it worth your money?
If there was one thing holding Rock Band 2 back from being the perfect music game, it would have to be the lack of support for wireless microphones. A patch has just been released that fixes this problem, allowing rockers to use the Lips microphones (also recently released seperately) in a fully wireless environment. We're pleased with the addition of this feature, but curious as to why it took so long. After all, wireless mic support was announced last year!
Is the music game genre oversaturated? Some might say yes. I'd argue otherwise; there's still plenty of good music out there that isn't available in video game form. In any event, we have some details about Harmonix's upcoming cutesified LEGO Rock Band. Iggy Pop will be appearing in the game, as the tutorial voice, and also in plastic action figure form, as you an see above. Iggy's song "The Passenger" will be in the game's song list.
Guitar Hero 5 hits the shelves and the fall rush begins. What's new this time around? Is this just more of the same from Activision? Does Guitar Hero 5 redeem the franchise, from a co-op perspective? Find out in our review!
Guitar Hero 5 hit the streets yesterday, and now we now a bit more about the game. We were specifically curious about the import features. Rock Band 2 supported the import of the Rock Band disc songs last year. We loved this feature, and when it was announced that it was finally being added to Guitar Hero, we were quite pleased. Last night, I was unable to contact the servers to try the import, but USA Today has the info. Edit: Updated information below.
