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Green Day: Rock Band won't be the only Rock Band in 2010
Some were disappointed to find out that Harmonix's follow-up to The Beatles: Rock Band was Green Day: Rock Band. MTV Games' Paul DeGooyer says the band was heavily demanded on the official Rock Band forums and added that a dedicated game would "satisfy a good amount of the constituency." DeGooyer, perhaps attempting to appease naysayers, also told Newsarama.com that "it's of course not going to be our only game this year." So what is this mystery Rock Band game that DeGooyer is referring to? Most likely, it's the inevitable-but-not-quite-officially-announced Rock Band 3. While The Beatles and Green Day will take advantage of vocal harmonies, it seems Harmonix has other significant updates to make for the Rock Band platform. "As efficient as digital distribution is, there are still things that are much more efficiently delivered as a disc. In terms of major upgrades, I mean. That said, we haven't announce any formal plans for a sequel game ... yet." Of course, we could be wrong about this whole "Rock Band 3" nonsense. Perhaps Harmonix will make our dreams come true with their real secret project: Jonas Brothers: Rock Band.
Rock Band Network open beta begins tonight [update]
If you've been tinkering around with the Rock Band Network song programming tools, turning your heartfelt ballads into batches of multicolored gems, you'll be able to place your work in front of an audience for the first time today. Harmonix is launching an open beta of the platform at some point this evening, which will allow musicians with an XNA Creators Club membership to publish their songs, and peer-review the work their fellow artists have contributed. Of course, we won't be able to download the songs until the platform officially goes live -- which Harmonix recently informed Destructoid wouldn't be until "we accrue a good base of content, though we're already really excited by what we have in the pipeline." If you were curious about what that pipeline currently looks like, we suggest checking out this Harmonix forum post, which compiles all the bands who've shown interest in Rock Band-ing their ditties. Update: Okay, the beta is actually live now! Let the rocking commence.
Rock Band Weekly: Tom Petty, Phoenix, Silvertide
OK, so next week's Rock Band DLC doesn't include "Mary Jane's Last Dance" (pictured above) -- that was included in the previous Tom Petty live anthology pack -- but that video is all we can think of when someone mentions Petty. Well, that and the "Don't Come Around Here No More" video, which had Petty playing The Mad Hatter and is also positively frightening -- but that song is in neither pack. Beyond Petty memories of our broken childhood, next week's update also includes tracks from Phoenix and Silvertide. Check out pricing and track details for the console releases after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: Alice in Chains
Rock Band Weekly features one act next week: Alice In Chains. The band, which has sold 17 million albums worldwide, released a new album last September after ... yikes, fourteen years! (Hey, at least they didn't go all Duke Nukem Forever, right?) Next week's DLC track pack includes two songs from the new album, along with "We Die Young" from the band's debut record, plus two ditties from their self-titled 1995 album. Check out complete pricing and track details for the console releases after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: Paul McCartney, Blink-182, Psychedelic Furs, Ramones
Paul McCartney, in a non-Beatles outing, rings in the new year for next week's Rock Band Weekly update. The 67-year-old rocker (good on him!) will have the company of a Blink-182 pack, along with individual tracks from The Psychedelic Furs and The Ramones. Ringo might be in there too, but nobody would notice either way -- poor Ringo. Check out pricing and track details for the console releases after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: Weezer, Yellowcard, Offspring, Limp Bizkit
Beverly Hills ... that's where I want to be (gimme, gimme), living in -- wait, not really. Next week's holiday Rock Band Weekly update has some catchiness, but it's short on cheer. There's a new track pack from Weezer, featuring two songs from the band's latest album, Raditude. There's also songs from Limp Bizkit, The Offspring and Yellowcard. One last reminder: Rock Band Unplugged DLC is on hiatus until further notice. Check out pricing and track details for the console releases after the break.
Green Day: Rock Band trailer unveiled, songs will be exportable
One of the least surprising "World Exclusive" reveals during last night's Video Game Awards show was the unveiling of Harmonix's next single-band opus, Green Day: Rock Band. In case you missed out on the late-to-the-party announcement, you can check out the debut trailer after the jump. If you don't feel like watching a streaming video at the moment, we'll summarize: It looks a heck of a lot like when you play those Green Day DLC songs on Rock Band 2. The MTV Games press release that landed in our inbox shortly after the trailer aired contained one particularly interesting piece of news -- unlike The Beatles: Rock Band, all of the tracks in Green Day's outing will be exportable to the core Rock Band games. In addition, all the Green Day DLC released so far for the music platform, as well as the three 21st Century Breakdown tracks that will hit this Tuesday, will be compatible with Green Day: Rock Band. No release date has been given thus far, but the presser specifies that its coming to the Wii, PS3 and 360.
MTV teases 'Green Day Rock Band' [update 2]
Update 2: Yeah, it's real. Check out this clip from the VGAs to see the eyeliner-wearing band's big announcement. Update: We also spotted some of the trailer during the "Rehearsal Sneak Peek" video over at Spike, which Geoff Keighley followed up with "You gotta tune into the VGAs to see the announcement of the next Rock Band game." Sure sounds like a full Rock Band game to us! While perusing the internet today, we happened upon a particularly interesting video of Green Day performing "American Idiot" on MTV.com -- though rather than the usual real-life version of Green Day, Rock Band avatars of the group took the position, followed closely by the logo you see above. Is it a full standalone Rock Band game with Green Day? Is it a really robust downloadable content pack? We'd bet our bottom dollar that we'll find out in a few hours when the Spike VGAs start. As per usual, we've fired off an email to MTV Games and Harmonix to find out what's up in the meantime. Check out the full video after the break. [Via Jared Rea's Twitter]
Rock Band Weekly: Green Day, 30 Seconds to Mars, All-American Rejects, Beatles: Rubber Soul album
For the sake of clarity and brevity in this week's Rock Band Weekly, let's split this info up: The Beatles: Rock Band will have the album Rubber Soul available next week. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road were previously released on November 17 and October 20, respectively. The standard Rock Band music store receives new tracks from All-American Rejects, 30 Seconds to Mars and even more Green Day. As a reminder, Rock Band Unplugged DLC is going on holiday for an unspecified amount of time. Check out pricing and track details after the break. Update: MTV Games/Harmonix has corrected the pricing for Rubber Soul.
MTV Games: 'No future projects were affected' by Harmonix restructuring
Today's 39 layoffs at Rock Band-developer Harmonix represented 13 percent of its staff, Joystiq has learned in a follow-up with MTV Games. The publisher expressed that Harmonix, its QA department and support positions were built to accommodate the 2009 worldwide release schedule. The developer will now shift to a "combination of temporary/part time help, outsourcing and support from external partners -- which is in line with how other game developers manage their QA departments." When asked if this restructuring was precipitated by sales of The Beatles: Rock Band, a Harmonix/MTV Games spokesperson told Joystiq, "No. This was a process and business decision unrelated to the performance of any MTV Games / Harmonix product. MTV Games and Harmonix are very pleased with the sales of our Rock Band titles and we expect to continue to see strong sales throughout the holidays across all of our titles. The Beatles: Rock Band has sold over 1 million units worldwide to date. Again, the reason for the restructuring is due to better aligning our staffing to best suit our product development plans and schedules moving forward." MTV Games also wanted to make sure that it was clear that "no future projects were affected by the restructuring."
Restructuring layoffs hit Harmonix, the band plays on
MTV Games has confirmed to Joystiq that 39 positions at developer Harmonix were eliminated today. The move was part of a restructuring to "better align [the] staffing to best suit [Harmonix's] product development plans and schedules moving forward." The publisher claims that "those affected were primarily in QA. The others affected ranged from administrative to other various roles within the company." At least one staff designer seems to have fallen under the "other" category. Although Electronic Arts has a partnership with Harmonix, these layoffs are "totally and completely unrelated" to EA's issues. Update: MTV Games/Harmonix answer some follow-up questions.
More Green Day headed to Rock Band
In simple terms, Green Day and Rock Band are friends. There have already been several Green Day tracks released for Harmonix's musically inclined baby and it was announced today that even more are on their way later this month. Starting December 15 on the Wii and Xbox 360 – and December 17 on the Playstation 3 – players will be able to grab three new Green Day tracks from the band's 21st Century Breakdown album: "Christian's Inferno," "Last of the American Girls," and "¡Viva La Gloria!". The tracks will be available individually for $1.99 / 160 / 200 Wii points. The full track pack will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 for $5.49 / 440.
Rock Band Weekly: Slipknot, Simon & Garfunkel, Lights Resolve
Harmonix and MTV Games are dropping a couple of classic Simon & Garfunkel tracks alongside the first Slipknot track pack this coming week as DLC, appealing to that very specific crossover niche of people who like 30-year-old folk music yet like to go blackout partying on the weekends. Take out your terrifying masks and acoustic guitars, folks. It's going to be a weird one. Check out all the tracks for the upcoming week after the break. Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:
Rock Band Unplugged has no more 'planned' weekly DLC
Harmonix has confirmed to Joystiq that Rock Band Unplugged has "run through [its] planned slate" of DLC. Following two weeks of Rock Band Unplugged DLC being absent from our Rock Band Weekly feature, we decided to check in with the developer to see if this was the end of the road for the portable rhythm game's downloadable track support. Harmonix stated it is "very pleased with the performance of the Rock Band Unplugged game on PSP, the Rock Band PSP bundle and PSPgo starter kit" and appreciates Sony's support of the title, which currently has around 100 tracks via disc and DLC combined. The developer states that the DLC team is currently focused on the ambitious "Rock Band Network, weekly console DLC, and unannounced future projects." Harmonix isn't ruling out future Unplugged DLC, as it may be "part of event releases," but it appears that weekly updates are done for now.
Philanthropic rockers playing 1,000 Rock Band songs for Child's Play
We know you've probably already spent an irresponsible amount of dough this morning on hot Black Friday deals, but there's a unique gaming marathon for charity (a charithon?) taking place right now that could use some help meeting its $3,000 donation goal. Check out the web page of Clan of the Gray Wolf, where four gentlemen are attempting to play 1,000 Rock Band songs for approximately 80 hours, all the while collecting money for Penny Arcade's Child's Play Charity. So, instead of buying that set of Growing Pains-themed salt shakers simply because they're 75 percent off, why not lend a helping hand to four guys who, in 80 hours, are going to have the worst blisters anyone's ever had, ever?
Rock Band Network rolls out fully in early 2010
Harmonix's Rock Band Network is still working out the kinks and will launch in "early 2010." In a statement to Kotaku, the developer explained that it's working on getting the public beta tools out "before the end of the year," with the store front to launch sometime at the beginning of next year. Musicians with ample time and high computer proficiency can begin preparing their tracks now with the creator tools, but the open beta will grant access to the private website where all the RBN community stuff will occur. If you're a musician or programmer (or ... procisian?), let us know what you think about the tools in comments. %Gallery-71018%
Rock Band Weekly: Nirvana, Night Ranger
Ummm ... "Smells Like Teen Spirit." That is all one needs to know about next week's Rock Band DLC. How many of us out there will finally learn the lyrics to the song we mumbled for years every time it popped up on the radio?Remember radio? Wow, feels like forever ago. Check out the full update after the break. Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:
Rock Band platform now has over 1,000 songs
A recent press release has informed us that with the release of today's Rock Band 2 DLC pack, Harmonix has met its goal of having over 1,000 songs on the platform before the holidays. According to the presser, these tracks represent the work of 390 musical artists. The rhythm gaming community has downloaded over 60 million songs from the Rock Band Music Store, which Harmonix has kept alive and kicking with new musical additions for 105 consecutive weeks. To put this achievement in chronological terms, we'd estimate that the average length of these songs is, oh, about four minutes. By our calculations, a full playthrough of the Rock Band catalog would take you two days, 18 hours and 40 minutes. Not accounting for the number of times you'll inevitably fail out on "Painkiller," of course. Congratulations, Harmonix, on this rocking accomplishment! Now, get back to work. That Paul Simon track pack isn't going to program itself.
Rock Band Weekly: Tom Petty, Go-Go's, Kelly Clarkson, Pink
A live version of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is available next week within the band's Rock Band DLC six-pack. The song may not be everyone's cup of formaldehyde, but it's certainly memorable for conjuring up one of the creepiest music videos of all time. We have no idea what the song is actually about, but it will always be the story of Tom Petty stealing Kim Basinger's corpse from the morgue, dressing her up, and then at the end .... AHHhhHhHHHH! Check out the full update after the break, no new Rock Band Unplugged DLC next week. Update: PSN will updated on Tuesday. Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:
Rock Band Weekly: AFI, The Bangles
. AFI will be available next week in a Rock Band DLC five-pack of ... oh wow, The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" is there too! Hey guys, it's "Walk Like an Egyptian!" So, all you foreign types with hookah pipes better do the sand dance, don't you know? Check out the full update after the break, along with Rock Band Unplugged's new DLC. Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:
