Here at Everybody Plays, we're big fans of music games - specifically of the multiplayer-centric, rocking-out-on-plastic-instruments Rock Band/Guitar Hero variety. Whether we're sitting down with some friends to thrash out a few rounds of Boston's Foreplay/Longtime, rocking out to Learn To Fly by the Foo Fighters, or making our way through the occasional pop-y emo track that's mysteriously appeared in our library, yet no-one wants to own up to having bought, having played every iteration of Rock Band to death, we're more than a little excited for the upcoming Rock Band 4 - and recently, we finally got the chance to sit down with Harmonix and ask a few of our more burning questions about the new game and the series as a whole.
I guess it would almost be rude to start by not asking about the earlier games, and the glory days of Rock Band. The last Rock Band game came out some five years ago (although we don't like thinking about that, because it makes us feel old). What happened that made you put the series on the back burner for a while?
There were a lot of factors, one of which is that we had to turn on focus to other projects, including Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, which required a lot of attention because it was such a large, creatively challenging project. The studio had other interests, too, specifically around exploring new types of gameplay and new gameplay ideas - some of which we've revealed to the world, others of which are still bubbling up internally - that we wanted to explore.
And I think the studio needed to take a breather, step back from the series, and players needed a break, too. We've always had a passionate community of players who kept rocking - hundreds of thousands unique players per month, actually. But there were a lot of band games on the market for a while, so it definitely needed a cool off period. That actually turned out great for Rock Band 4, because it re-energized the studio creatively and allowed us to tackle a new iteration of the game.
Fancier graphics, fancier gameplay, same great Rock Band
Why is now the right time to bring Rock Band back?
There are lot of answers to this, but I think the best one might be the fact that players - particularly our fans, those who've stuck around and those who've maybe fallen off - are hungry for it. There's no experience like it available on the consoles a lot of people are currently playing, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and as those new consoles come in, the old ones often leave the living room. So from that standpoint alone, having a game like Rock Band playable again in a living room with friends and family, having this way to connect with music, is really important. At least we think so!
Speaking of timing, have you checked your office for bugs thanks to Guitar Hero mysteriously choosing the exact same moment to return from its hiatus? Or is it really just a coincidence?
Look, for us it was never a matter of "if" but "when." We've been saying it for years - we'd be back with Rock Band when the time felt right. The time feels right for us, so maybe there's something in the water.
For people who get together to play in a band on a lazy evening (like us), the career mode is backbone of the game. Perhaps it was just us, but Rock Band 3's career mode seemed a lot shorter than the ones in the other games. What are you planning for the career mode on Rock Band 4?
We're not getting too deep into the career mode just yet, and we'll have more to say soon. I will say that it's the most exciting, most interesting career mode we've done to date, and should be a surprising and fun ride for players.
You've spoken before about the desire to let people put their own, personal touches on songs. We love the idea of being able to sing your own vocal improvisations - but how will the guitarists be able to influence the songs?
Great question! As a matter of fact, we recently unveiled Freestyle Guitar Solos. This is an all new gameplay feature that gives players the creative tools and control to actually create their own guitar solos for the songs they perform in the game. To be clear, this is improvisation - there's a fairly amazing, easy to use but deep system that allows you to string together amazing licks - but there's scored gameplay here. It's not more beatmatch gameplay; it's a completely new language and system that fits in nicely with the standard beatmatch "hit the gems" gameplay, but it opens up some really incredible new opportunities for making the guitar solos your own.
In your hands, this just feels great, too - it's something the team has actually wanted to implement as part of the guitar gameplay design as far back as 2005, and totally takes that guitar god fantasy to the next level. It's rare someone gets their hands on it and doesn't walk away smiling.
The new freestyle solo sections.
We know there's an emphasis on making you feel more like a band this time, but please tell us we won't have to five star *and* five spade a song? We never could manage that...
I haven't seen any spades yet.
One of the best bits of news to come out about Rock Band 4 is the fact you'll be able to use your old instruments with the game, with no need to buy a brand new plastic axe (although instruments are available). Just for clarification, how much freedom will we have with this? Will you be able to use a PS3 guitar on an Xbox One? And how far back does the backwards compatibility go? Can you use an old Guitar Hero 2 controller, for example?
Right now, we can confirm that wireless Rock Band instruments from last generation are going to work on the new consoles. So that is to say PS3 instruments will work on the PS4 with no additional equipment, save for the dongle you needed for those instruments to begin with, and Xbox 360 instruments will work on the Xbox One with a low-cost adapter we'll be selling separately. We'll have more details on that soon. As far as specifics beyond that for other types of hardware, our goal is to support just about every instrument peripheral that we reasonably can in Rock Band 4. That extends to controllers for other brands, just like it did last generation, but until we get into the nitty gritty and start testing them in-house, all we can say is "that's our plan". Once we test stuff and know it works for sure, we'll let you know.
On a slightly more hardcore note, we were one of the nutters that spent more money than we probably should have on an ION kit. Please tell us these will be supported in Rock Band 4?
We hear you on this. We hear it a lot. News as we can pass it along.
One of the more exciting announcements about Rock Band 4 was the news that you'll be able to carry across your old DLC from older Rock Band games to Rock Band 4. But, if you used to play on 360, and now have a PS4, will you have to wave goodbye to your DLC? Or will you be able to bring it with you?
Xbox 360 purchases transfer to Xbox One and PlayStation 3 purchases will transfer to PlayStation 4. It's tied to your account.
With Rock Band making its triumphant return, will we also see the return of the Rock Band store, where you could order custom t-shirts with your in-game band logo, or even little plastic figures of your band? We could see the Everybody Plays staff spending a fair few quid on that...
No solid merchandise plans right now. If it's something players want, we can look into it. We'll see!
On the topic of extra services, is there any chance of the return of the fully featured rockband.com, so we can track our stats/band profile/etc?
That was a pretty cool feature, and we built out a lot of that stuff even further with Rock Band Blitz and Facebook support… our core fans love that stuff. Nothing to announce right now, but I'll say that when you consider we're looking at Rock Band 4 as a live service or a game that grows beyond launch, just about everything is potentially on the table if it's what players want.
One of the more, perhaps unappreciated best bits of Rock Band 3 was the Rock Band Network - a kind of self-publishing store, letting indie artists release their tracks as downloads for Rock Band, giving us the ability to play Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm and Poets of the Fall on Rock Band 3. As Rock Band 4 is going to be a "platform" going forward, will we be seeing the return of the network?
For launch there aren't any plans to bring back Rock Band Network; there's so much stuff we need to do in order just build up the core of the game and the primary features, so we have to focus on a few things at a time. We'll see what happens down the line.
On the topic of DLC, is there any one band you'd have loved to get on the earlier games, but didn't quite manage, for licensing issues, or any other reason?
You'd get a different answer from everyone at the studio, I'm sure, because music taste is pretty subjective. I'll just unironically go with Taylor Swift on this one.
And finally, you've said this will be the only Rock Band game this generation - but that doesn't rule out LEGO Rock Band 2, right?
Well, do you want a LEGO Rock Band 2?---So there you have it! Improvised guitar solos, some clarification on backwards compatibility and not a definite no to Lego Rock Band 2! Rock Band 4 itself will be hitting the Xbox One and Playstation 4 later this year, on the 6th October - we can't wait!
