The Future of Rock Band

By Christopher Martin on December 23, 2009

The Future of Rock Band  | read this item

With Rock Band developer and Guitar Hero creator Harmonix announcing their next band-exclusive title, Green Day: Rock Band, they’ve surprised a lot of people. Where The Beatles was seen as a tribute and homage to the band, Green Day: Rock Band seems not only less special, but much less important, and more in line with Guitar Hero’s consistent band-exclusive releases (both Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Van Halen were released in 2009). With that said, the one question everybody instantly had regarding the ability to export the Green Day songs into Rock Band 2 was answered almost immediately after the game’s announcement.

With over 1000 songs available for download, it’s tough to want to play any other music game but Rock Band 2 if you have a vast library of music paid for. Variety is the key to keeping Rock Band sessions fresh, and who wouldn’t want to be able to mix in a little Basket Case with maybe some Offspring or Rise Against? Importing songs from other Rock Band titles, as well as collecting them via download, has largely been Rock Band’s key to success.

But where does that leave the game with regards to future titles? Sure, they can keep bumping out band specific games for a little while longer, but eventually gamers are going to want progression. George Harrirson’s son, Dhani Harrison, has claimed that he’s collaborating with Harmonix on the next Rock Band game, assumed to finally be Rock Band 3, and he’s made a bold claim: Rock Band 3 will teach people who to play music. In order to do this, the mechanics of the game will have to change drastically. Obviously, after so many years and releases, Rock Band 3 needs to be new and fresh; the gaming community simply can’t tolerate yet another rhythm based game that doesn’t bring progression… and with DJ Hero pushing the genre forward, Rock Band is no doubt looking for change with the next full-fledged sequel.

Green Day: Rock Band’s presentation looks nearly identical to Rock Band 2’s at this stage

Which brings up the vast library of songs that have accumulated through the first Rock Band, Rock Band 2, the AC/DC Live release, The Beatles: Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band, and the hundreds of songs available for download (not to mention the soon-to-launch Rock Band Network), how do you push the game forward, without leaving all of this behind? If they’re to retool the mechanics of Rock Band, thousands of songs would have to be adapted to match, which will not only require an insane amount of man-power, but perhaps even renegotiations with record labels.

Perhaps acquiring such a vast library of music for the games will ultimately prevent the series from moving forward drastically. Rock Band 2 was not a huge leap from the original, with the basic mechanics remaining the same, and all spin-offs since have barely changed the formula; if the next Rock Band is as different sounding as Dhani Harrison is making it seem to be, one has to wonder and be a bit concerned with how this will play out. Will we be able to keep the thousands of songs as the series moves on, or will we have to pop in our copies of Rock Band 2 when we want to play Tom Sawyer or Buddy Holly?

Tags: green day, Guitar Hero, music, rhythm, Rock Band, rock band 3, The Beatles