Compilation of questions answered by HMX (indexed)

[Sayburr]

Dear HMX, why the live songs and the re-records? I think people would like to know the 'why' a certain song recording was used given Henry's possible reasons listed above.

HMXhenry said: Is there any reason why you would like to know beyond idle curiosity?

I can understand that it's interesting to know why Song X was a re record, but I don't think knowing which specific reason of the above 10 that I listed would clarify the process any further, prevent future emails asking why Band Such & Such isn't in the game, improve sales, etc.

Honestly, I'm not directly plugged into the reasoning behind a lot of the licensing work and don't know all the specifics for all the re records, live versions and alternate takes. But I'm involved enough to know that bands and labels won't be too thrilled to have the specifics of their dirty laundry aired in public (this band lost their masters, two guys in this band are fighting, this guy doesn't actually own his own material, and so on) even if it's for content that's already been released. Chances are they'd need a bigger motivation than curiosity to let us talk openly about that behind the scenes information and, honestly, I don't think that information would change much for people playing the game.

We'll always dig and provide more info whenever possible but, unfortunately, there are always going to be licensing details that we won't be able to talk about.

[Sayburr]

Has the Fender Squier been discontinued? Will this affect Pro Guitar?

Hey gang. Thanks to everyone for your patience while we made the rounds to get as much information on the Squier as possible. Hopefully you can all appreciate why we wouldn't want to post partial information that ended up causing even more confusion.

Here's the situation as I understand it: due to significant manufacturing lead times and the quantity currently available in the retail channel, Fender has decided not to place any more back orders for direct fulfillment. That would explain why, as some posters in this thread have pointed out, some music stores are unable to take back orders, but Squiers generally appear to be readily available at Best Buys.

What this means for you, the people still looking to pick up a Squier, is that Best Buy (specifically Best Buys with Music Centers) is currently your best bet. There should be a sufficient quantity in the pipeline to meet the current demand, and when we get back into the office on Monday we'll begin next steps with Best Buy and Fender to help you track availability and assist in getting stock where it needs to be.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, the crew at Harmonix is still fully committed to supporting Rock Band 3, Pro Mode, Pro Guitar and Pro DLC. Between the Squiers and Mustangs currently available at retail, as well as the upcoming Pro Guitar DLC upgrades, there are still plenty of options for people looking to get into Pro Guitar and we've got some awesome stuff coming up that we think people will be really excited for.

I'll continue to collect feedback from this thread and from PMs, and thanks again to everyone that contacted me with specifics. I'll follow up here once we have contact info for Best Buy or more information on international solutions.

on June 27, 2011, HMXHenry went on to say, [There are still Squire controllers in the supply line and the production stoppage may not be permanent]

[Sayburr]

Just of curiosity how far do you plan for DLC releases? This is just pure curiosity about how far ahead you guys have stuff planned.

HMXHenry said, We have a very rough sketch of the DLC schedule for the rest of the year [Six Months], but anything outside of the next month can change wildly. We usually have tracks submitted to 1st party for the next month, while we work on authoring for releases 2 months out. We may have stems in house for scattered tracks beyond that, but usually very few beyond the 3 month mark.

Again, that's just a rough sketch and things could change at any step in the process, sometimes as late as the day before announcing the DLC.

[Skode]

Question: Everyone having the same avatar is driving me nuts, can HMX do something about it?

HMXhenry said I'll talk to Web Team about the forced avatars. We've been talking about a plan to make avatars, signatures and custom titles "unlockables" that you can earn. Part of the intent of making avatars unlockable is being able to easily identify spammers, one time posters and people that register just to cause trouble as well as rewarding people who are awesome posters and want to stick around to get more involved in the community.

We'd obviously make things like avatars very easily accessible for new users, since it definitely helps us identify posters as well. There are roughly 450,000 posters registered to the forums, so having a more visual cue tied to someone's username is incredibly helpful. That's part of the reason why I've never changed my avatar, because I want to make sure that people know me when they see me. So by all means, avatar it up! You wouldn't go outside without wearing any clothes, so don't show up to the forums naked either.

Did anything more come from this... were still seeing several dozen skull avatars a day here. Most forums have a selection of avatars for members to use on their profiles off the bat but unlockable avatars still have appeal and would at least still give HMX a chance to get the kind of read on members initially intended ie Spammers and new members or basically identify who posts where all of the time (some only talk about general everyday stuff in the non-music sections of the forums whilst some never go near there for example)

[HardRockerBrazil]

So, what disc based game can we expect for 2011? RB4? A band game?

HMXHenry said ...And just to make it perfectly clear, people shouldn't expect to see a new Rock Band title this year. Between Chris's comment in the Game Informer article that "we’re not planning a Rock Band 4 disc release in 2011" and Drake's recent comment in a RockBandAide interview that "At this point, it’s safe to assume that we’re focused on the digital expansion of Rock Band in lieu of multiple disc releases" it should be clear that we're focusing the vast majority of our energy on kicking as much ass as possible with RB DLC in 2011.

We're not lying about what we're working on and we're not stalling to stun you with a big RB title reveal at E3. We won't see RB4 or an artist specific RB title in 2011. What you will see is a lot more amazing DLC every week, continued label outreach in RBN, more artist interviews, more dev commentary, more contests and giveaways, and more honest and direct dialogue about the RB world from the Community Team. We still have a few surprises up our sleeves as well so keep posted!

Great idea if you ask me.
At least Harmonix knows how to tread this water unlike Activision - they milked Guitar Hero too much, with two games a year, and ended up sending it into a coma.

Just need to ask one thing. I know it may sound silly, but I'd like to know.
What determines their next choices for downloadable content?

[Sayburr]

You bundle songs and give us a discount, why don't you do the same with Pro Upgrades? I would like to see something like a Nirvana Pro Pack 01 so I can save a little on the 10 upgrades.

HMXHenry said, "As far as I can recall from initial discussions when launching Pro, we're unable to bundle add on content because of first party store restrictions. Because it's dependent on owning multiple other pieces of content we're not able to bundle the same way we do standard DLC. "

[Bront20]

When are the leaked Pearl Jam songs (or any leaked songs) coming to Rock Band?

HMXhenry said, "The "found" Pearl Jam songs aren't on the DLC schedule right now. Maybe they'll make their way on to the schedule at some point in the future, but I wouldn't expect them to show up any time soon.

As I mentioned previously, if it's not posted in the Announcement forums, consider it a rumor. We post a lot of test material on the site, and sometimes songs are propped and then pulled from the schedule, or they're pushed back months or the licensing gets yanked at the last minute.

Holding out hope for content that was never announced, never promoted and never intended for public viewing is a sure fire way to set yourself up for disappointment. If we have more Pearl Jam to announce, you'll be sure to hear about it in a press release or a DLC announcement post."

[Bront20]

Does HMX even care about 'Request A Song' anymore?

HMXhenry said, "Yes, we still care about song requests. Hopefully it doesn't come as any surprise to hear that:

1) Most of the top requested bands are already in the game, I believe 21 of the top 25 at last count.
2) The most requested songs are big hits by big bands.
3) The song request tool is not a jukebox, and just because a band is highly requested that doesn't mean that a band wants to be in the game, that they have all their masters, that they're able to sort out the licensing, etc. "

[GNFfhqwhgads]

1) Most of the top requested bands are already in the game, I believe 21 of the top 25 at last count.

Led Zeppelin...Pink Floyd...U2...

[Bront20]

Led Zeppelin...Pink Floyd...U2...

The Beatles are also considered included despite only being in their own game.