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Rock Band 4

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Rock Band 4
Developer(s)Harmonix
Publisher(s)Harmonix
SeriesRock Band
Platform(s)PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Release
  • October 6, 2015
Genre(s)Rhythm game
Mode(s)Single-player, local multiplayer

Rock Band 4 is an upcoming music video game in development by Harmonix. Rock Band 4 will allow players to simulate the playing of licensed music across many different decades and genres using instrument controllers that mimic playing lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. As the fourth main installment in the Rock Band franchise, it will be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 6, 2015. Mad Catz, who is also developing new instrument controllers for the game, will market and distribute the title worldwide.[1]

Rock Band 4 represents Harmonix's return to the franchise after an almost three-year hiatus, following the diminishing popularity of the rhythm game market that started in 2009. Announced on March 5, 2015, Rock Band 4 will refocus on the core gameplay of the franchise, reducing the emphasis on musical instruction that was employed by its predecessor, Rock Band 3 while emphasizing the game's social interactions.[2] Instead of looking towards further sequels, Harmonix aims to have Rock Band 4 be a platform, updating the title with free and paid patches to introduce new features, while regularly providing new songs in the form of downloadable content. Harmonix also promised compatibility with the over 2000 existing songs that were released as downloadable content for prior installments, along with the possibility of backwards compatibility with guitar and drum controllers designed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions—although new PS4 and Xbox One-specific hardware is also in development.

Gameplay

Main article: Gameplay in the Rock Band series

The gameplay of Rock Band 4 will follow that from previous games in the series: the player or group of players use special instrument-based controllers or microphones to mimic playing the instruments by following scrolling cues on screen and attempt to play through a song and score points. Players score points for successfully hitting notes, earning a scoring multiplier for hitting a continuous series of notes without mistakes, while failure to hit the right notes can penalize the players' performance and could end the song prematurely. During the song, certain phrases will be marked with specially colored notes, which if played correctly, will fill the player's Overdrive meter. Once sufficiently filled, the player can trigger Overdrive through various means depending on instrument, which doubles their scoring multiplier.

The main mode for Rock Band 4 will be a career mode which IGN describes as a role-playing game.[3] The players will have the option of what types of gigs they want their band to play, with various risks and rewards that influence: how many fans the group attains per geographic region; what future gigs they will have available; and how much in-game money they earn (which can be spent customizing their band's clothes and instruments). For example, players may opt to have their band take a corporate-sponsored gig, which will earn the band a large amount of in-game money but may impact their band's reputation and limit future venues, while taking on smaller shows will not produce as much money but will increase the band's renown and open more possible gigs. In addition, elements of the players' stage presence will impact the rewards from these gigs, which will be based on how well the band performs in unison, such as hitting Overdrive together, drummers completing drum fills, and vocalists improvizing. Fans will be tracked by geopgrahic region,[4]

Players' bands will perform Shows, which are a series of songs broken up into a number of sets; an example given by IGN was a Show with 2 sets each containing 2 songs. Some songs in these Shows will be pre-determined but others will be left to be voted on during a short period between songs by the band members; individual members will also have the opportunity to select a song from a limited list during periods of the current song when their musical part is inactive. The available options will be based on what songs the collective band members have in their library and the band's chosen theme, and voting options may include specific songs (including one selected mid-song), or broad classifications such as by genre type, release year, or song length. To aid in the cooperative nature of the game, any scoring multipliers and remaining Overdrive are carried over between songs in Gig lists.[5]

With Freestyle solos, the guitar player (rightmost track) can improvise their solo, using guides provided by the game, here showing the transition from a chord-heavy to single-note riffs.

New in Rock Band 4 is the use of Freestyle Guitar Solos, an optional feature. In songs where the guitar player would be presented with a predefined solo, instead the game will show suggestions for the solo style to emulate at that time, such as single notes or longer licks, chords, or tremolos, using different patterns to highlight the guitar player's on-screen track. The track markings may also indicate which set of fret keys on the instrument control to use, which determine the pitch of the notes.[6] Players cannot fail these freestyle sections, but they are scored on how well they hit the suggested style during the segment.[7] Further, the audio feedback from these solos has been refined as to make whatever the player performs stay consistent and in-tune with the other active and backing instruments. Harmonix is considering extending this feature to allow an entire song to be played in this fashion, but has not set plans for it to be available at release.[8]

Drums players for Rock Band 4 will be able to count down to start the song as often done by real-life bands.[3] Rock Band 4 will change how the drummer will trigger overdrive: unlike past titles where the drummer would gain a free-form section that they had to then strike a specific pad to activate overdrive which Harmonix found would throw some players off, Rock Band 4 will present one of a random number of pre-created drum fills that fit the timing of the song when the drummer player has Overdrive available. This feature will be backwards compatible with all previous songs in the Rock Band library.[3]

Vocal players will be able to use two- or three-part harmonies as previously used in The Beatles: Rock Band and Rock Band 3, and through contributions from the Rock Band fan community, existing Rock Band songs that feature vocal harmonies but originally released for the series without harmony support will be updated to include harmonies for free.[3] Higher difficulty settings for vocals allow for "freeform melodies" where as long as the vocalist is in tune, they can improvise to a degree to add their personal touch to a song. This improvisation is scored separately from the in-tune scoring, thus presenting an additional challenge for this advanced mode.[3]

In an interview with Vice, Sussman stated that the game may not ship with support for asynchronous online play, noting that while it is a highly desirable feature, it is also considered "expensive". Sussman commented that if this is not included in the retail release, it may be released as part of future patches to the title.[9] At E3 2015, it was confirmed that the game will not have online multiplayer at launch.

Development

Rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero had been widely popular during 2005 to 2008, but due to oversaturation of the market and the onset of the 2009 recession, the rhythm genre suffered major setbacks, and the genre's popularity had quickly waned. Harmonix had released Rock Band 3 in 2010, and while well received by critics and fans, had only an estimated one million retail sales, lagging its dancing game, Dance Central, released during the same period.[10] Harmonix would continue to support Rock Band 3 through 2013 with additional content patches and over 280 consecutive weeks of new songs provided as downloadable content (DLC), as well as producing Rock Band Blitz, an arcade-like rhythm game that did not require instrument controllers but used existing music libraries. In April 2013, Harmonix released its last regular DLC, stating that they were focusing on other projects. The company noted that they would relook to introduce Rock Band in the future when they felt the time was right to bring back the game.[11]

On January 13, 2015, Harmonix unexpectedly announced three new DLC songs, the first in nearly 21 months.[12][13] The sudden release, along with a survey posted by Harmonix a few days later, indicated the possibility that the studio was planning to develop a new Rock Band game for eighth generation consoles.[14] On March 5, 2015, Harmonix officially announced Rock Band 4, which it plans to release in late-2015.[15] Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos explained that the studio had awaited both a "critical mass" of adoption for the next-generation consoles, and a "clear and compelling creative vision" for the game before beginning work on a successor—prompting the franchise's hiatus.[16] Harmonix's Greg LoPiccolo added that they did not want to try to introduce Rock Band 4 during the new consoles' first year where they would have to compete with major franchises.[17] Harmonix has developed a new game engine called Forge, also used for their remake of Amplitude, to take advantage of the upgraded hardware of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, allowing the game to run at 1080p at 60 frames per second; product Manager Eric Pope stated that the engine includes better lighting, character models, and animation.[18][19] The company is not presently looking to develop for the Wii U, as the platform had the smallest percentage of uses in the previous games.[20] They are also not currently developing for the personal computer market, with product manager Daniel Sussman stating that two issues that would limit a personal computer version is existing music availability, and the lack of security for the specific music tracks which the PlayStation and Xbox consoles already possess.[21] Sussman stated that either platform may be possible in the future if there is market demand, but their present focus is the safest route to bringing Rock Band to mass market through the major console platforms.[20]

Following the aggressive focus on musical instruction within Rock Band 3, Rock Band 4 will instead put a larger focus on the franchise's core gameplay, multiplayer, and the overall feeling of the experience; Rigopulos felt that the franchise had become too "sprawling" in functionality, and that "there is an existing gameplay core that is very powerful and very fun, and we don't want to tamper with that core. At the same time, we need to bring something new to the experience."[2][16] Owing to this renewed focus, the Pro Guitar and piano keyboard modes were dropped from the game.[2] Rigopulos stated that Ubisoft's competing Rocksmith series "is serving the audience that wants actual guitar instrumental instruction very well."[16] Rock Band 4 will be the only retail release of the franchise for the current generation of consoles;[2] Rigopulos called the multiple-release cycle "taxing" on both the studio and consumers, and instead sees the game as a platform which they can continuously improve over the life of the title without excessive work.[2][16]

Mad Catz, who will co-publish and distribute the game along with Harmonix,[22] developed updated guitar and drum controllers for Rock Band 4; the company noted that while it did not want to "reinvent the wheel", the controllers still feature technical improvements, such as reduced wireless latency and a more sensitive tilt sensor on the guitar.[2] Guitars will feature switches that have much longer lifetimes compared to previous controllers, while the drum controller include reinforced pads to prevent damage to the sensor, and includes a double-bass kick setup out of the box. The microphone has also been redesigned and set to sample at a higher rate to help with the vocal improvisation sections.[23] Owing to the game's focus on core gameplay, and concerns that consumers may be unwilling to buy additional hardware for specific games early in a console generation's lifecycle, Rock Band 4 will not feature additional accessories.[2] At retail, the game will be available in a band bundle (with a guitar, drum, and microphone) and a guitar-only bundle. A special Penny Arcade-themed guitar with artwork of Gabe will also be produced for those who pre-ordered the game at PAX East.[2] Harmonix stated that it was "aggressively" working with console manufacturers on means to possibly allow guitar and drum controllers from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band to be backwards compatible with Rock Band 4. Sussman noted that allowing their PlayStation 3 controllers to work on PS4 was easier because their controllers required a USB dongle, but that the process of allowing the Xbox 360 controllers to function on Xbox One may be more difficult.[2] Harmonix is also working to get backwards compatibility for the Stage Kit, an add-on hardware unit for Xbox 360 owners that allowed for a smoke machine and light show display in time with the song.[3]

Soundtrack

Songs confirmed for Rock Band 4 include:[24][25][26][27]

Song Title Artist Year Genre
"Albert" Eddie Japan 2015 Indie Rock
"All Over You" Live 1994 Alternative
"At Night in Dreams" White Denim 2013 Indie Rock
"Birth in Reverse" St. Vincent 2013 Indie Rock
"Brown Eyed Girl" Van Morrison 1967 Classic Rock
"Centuries" Fall Out Boy 2014 Alternative
"Dead Black (Heart of Ice)" Soul Remnants 2013 Metal
"Dream Genie" Lightning Bolt 2015 Indie Rock
"The Feast and the Famine" Foo Fighters 2014 Alternative
"Fever" The Black Keys 2014 Indie Rock
"Friday I'm In Love" The Cure 1992 New Wave
"Hail to the King" Avenged Sevenfold 2013 Metal
"Halls of Valhalla" Judas Priest 2014 Metal
"I Am Electric" Heaven's Basement 2013 Rock
"I Miss the Misery" Halestorm 2012 Metal
"Kick It Out" Heart 1977 Classic Rock
"Knock 'Em Down" Duck & Cover 2014 Rock
"Lazaretto" Jack White 2014 Rock
"Light the Fuse" Slydigs 2015 Alternative
"Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" Spin Doctors 1991 Alternative
"Metropolis - Part 1 'The Miracle And The Sleeper'" Dream Theater 1992 Prog
"Miracle Man" Ozzy Osbourne 1988 Metal
"My God Is the Sun" Queens of the Stone Age 2013 Alternative
"No One Like You (2011 Re-record)" Scorpions 1982 Metal
"A Passage to Bangkok" Rush 1976 Prog
"Prayer" Disturbed 2002 Nu-Metal
"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" Rick Derringer 1973 Classic Rock
"The Seeker" The Who 1970 Classic Rock
"Somebody Told Me" The Killers 2004 Alternative
"Spiders" System of a Down 1998 Nu-Metal
"Still Into You" Paramore 2013 Pop Rock
"Suspicious Minds" Elvis Presley 1969 Classic Rock
"Toys in the Attic" Aerosmith 1975 Classic Rock
"Uptown Funk" Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars 2014 R&B/Soul/Funk
"Violent Shiver" Benjamin Booker 2014 Indie Rock
"The Warrior" Scandal 1984 Rock
"What's Up?" 4 Non Blondes 1993 Alternative
"You Make Loving Fun" Fleetwood Mac 1977 Classic Rock
"Your Love" The Outfield 1985 Pop Rock

Rigopulos said of the main soundtrack that "The budget that we’ve allocated for the title supports a top-tier soundtrack".[16] Harmonix allowed for fans to request songs to be included in the game, and will try to include the most-requested songs.[28]

The studio is also working to ensure that as much of its existing library of downloadable songs would be compatible with the game upon its release as possible. All existing Rock Band DLC (including disc exports from Rock Band and Rock Band 2) will be compatible with Rock Band 4 within the same console family (i.e. PlayStation 4 can only import songs purchased on PlayStation 3, and Xbox One can only import songs purchased on Xbox 360). "If you bought a Rock Band song, it should be yours in Rock Band 4," said Sussman. "Everything that you have already exported will come over."[29] Also, the pre-order from Amazon includes 4 exclusive songs on top of the 30 free songs from the original pre-order.[30]

Exclusive songs confirmed for Rock Band 4 from Amazon pre-order include:

Song Title Artist Year Genre
"Don't Wanna Fight" Alabama Shakes 2015 Rock
"Failure" Breaking Benjamin 2015 Nu-Metal
"Trainwreck 1979" Death from Above 1979 2014 Punk
"Follow Me Down" The Pretty Reckless 2014 Rock

Exclusive songs confirmed for Rock Band 4 for Playstation Network Plus members who pre-order via the Playstation store[31] include:

Song Title Artist Year Genre
"Divide" All That Remains 2015 Metal
"Run For Cover" Blitz Kids 2014 Alternative
"Throne" Bring Me the Horizon 2014 Metal
"Mona Lisa" Dead Sara 2015 Rock
"The Reflex" Duran Duran 1983 New Wave
"Move Over" Janis Joplin 1971 Classic Rock
"Would You Still Be There" Of Mice & Men 2014 Metal
"Sugar You" Oh Honey 2015 Indie Rock
"Cowboys From Hell" (Live from Monsters in Moscow Festival) Pantera 1991 Metal
"Summertime Boy" Seasick Steve 2015 Rock

Harmonix expects to release more DLC following the game's release, though the schedule for this is not yet established. According to Rigopulos, while the previous weekly schedule worked well for them, they may experiment with different release mechanisms and pricing structures.[16]

References

  1. ^ Makuch, Eddie. "Rock Band 4 Will Be Co-Published By Peripheral Company Mad Catz". Gamespot. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Rock Band 4 is coming, and Harmonix is bringing it back to basics". Polygon. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Mccaferty, Ryan (May 4, 2015). "ROCK BAND 4 MAY BE THE LAST MUSIC GAME YOU'LL EVER NEED – IGN FIRST". IGN. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  4. ^ Dyer, Mitch (May 26, 2015). "ROCK BAND 4'S CAMPAIGN IS A STRAIGHT-UP RPG - IGN FIRST". IGN. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  5. ^ McCaffrey, Ryan; Dyer, Mitch (May 12, 2015). "ROCK BAND 4 GIGS WILL TEST YOUR BAND'S FRIENDSHIP - IGN FIRST". IGN. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  6. ^ Blackard, Cap (June 22, 2015). "Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4: It's Time for a Reunion!". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  7. ^ Campbell, Colin (June 15, 2015). "Guitar solos call the tune for Rock Band 4". Polygon. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  8. ^ Dornbrush, Jonathan (July 21, 2015). "Rock Band 4's freestyle guitar solo feels like the first time (playing a music game)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
  9. ^ Diver, Mike (June 2, 2015). "'Rock Band 4' Promises To Be Much More Than a New-Gen Encore". Vice. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  10. ^ Caoili, Eric (2011-03-01). "Harmonix: Dance Central Outselling Rock Band 3". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  11. ^ Evangelho, Jason (2014-10-19). "Harmonix Offers A Long Satisfying Answer to The Question - Where's Rock Band 4?". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-11-19.
  12. ^ "Rock Band 3 DLC returns with Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, and Foo Fighters". GameInformer. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  13. ^ Lynch, Casey (2013-02-18). "New Rock Band DLC Ends in April, Harmonix Working on New Projects". IGN. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  14. ^ "A new Rock Band? Harmonix wants to know what you want in a current-gen sequel". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  15. ^ "New Rock Band 4 will support your DLC song library and (hopefully) most controllers". The Verge. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  16. ^ a b c d e f McCafferty, Ryan (6 March 2015). "Rock Band 4 Boss: Expect a 'top-tier' soundtrack". IGN. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  17. ^ Agnello, Anthony John (2015-06-01). "Why 'Rock Band 4' got the gang back together". Engadget. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  18. ^ Hillier, Brenna (20 March 2015). "Rock Band 4 will be 1080p 60 FPS because this is the glorious future". VG247. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  19. ^ Dyer, Mitch (2015-05-22). "WHY ROCK BAND 4'S NEXT-GEN TECH MATTERS – IGN FIRST". IGN. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  20. ^ a b Mackovech, Sam (5 March 2015). "Rock Band 4 will thrash in 2015—and so will its old guitars, drums, DLC". Ars Technica. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  21. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (2015-06-04). "There's no PC version of Rock Band 4. Harmonix explains why". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  22. ^ Nunneley, Stephanny (April 21, 2015). "Rock Band 4 will be co-published at retail worldwide by Mad Catz". VG247. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  23. ^ Orland, Kyle (June 15, 2015). "Hands-on: Feeling like a guitar god with Rock Band 4's new guitar solos". Ars Technica. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  24. ^ McCafferty, Ryan (2015-05-15). "ROCK BAND 4'S FIRST 6 SONGS REVEALED – IGN FIRST". IGN. Retrieved 2015-05-15.
  25. ^ "ROCK BAND 4 ANNOUNCED SONGS". Harmonix. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  26. ^ Futter, Mike (2015-07-13). "Harmonix Announces Slate Of Rock Band 4 Tracks, Including Ozzy, Foo Fighters, And Aerosmith". Game Informer. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
  27. ^ Copeland, Wesley (2015-08-03). "LOADS OF NEW SONGS ANNOUNCED FOR ROCK BAND 4". IGN. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  28. ^ Nunneley, Stehpan (2015-03-12). "Harmonix taking Rock Band 4 song requests". VG247. Retrieved 2015-03-12.
  29. ^ Pavlacka, Adam (2015-03-05). "Rock Band 4 First Impressions". WorthPlaying. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  30. ^ "Rock Band 4 Amazon Exclusive". Amazon. 2015-06-23.
  31. ^ Cite error: The named reference PreorderPSN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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