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Rock Band Takes a Step in the Right Direction

Posted by Bob Mackey

The title of this post may be a bit misleading; after all, Rock Band has consistently improved on the music game genre since its inception. But it looks like the series is going to continue with its tradition of excellence by washing its hands (temporarily, anyway) of the assumed-to-be-mandatory yearly installment. According to a Crispy Gamer CES report, Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopolous said just as much during a keynote interview:

“We’ve actually made a choice to break out of the annual release cycle for Rock Band this year,” Rigopolous told the assembled press and industry members. “[This is] partly because the annual cycle places limits on the choices you can make as a developer. We’re trying to take a long term view.”

Of course, Alex Rigopolous shouldn't exactly be made the patron saint of music gaming; after all, Harmonix is hard at work on their upcoming beatles game, which may include a bevy of new plastic instruments to take up space in your home. But in the meantime, I'm happy to hear that Harmonix themselves have admitted to the uselessness of a Rock Band sequel at this point in time. You could make an argument that Rock Band 2 was somewhat necessary, what with the original Rock Band's instruments being far from perfect, but I'm not really sure what a third Rock Band game would add that couldn't be applied through patches or downloadable content.

I guess it's just nice to see Harmonix treating their own game as the platform that it was always meant to be. They might have changed their tune had the economy not assumed its current state of being in the toilet, but for the time being we can spend that extra two hundred dollars a year on food, shelter, and weapons for the inevitable breaking out of class warfare.

Related Links:

Everyone Will be Able to Rock
My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Rock Band 2
Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero

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Posted Jan 12 2009, 02:00 PM

Filed under: rock band, harmonix, bob mackey, rock band 2, economy

Comments

Roto13 said:

Guitar Hero could very well burn everyone out on the genre before Rock Band 3 has the chance to come out.

January 12, 2009 4:40 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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