Rock Band in 2013 and beyond

[APackofRabidSquirrels]

I would kill just for the ability to have guitar and bass tab for every song, disconnected from scoring. Support "pro-mode" releases as usual, as a way of having a song with a built in trainer, but offer regular tablature granting players the ability to slow down/remove the instrument from the master track for those of us using our own amps.

[LuigiHann]

I have a plant that died when I was in college, It's still dead. How long before I should give up hope?

That depends, did you plant any of its seeds?

[ZigZag2005]

This seems somewhat relevant to the conversation at hand, but it's anybody's guess as to how accurate it may be.

New Xbox coming for 2013 holidays...

[Bront20]

there are too many problems trying to make RS tech work with the current pro charts. for starters, every song that has bends would suddenly be mischarted. also, the pro charts only tell you the fret/string combination to play, not the actual note. unless they've been secretly including more information in the charts, there's no way to know what specific musical note each fret/string combination corresponds too, given all the alt-tunings and drop tunings used in different songs.

bottom line is, if they wanted to shift to using some kind of Rocksmith-style note detection technology, they'd need all new charts. current pro charts would become obsolete.

Note, this doesn't mean they couldn't do it, just that it would be a forward compatible thing. It also wouldn't mean that the old style stuff couldn't be supported, as you still would have the finger positioning information in any new, tone recognition charts. But yes, expecting RB to suddently have 300 "tone pro" charts from older pro DLC is a pipe dream.

[White_PawZ]

I didn't read the entire thread, but I think about it his way: we all know how much we love Rock Band. Well, Harmonix loves it even more than we do (after all, it's their baby!) I imagine that as long as there is a way to profitably keep it going they will do so, and if there is an opportunity to make a new core title that makes sense financially they will do that as well.

My prediction? More DLC, and maybe a Blitz follow up. If Blitz had a player vs player mode on a split screen or something we would play it a lot more.

I wonder how big the Rock Band community really is these days. I mean, how many people still play this game regularly and buy DLC.

[powerofyates2]

I predict that 2014 will be the beginning of some songs going out of license and not being relicensed. Thus older DLC will start to go away.

[peterock2007]

I predict that 2014 will be the beginning of some songs going out of license and not being relicensed. Thus older DLC will start to go away.

Going out of license... DLC going away... Good luck with that prediction.

[Bront20]

I predict that 2014 will be the beginning of some songs going out of license and not being relicensed. Thus older DLC will start to go away.

Got anything to back that up?

[MrPerson]

I predict that 2014 will be the beginning of some songs going out of license and not being relicensed. Thus older DLC will start to go away.

Wait, what?

[jpwhitfo]

Both depressing and encouraging at the same time to read this. Some interesting ideas and opinions in here. I personally would love to see a new RB. I would buy it, I would buy it and a next gen console to play it on. I am not wealthy, but it has been the best bang for the buck with my family and friends. Far better value than going to movies regularly!! When RB 2 came out we had an awesome RB party where our friends came over dressed in costume. Every holiday season we have a party that ends with us playing RB into the wee hours of the morning.

Ahhhh... to re-live those days. What would it take?

1. - Instruments. I completely agree that new instruments would be key. In just a few short years the technology has advanced pretty far. I believe they could now create a better instrument for the same price as the original. I am sure that a large number of fans here would find renewed enjoyment with newer, better instruments. Word of mouth would get around and the player base could actually grow - new players as well as returning.

2. - DLC transfer. I think many of us here agree that re-purchasing all of the DLC that we have would be cost prohibitive. I may be wrong, (complete assumption) but I believe that the production (coding) of the song was at least 1/2 of the expense of DLC. It is the licensing that would still be a factor - (unless of course they would need to re-code the song for a new console). I would gladly pay maybe 1.00 per song that I had previously purchased, or perhaps a sliding scale of sorts - 10.00 for 12 songs, 15.00 for 20 songs, of my choice from my previous purchases, to add to a new console. It would help me to be more selective of the music that ends up on the new console! (There is a LOT on there that I don't play)

3. - Full support from MS or SONY, showcasing it as a launch title. Let the Kinect do a video of you and your friends playing the game.

I think it can survive, even thrive, if a new version is strong and not watered down.