Yeah I think in general the whole instrumental games fad is mostly dead. 

People got tired of having 800 different plastic accessories sitting around in their living room. 

They're about the 'same' as Battlefield and Call of Duty.  Same basic gameplay and controls, but a lot different to those who play them, and each is very unique, for better or for worse. different ways to strategize, the way band members interact is different, dfferent gameplay mechanics on each instrument, different scoring systems, etc.  Lots of subtle differences. 

Yet I doubt you could tell the difference between Call of Duty Ghosts and Battlefield 4. Even Rock band/Guitar Hero have different aesthetic looks. 

They also have a different ethos (from GH3 when Neversoft took the helm). Whereby Rock Band is a lot more strict in it's timings but has simpler (and often more accurate) note patters, it's clearly all about being more authentic to the source material. Guitar Hero on the other hand fixated a lot more on complicated crowded note patterns, but was a lot more generous with the timings and nowhere near as authentic to the songs.

I love how Samus keeps calling music/rhythm games a fad, yet they have been going decades and since long before Guitar Hero hit the market. And there are still plenty of them coming out now, though not always with peripherals to accompany them.

I'm not calling rhytm games a fad, but GH and RB.

Why would you even care for a new game in this series? They're all the same.You won't miss a thing by playing the old ones.

Because I still play it, but it's a pain in the arse having to set an old console up for it. To get it put across onto my PS4 and have access to my entire song library (over 300) is fantastic and if some more of my favourite music appears on it too, more the better!

Anything that brings new content (because there are so many songs I still would love to see aded to the library) is more than welcome. I was gutted when the DLC dried up a couple of years back, but understood why it had to happen.

A new Rock Band launcher disc that is just a portal to your music on current platforms is a great idea. It'll bring new people to the game because there is a new wave of gamers who weren't old enough for video games when these games were last doing the rounds in any meaningful way. It lets existing fans like myself easily reaccess their collections without faffing around and being a one off disc rather than the iterational approach publishers forced on the genre last time round will make it a lot more palletable for people.

It was clear from the original Rock Band that Harmonix just wanted 1 product, with the revenue then coming from the store. However we were still in a very physically driven market back then. Now that digital is a lot more accessible to the masses, it's a route that makes a lot more sense. Tbh I'd probably just buy the actual software off PSN too so it was always available on my console.

Makes sense, one RB per generation is all you need though. They went overboard last gen. The rest should be dlc.

bummed about this decision - i might have to throw away my wii compatible plastic instruments finally.

also surprised - there's no data that supports the fact that RB 4 wouldn't sell on Wii U. Comparable franchises (JD) sells better on Nintendo consoles now than anywhere else. There is a market for this game.

Just Dance is not a comparable franchise. Guitar Hero is and Just Dance is not the series anyone should be following an example of as that series long fell of sales and relevance wise

It is just a lame excuse that there isn't a market for Wii U. Just say directly that we don't want to built a game for this console. They've mentioned that old instruments would work on the new gen (or at least try to make it work)
So wii owners that have these plastic RB instruments is already a target group of consumers. Which can also translate into console buyers for this game since the old instrument would work... The Wii game itself is backward compatible just make that version work in Wii U with an update plus new DLCs... Still money generation to me...

They conducted research with their active community. Wii U was one of the platforms listed when they both asked what formats you own and what format you would purchase Rock Band 4 on. They also asked things like do you want to use/buy new instruments or existing? 

Chuck in the fact that you can ALREADY play Rock Band on Wii U and it seems perfectly logical to leave the Wii U version for now.