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Forums - Gaming - Rock Band 4 Flops HUGE, Publisher Taking a Loss

Soundwave on 03 June 2016
aLkaLiNE said:
It flopped because this is the first Rock Band where Harmonix was funding their own development - after their split with EA, HMX basically went Indie and on Rock Band 4, they couldn't afford good advertising. The set list is all filler songs that couldn't have cost them that much to license. There's no online play for the game yet either which is huge, only leaderboards. Rock Band Network isn't compatible yet either.

And finally, the instruments this time around launched with game breaking bugs on the hardware and software side. This is why harmonix is about to release updated hardware from a new vendor company for the game - madcatz instruments are just bad and have severe latency issues. My drum set broke probably my 10th time using them. That's never happened in the passed.

With Rock Band 4, the game is set to serve as a 'platform' that's not meant to have a sequel this generation. Harmonix has, true to their word been updating the game over time and we are slowly seeing the return of features.

I also forgot to mention that there's no practice mode, a big deal imo

I think the concept is just dead. Besides I think people (especially moms) really are not keen on having 20 different plastic instruments/controllers sitting around in the living room any more. It was a fun fad when it was new, now that it's not ...



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Veknoid_Outcast on 03 June 2016
Teeqoz said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:
Honestly, I was shocked when the game was announced. I figured the market for these rhythm games evaporated a while ago.

That fact, combined with the report that Harmonix employees planted anonymous positive reviews online makes it hard for me to show much sympathy.

You can feel sympathy for the publisher that had nothing to do with the actions of Harmonix. The publisher had to lay off like 80 people and the CEO and board and all resigned.

I definitely feel for the people who lost their jobs. This is a tough market to find work, so I wish them the best.



kitler53 on 03 June 2016

i bought it. i'm happy i did. i don't play it a ton but i do like it from time to time.



aLkaLiNE on 03 June 2016
Soundwave said:
aLkaLiNE said:
It flopped because this is the first Rock Band where Harmonix was funding their own development - after their split with EA, HMX basically went Indie and on Rock Band 4, they couldn't afford good advertising. The set list is all filler songs that couldn't have cost them that much to license. There's no online play for the game yet either which is huge, only leaderboards. Rock Band Network isn't compatible yet either.

And finally, the instruments this time around launched with game breaking bugs on the hardware and software side. This is why harmonix is about to release updated hardware from a new vendor company for the game - madcatz instruments are just bad and have severe latency issues. My drum set broke probably my 10th time using them. That's never happened in the passed.

With Rock Band 4, the game is set to serve as a 'platform' that's not meant to have a sequel this generation. Harmonix has, true to their word been updating the game over time and we are slowly seeing the return of features.

I also forgot to mention that there's no practice mode, a big deal imo

I think the concept is just dead. Besides I think people (especially moms) really are not keen on having 20 different plastic instruments/controllers sitting around in the living room any more. It was a fun fad when it was new, now that it's not ...

Cool story bruh but this article doesn't even talk about Harmonix. It's talking about peripheral sales, your article or headline is wrong because madcatz did not publish. They simply made the instruments and aided in distribution. Harmonix is completely fine from it and, like I said the game will have legs

 

edit - they shouldn't have made shitty instruments. 



celador on 03 June 2016

Guess they'll have to try and sell the rest of the stock off at a big loss, better than nothing at this point.

Would be interested to hear how Guitar Hero is doing



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Barozi on 03 June 2016

Rock Band was never a big seller, even when the genre was at its prime.



Arlo on 03 June 2016

I could be completely wrong, but they might have lost so much money because they manufactured so many more instruments. If I were them I would have mostly just aimed to sell the game to people who still had their instruments and were looking to pick them up again (like me). But every store I ever go to has stacks of full band kits that no one needs. It's like instead of just trying to make a little money from their big install base they wanted to really start the whole thing going strong again, which wasn't super realistic.



http://www.youtube.com/ArloStuff

IamAwsome on 03 June 2016
celador said:
Guess they'll have to try and sell the rest of the stock off at a big loss, better than nothing at this point.

Would be interested to hear how Guitar Hero is doing

Guitar Hero Live sold 760k on the PS4, and 480k on the XB1. Not fantastic numbers, but it's better than this. I think there's still a market for a new Guitar Hero provided they reinvent the genre. Rocksmith did that, and it sold decently considering the year it launched. 



ktay95 on 03 June 2016

The whole band set has dropped to the same price as the guitar set launched at less than a month after launch here. Has just been really sad.
Honestly I was disappointed in what they delivered at launch and haven't picked the game up since.



ktay95 on 03 June 2016
IamAwsome said:
celador said:
Guess they'll have to try and sell the rest of the stock off at a big loss, better than nothing at this point.

Would be interested to hear how Guitar Hero is doing

Guitar Hero Live sold 760k on the PS4, and 480k on the XB1. Not fantastic numbers, but it's better than this. I think there's still a market for a new Guitar Hero provided they reinvent the genre. Rocksmith did that, and it sold decently considering the year it launched. 

GH has Activision money, which means advertisements. Rock Band 4 likely would have sold more then GH Live ever would with the same money invested in it.