Rock Band Franchise Gets its 2000th Song
Next week, on October 12th, Rock Band will get its 2000th song.
It’s almost unreal to think that the Rock Band series will have 2000 songs available for download come next week. It’s quite a landmark for the franchise and shows that the replay value of the game is practically endless–there are so many songs, settings and instrument possibilities that there is probably no way to ever play every song with every instrument.
According to gaming website IGN, this number includes Rock Band 1 and 2, LEGO Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band and AC/DC Live: Rock Band as well as the many songs available for download on the Rock Band Store. However, they point out that this number does not include the Beatles: Rock Band, because the game’s songs are not exportable (This was likely to ensure that the only characters who ever appear playing the music in-game are the Beatle’s likenesses).
If you are wondering what magic number 2000 is, it’s Are You Experienced, by the Jimi Hendrix Experience off of their 1967 album Are You Experienced. Wow, that’s a lot experience. Do’h! I just said it again.
The first Rock Band game was released in the US on November 20, 2007, and introduced a new way of play to the rhythm game genre. It only seemed like the natural evolution of things after games had already explored guitars as well as karaoke.
This came after developer Harmonix (Who had originally developed Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s) was acquired by MTV in 2006. Expanding their game to a full band was something the developers had already wanted to do, and they decided to release their first title with MTV and publisher EA, Rock Band. The game was an instant hit.
The strongest selling point for Rock Band was that new songs were made available online through the Rock Band Store. This not only gave their game replayability, but it was easier than shipping new discs, and showed consumers (whether or not it was the intent) that Harmonix cared about their expensive purchase and gave them to option to buy songs at reasonable prices rather than having the shell out the money for a $30 disc.
Over 1,000 songs later, I think we can say the download thing has worked well for them.
By the way, why not check out this cool concept, which may not be idea for Rock Band, but it would definitely be sweet for some Gears of War, or just read about big time corporate-type guys whine about each other.
Via: IGN
