Harmonix is asking gamers what they'd like to see in a new Rock Band, surprising subscribers to their mailing list this weekend with a survey that offers some none-too-subtle hints about the future of the series.
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The survey starts off by asking four questions that are pretty innocuous- how often do you currently play Rock Band, how often do you purchase DLC, what instruments do you still own (that are functional!), and what platform you play it on the most - before things get inteteresting, as you can see in the image above,
There it becomes obvious that they're asking these questions to judge interest in a new installment, the first since 2010's Rock Band 3.
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The instruments question seems key. After all, it was one thing to put out new installments one after the other, knowing that folks still had the plastic instruments from the last game waiting to be used in the new one. But it's been four long years and a new console generation since Rock Band 3, and many people have undoubtedly put their big, bulky instruments out to pasture. Would people want to purchase a whole new set of instruments, or is there some other way they could get them back into the game?
I, like many gamers, used to play Rock Band on a regular basis. A local bar held Rock Band nights and many a drunken time was spent warbling away in the mic and beating the bar's drums into submission. Even though the third installment was the pinnacle of the series, by that point we had been so oversaturated with music games and plastic instruments that it got old, and interest soon petered out. The well-intentioned but poorly-implemented Rock Band Blitz couldn't keep people entertained for a long time, either.
Harmonix has moved onto other titles like Fantastia, Chroma, and Amplitude, but there is certainly a large, Rock-shaped hole in our hearts. Could a next-gen version for Xbox One and PS4 bring people back? What would they have to add to it that they haven't already?
I'm honestly not sure what they could do to reignite interest in the series at this point, but would love to see them return to the series that made them legends in the industry. These are guys that had The Who perform for them at a private E3 party, after all, and worked with The Beatles to publish unreleased footage and images. Who else can say that?
The one thing they never achieved, though? The rights to Led Zepplin songs. Maybe that could be what they need...
