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[Brofield]

After 4 years, 2,121 songs, and countless hours of investment from some of the most talented and passionate Rock Band fans around, it’s time for the sun to (officially) set on Rock Band Network.

When the crew here at Harmonix first started developing a tool that would allow Rock Band fans, artists, and labels to put their own songs into Rock Band we had no idea that it would spawn a community that was nothing short of ravenous in their pursuit of new tracks. Even if we had been able to anticipate the level of enthusiasm, we certainly couldn’t have predicted that the RBN authors would generate a body of work that so quickly eclipsed the official Harmonix output. As of today, the total stands at 2,121 songs released by authors in the Rock Band Network, and 2,100 songs authored by Harmonix, and that’s even including on disc songs!

Sadly, since the official Harmonix DLC pipeline closed on 4/2/2013, RBN has been plagued with technical issues. Some of those problems were server side here at Harmonix, while others were entirely outside of our control. At this point, with Harmonix resources devoted to several other titles in development, we’re no longer able to operate RBN with the kind of consistency that it deserves. As a result, we will no longer be taking any submissions or releasing new content through RBN. Songs previously released through RBN will continue to be available for sale, subject to the RBN Program Terms, which can be found here: http://hmxcorp-prod-b.s3.harmonixmusic.com/media/uploads/Creators_Program_Terms.pdf

We are eternally grateful to all the Creators, authors, testers, labels, bands, and fans that have supported Rock Band Network since its inception. The team here at Harmonix remains committed to exploring opportunities for user generated content, as well as the ability to personalize your experience with our games. We can only hope that the next time we approach a similar initiative the community is as dedicated and enthusiastic as this community has been.

Thanks to all of you for helping make Rock Band Network something special.

-Harmonix Music Systems

http://forums.harmonixmusic.com/discussion/256785/rock-band-network-official-sunsetting-announcement

Man...how many years ago was it when Guitar Hero first broke out onto the scene? When we first held that little guitar in our hands? Wasn't thought of as much more than a novel game experiment, but isn't that how all the titans start?

O, how the mighty hath fallen. While the whole plastic instrument thing has run its course into the ground, this is just another reminder of all we put up with to pretend we were mighty rock stars (minus the drug problems).

Any fond memories left? Particularly of those songs that made it to the Rock Band games through the service? I mean, Flogging Molly and Eiffel 65 were pretty fantastic, and who would've expected Buckner & Garcia to show up without it?

 

[Canis lupus]

Harmonix+Project Morpheus+Move

best thing evur

 

[neorej]

Getting friends together and rocking till 3am will always be a fond memory of this game.

 

[PGamer]

Harmonix+Project Morpheus+Move

best thing evur

Harmonix is actually working on an app for the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR (and by extension, likely the Oculus Rift as well).

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137286-Harmonix-Music-VR-Visualizer-Samsung-Gear-VR-Oculus

 

[Vlade]

Never. Never never never YOU CAN'T MAKE ME STOP.

 

[ChaosAngel]

I got some friends together over the summer and had a good 5 hour Rock Band 2 session. It was one of the most fun things I've experienced in gaming in a long time. While I'll miss these plastic instruments, I'm sure I'll continue to hold a party every so often to bring everyone's nostalgia back with the old games.

 

[MMarston]

Never thought I'd say this, but I actually wish this trend got revived somehow. I mean sure, they're not particularly the most creative games out there in terms of their design (apart from performers taking advantage of RBN of course) and they were getting milked to oblivion, but a lot of good times were had with these things nonetheless.

 

[PseudoViper]

It ain't dead over here...

Still jamming

 

[Curufinwe]

The problem for me was that even with RBN there was a tiny number of songs I actually wanted to play. Two Radiohead songs in the history of Rock Band just wasn't enough.

 

[SerTapTap]

Never thought I'd say this, but I actually wish this trend got revived somehow. I mean sure, they're not particularly the most creative games out there in terms of their design (apart from performers taking advantage of RBN of course) and they were getting milked to oblivion, but a lot of good times were had with these things nonetheless.

It seems like something that could really benefit from having a single game per gen with DLC to add on to it. Definitely got milked to oblivion, I'm actually pretty surprised they managed to milk it dry since trends that popular usually don't disappear quite so fast just because of saturation.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Never thought I'd say this, but I actually wish this trend got revived somehow. I mean sure, they're not particularly the most creative games out there in terms of their design (apart from performers taking advantage of RBN of course) and they were getting milked to oblivion, but a lot of good times were had with these things nonetheless.

I believe Rocksmith is still going, and on the PC there are a few clones knocking around that people have reworked the GH / RB playlists to work with

It seems like something that could really benefit from having a single game per gen with DLC to add on to it. Definitely got milked to oblivion, I'm actually pretty surprised they managed to milk it dry since trends that popular usually don't disappear quite so fast just because of saturation.

Yeah, this was the problem.
Accessory profits are higher than game profits, so every new version instead of being an expansion to the base game was an excuse to sell a new peripheral instead.

 

[angrygnat]

There is still a Rockband set up in the basement complete with a working set of drums. Upstairs there are a couple of guitars with wii controllers from GH World Tour that still see a lot of use. I loved the games. My kids loved the games. Hell. Even my wife loved the games. Too much money was made and too many people love the games for them to have vanished forever. They will rise again.