The New Rock Band Will Be “Radically Different”

The newest installment of the once loved chain of video games, Rock Band, will supposedly be a whole world away from the previous versions.  Since beginning the series, the games have slowly declined in popularity partly due to it being one of the most expensive games currently out as well as Activision beating a dead horse and releasing a new “version” of the game every month.  Don’t be surprised when you read the next sentence: There won’t be another Rock Back or Guitar Hero this year!  Guitar hero is now on the back burner, but Rock Band isn’t.  The year break from releasing games is a break to redesign the games, not introduce a new instrument.

Harmonix’s realization of the steady decline in popularity forced them to sit in the dark for a while and rethink what is popular now-a-days.  “In the longer term, looking into next year, we’re actually considering fairly fundamental creative reinterpretation of what the Rock Band business is,” Rigopulos said. “We’re committed to the franchise, but when I think that when we do things with it in the future, it’s going to be a pretty dramatic departure from what we’ve done before.”

“We do have plans on where we’re going to go with Rock Band and how we plan to expand it,” he said. “All I’ll say for now is that it isn’t what you think. You might assume we’re going to add saxophone or something along those lines, but no, the kind of direction we’re planning on taking Rock Band, the kind of innovation we have in mind, is taking it in a different direction, one that’s more suitable to the kind of environment we’re in, what people are doing now, what they’re interested in playing now, versus, say, 2007.” We can only guess what direction Harmonix is taking this franchise.  Hopefully its in a new, awesome, and innovative one.