“Rock Band 4,” the fourth and latest installment to the music video game series will be coming to the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One later this year.
Game developer Harmonix, in a statement from its chief executive Steve Janiak, said that it is teaming up with Mad Catz to bring “Rock Band 4” of the award-winning social and interactive music gaming platform to the next gen gaming consoles.
“Rock Band 4” will come out five years after the release of the critically-acclaimed “Rock Band 3.” Harmonix said that it shall be an updated version of their classic music game and that gamers should be once again ready to rock with the new hardware, notes The Boston Globe.
The latest installment to the music game will focus on the core arcade mechanics that shall differentiate it from the earlier titles in the video game series.
It shall also do away with the complicated features that were once loaded to “Rock Band 3” that gamers found to be hassles. Among those that were taken off from “Rock Band 3” is the removal of the keyboards. “Rock Band 4” shall be focusing instead on original instruments like guitars, vocals, drums, and bass.
Long time coming
Harmonix said that while it took them five years before releasing the updated version of the “Rock Band” music video game, the developer nonetheless said that they have regularly released downloadable contents for “Rock Band 3” to keep the game always fresh for gamers.
The developer actually had to undergo and survive a rough patch after the release of “Rock Band 3” in 2010. It was purchased in 2007 by the MTV Networks for $175 million and made over $1 billion in sales.
It went back to being an independent developer soon after but has found it difficult to recapture the market it once had because the video game market is already saturated with similar rhythm-based titles in 2010 including “The Beattles: Rock Band.” Many of those games actually did not do well in terms of sales.
It also took the company quite some time to develop the updated version because it wanted to ensure that older musical instruments are compatible with the new version, minus the keyboards already.
“Rock Band 4” was long time coming alright but Harmonix says that it’s worth the wait for gamers.
A blast from the past
Harmonix also describes “Rock Band 4” as both a blast from the past and a clear indicator that the market is returning again to the arcade-style entertainment boom that was last seen before the global recession in 2009.
Apart from its superb on-disc soundtrack, “Rock Band 4” will support over 2,000 tracks released since 2007 when the first “Rock Band” music video game was launched. It shall also feature more than 500 of rock music’s most legendary artists.
Gamers who have purchased or downloaded playable tracks on last-generation gaming consoles will also be able to download and play those tracks on their new platforms at no additional cost at all. Harmonix assured fans that there will be hundreds of new tracks that will be made available during the game’s official launching. It also promised to regularly add more back catalogue and new tracks after the launch.