Harmonix has today revealed that Rock Band 4 is indeed in the works, as has been the rumor for so long. It's coming to both next-gen consoles (Xbox One and PS4) THIS YEAR, and will support the massive amount of DLC that has been put out for the series over the years. What's more- it will have real rock stars in it.
The key sentence in their release is thus- "Rock Band 4 delivers the ultimate platform for gamers to experience music, giving players the chance to rock in the shoes of the biggest guitarists, bassists, drummers, and singers of all time." Who could it be? Could they FINALLY have gotten the Led Zeppelin license? One can only hope...
But otherwise it seems that there will be no big surprises in how it plays. It will deliver "the most authentic music game ever, challenging rockers to master lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals." Note that there's no mention of keyboard there, although plenty of us have plastic keyboards collecting dust in our closets from the last installment...
One good thing for long-time fans is that all of the 2000+ songs available as DLC will be playable in this title again. It's wonderful for us and smart for them, allowing them to get a sales boost for content they created years and years ago.
Harmonix is also getting Mad Catz to create new hardware for the game, which is inevitable, seeing as how it's been so long since the last title. Perhaps during their surveys they realized more people had parted with their plastic instruments than they anticipated, or fewer had them in working conditions. I know my drums are just hanging on to life...
Expect to hear many more details on Rock Band 4 in the coming months! If you're interested in pre-ordering the return to what's inagruably the greatest music series of all time, head on over to RockBand.com/PreOrder to be notified when pre-orders are made available.