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[Bridges]

Source: https://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/an-update-on-rock-band-4-dlc

Hi Friends,

After over 8 years of weekly Rock Band 4 DLC releases, we’re here to let you know that January 25 will be the last DLC release of the RB4 era. All other live services will continue as normal, including Rivals seasons, online play, and everything else.

Working in support of the Rock Band community has been a high point in my professional life - wading through the thousands of song requests we get, working through what songs to pursue and release, it’s all hard work but also really satisfying.

Taking a longer look back, I see the Rock Band DLC catalog as a huge achievement in persistence and commitment - over the years we’ve cleared, authored and released nearly 3,000 songs as DLC and well over 3,000 if you include all the game soundtracks. That’s wild. Many of you reading this own a good chunk of this content and we remain committed to protecting that investment - to be very clear, you can play the songs you own within Rock Band 4 for as long as you like.

Looking ahead, the Harmonix team has been hard at work over the last two years to develop Fortnite Festival, which brings rhythm action gaming (and more) to the Fortnite ecosystem. It’s free to play, we have a rotating selection of songs that you can play (for free) anytime. If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be; and with support for RB4 instruments coming, this is not the time to hang up your guitars just yet….

We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era. The last two weeks will feature some tear jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment. We thank you for your commitment to and passion for this wonderful game.

Long Live Rock and Roll,

Daniel

TL;DR: Harmonix is solely focused on Fortnite Festival going forward.

This week's DLC is, fittingly, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John & "Our Love Will Still Be There" by The Troggs. Next week's DLC, releasing on January 25th, will be the last ever for Rock Band 4.

___________________

For me, this is a source of great sadness, though most of the die-hards probably saw this coming. I have bought new songs for Rock Band as recently as yesterday and it is still my go-to party game. Recent DLC has consisted mainly of no-name artists or rereleases of tracks from previous Rock Band games. The purchase of Harmonix by anyone else may have meant another stab at getting Rock Band into the mainstream. But since it was Epic, they can join the saltmines of Fortnite support.

I'll at least applaud them for getting a few more good tracks in before completely winding down the service. Maybe someday, somehow, a Rock Band 5 will materialize. RB4 seemed like such a pipe dream when it happened, and this isn't the first time RB DLC had ended and started back up again. But if this is truly the end, it was an amazing run.

Many here likely won't care, but for my fellow rhythm gaming die-hards, join me in mourning (for the second time) the best plastic instrument game around.

R.I.P. Rock Band, you were too good for this world.

 

[Spukc]

 

[Dr_Salt]

I wish they were still selling the complete bundle, I used to play rockband1 with my friends all the time.

 

[Aldynes]

Damn I never knew it was being supported for that long, back in their prime they used to flowed the market to saturation with games and peripherals, heck even video game store wouldn't trade them in after a while these things took too much space.

 

[Meicyn]

Fortnite is how it ultimately survives, IMO. It’s an immediate gateway to a large installed playerbase which will likely continue to get larger as Epic continues adding non-PvP alternatives. Fortnite Festival is actively played by around 40K players at any given point which is pretty legit, numbers wise. As the tracklist expands and peripheral support is added, it’s only going to get better.

Props to Harmonix for supporting RB4 as long as they did.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I'd love one last shout to get some hardware.

I need the xbox adapter and I can't find it anywhere. Still have all my 360 instruments from rock band beatles.

 

[buenoblue]

Lazy devs

 

[jshackles]

Real OGs have switched to Clone Hero or YARG

 

[Bridges]

I'd love one last shout to get some hardware.

I need the xbox adapter and I can't find it anywhere. Still have all my 360 instruments from rock band beatles.

PDP is apparently working on a new guitar to coincide with Fortnite Festival getting peripheral support. Seems logical that it would also work with Rock Band 4 but that is TBA

Fortnite is how it ultimately survives, IMO. It’s an immediate gateway to a large installed playerbase which will likely continue to get larger as Epic continues adding non-PvP alternatives. Fortnite Festival is actively played by around 40K players at any given point which is pretty legit, numbers wise. As the tracklist expands and peripheral support is added, it’s only going to get better.

Props to Harmonix for supporting RB4 as long as they did.

If all my Rock Band purchases carried over I'd be okay with it. They should've called it Fortnite Rock Band so they could have access to the library. I am not starting again from scratch, especially since it's $5 per song instead of the $2 that Rock Band has always done.

I am happy that Harmonix has a future but it's a real monkey's paw moment for me

 

[Spukc]

Lazy devs

best post of the day

 

[Dacvak]

Damn. I got back into RB4 a lot last year (after I realized that owning a house meant I could make lots of noise!), and I’ve been slowly amassing a pretty huge DLC collection. I was quite surprised that they were still releasing new songs.

End of an era.

Edit: Wait wtf is Fortnite festival?

 

[Meicyn]

If all my Rock Band purchases carried over I'd be okay with it. They should've called it Fortnite Rock Band so they could have access to the library. I am not starting again from scratch, especially since it's $5 per song instead of the $2 that Rock Band has always done.

I am happy that Harmonix has a future but it's a real monkey's paw moment for me

You’re not wrong on the price of songs, I haven’t bought any of the singles because of it. You can get it down to almost $3 per song, but that requires buying vbucks in $90 increments. I’m waiting for some kind of deal before I dive in. I did buy the pass which gave you a few songs and other stuff which was a lot more tolerable.

When I abandoned the Xbox platform in the PS4 era, I lost access to all my Rock Band 1-3 songs. As a consequence I never bought Rock Band 4. So I get it on the frustration with losing access to so much music.

 

[Jesb]

I assumed this wasn’t supported years ago. A lot of great memories this game was on the 360. One of the games that cemented Xbox as my platform of choice that generation.

 

[jshackles]

I assumed this wasn’t supported years ago. A lot of great memories this game was on the 360. One of the games that cemented Xbox as my platform of choice that generation.

They stopped for about 2 years from 2013 to 2015 when Rock Band 4 was released.

 

[Quasicat]

I have over 500 songs between the imports and dlc. I still go on each month and get songs for my library. Now I need to buy up my wishlist before the licenses expire.

 

[RavageX]

It is the end of an era, but in my opinion Rock band wasn't the same since 3. RB2 was when it felt REALLY amazing, characters looked great and DLC was great. RB3 was not bad...but 4. The quality of the drums really seemed to be shit. Then the DLC really seemed to fall off. It used to be that I couldn't miss a week and there was almost always something to get, even if it was just one song from a pack.

It hasn't been that way in quite some time for me. I still play it, and probably always will but I don't see it ever gaining that popularity again.

 

[diffusionx]

i bought the RB4 set as a gift for my ex, she probably threw it out, i check the prices of the set on eBay, this thread triggered me thanks.

 

[Deerock71]

Ummm...

 

[consoul]

Thanks Yoko.

 

[jshackles]

i bought the RB4 set as a gift for my ex, she probably threw it out, i check the prices of the set on eBay, this thread triggered me thanks.

I posted this thread about 5 years ago. Shit is even worse now.

 

[YCoCg]

his week's DLC is, fittingly, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John

The last DLC better be a banger then because this song would've been a perfect send off.

 

[TransTrender]

I still have a brand new in box unopened PS4 Rock Band Rivals in the basement.
I really need to sell that thing.

 

[joeygreco1985]

Last DLC song will be Time of Your Life by Green Day, book it.

I'm also surprised RB4 kept going the way it did considering how hard it was to get the instrument controllers. I'm glad they did it. Rock Band with friends and family will always be at the top of my favorite gaming memories

 

[Bridges]

Last DLC song will be Time of Your Life by Green Day, book it.

I'm also surprised RB4 kept going the way it did considering how hard it was to get the instrument controllers. I'm glad they did it. Rock Band with friends and family will always be at the top of my favorite gaming memories

"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was a part of Green Day: Rock Band and was made available as a separately purchasable DLC during the late Rock Band 3 era.

My personal guess is that "The End" by The Doors will be part of the last week. I also would want/hope for "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes but they said the last DLC would be some sad songs that signify the feelings of the team for closing out the era, so it probably doesn't fit.

The first time DLC ended, during the RB3 era, I'm pretty sure they have us months in advance. For sure it was several weeks because we got a Chevelle pack and an Aerosmith pack and some mixed singles leading up to the very last week that was just "American Pie". It feels very sudden to get a one week notice like this. I'm very sad

 

[Bridges]

Bumping this because today, the final DLC was announced for Rock Band 4:

"Wherever You Will Go" - The Calling
"Thank You" - Dido
"Send Me On My Way" - Rusted Root

These are the kind of weeks we used to get all the time back in the good old days. 3+ great songs that were well known and fun to play.

I'll be buying all of these alongside Elton John and The Troggs from last week

RIP my favorite game

 

[Deft Beck]

If there's anything I can say for certain, it's that Harmonix will never truly die. I thought they were done half a dozen times before the Epic Games acquisition. It's a testament to their ability to adapt to the times.

As others have said, Rock Band will live on in Fortnite Festival.

 

[AJUMP23]

For the years of DLC.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Is all the DLC still available, or has some of it disappeared due to licensing issues over the years? I'm curious how much it would cost if someone decided to swoop in and just buy the entire catalog today.

 

[jshackles]

Is all the DLC still available, or has some of it disappeared due to licensing issues over the years? I'm curious how much it would cost if someone decided to swoop in and just buy the entire catalog today.

Not all of it's still available. Tons of it has expired out, in addition to all the old disc exports - some of which were the only way to get certain songs.

 

[Bridges]

Is all the DLC still available, or has some of it disappeared due to licensing issues over the years? I'm curious how much it would cost if someone decided to swoop in and just buy the entire catalog today.

The majority of DLC is still available. There were several rounds of content delisted that happened between Rock Band 3 DLC ending and Rock Band 4 launching. Some pretty notable stuff is gone now like:

System of a Down
Fleetwood Mac
Red Hot Chili Peppers (except for "Black Summer")
"Don't Stop Believing" by Journey
Select Tom Petty songs

But almost everything is still there.

Rock Band 4 also does not have RBN (Rock Band Network) like RB3 did, so the majority of those songs never carried over.

As far as the on-disc songs go, if you don't already have the exports it is too late. Rock Band, 2, 3, Lego and Blitz all can no longer export their music into Rock Band 4 as they've expired.

However, they did sometimes release "Rewind" songs, which are rerelease of on-disc and RBN songs as individual DLC. So you can still get some of the great songs from the old games like "Free Bird" and "Sabotage" and most of the very popular RBN songs made it over like "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven and the Flight of the Conchords tracks.

If you're lucky enough to find some, the Track Packs that they used to print out on discs all have DLC codes in them that (I believe) will still work until the Xbox 360 store is taken down later this year. Stuff like the AC/DC Live Track Pack, Country Track Packs, Metal Track Pack etc should still work and some of them even will get you songs that have since been delisted (Metal Track Pack has a couple for sure, and I know that the AC/DC pack is the only way to get any of those songs).

To buy the entire catalog? That'd be insane, even with only what's available today. They have a lot of mega bundles now to get you the most popular stuff at a discount, but for the most part you'd be spending $2 a song on thousands of available tracks. I have about 1700 songs and I can't fathom how much I've spent on this series between the games, the instruments, the exports and the DLCs

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Got it. One has to respect how audacious they were with this game. Just a crazy level of support.

 

[Quasicat]

When Rock Band 4 came out, our Meijer clearanced it all out to get it off of the floor after Christmas. I bought the box set for $80 and an extra guitar for $25, which was a crazy deal since it had only been out for like six months at that point. A couple of times a year, usually when the kids and I have a snow day, we set it all up and have a blast. I have about 50 songs in my wishlist that I need to jump on before they start getting delisted.