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Rock Band 4 expansion confirmed for fall 2016, includes online multiplayer
- Thread starter Baron von Loathsome
- Start date
Orbis Tabula
Member
Oooh, neat. Then maybe I'll wait to make my purchase until then. Sounds good.
Chromium.Wings
Member
Wait, is it guaranteed it's going to cost money for that? It almost sounds like they intend that to be free.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
They mentioned at the panel that they're still figuring out the price.
it'd be real fucked if they charged for this. Especially after the shit show that was their unfinished release and DLC delays.
Chromium.Wings
Member
Ah, okay. It'd be nice if it were free, considering I bought the game assuming online play would be in it. But that's on me, not them.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
Online multiplayer is expensive, yo.
Hey, glad you could make it to the thread. I could take the time to call out your drive-by shitpost, but I'm too excited by this update. Just put in two hours in RB4 this morning/afternoon. Missed it a lot. Can't wait to see what they have in store.
Seriously. Launching with tons of major features absent - features that were standard-issue in every previous RB release - and then coming out with them a year later and charging for them? I suppose it's good that they're coming at all, but maaaaan.
Neuromancer
Member
I'm honestly surprised they're still working on this. I thought RB4 tanked.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
The game has calibration built in. I'm able to play on a Smart TV with no issues.
Mushroomer25
Member
I think it's fair for them to charge, especially since there's at least one other major feature attached to this. People knew what Rock Band 4 was going in. The stuff they've added so far has been great, but I'm not going to expect that they keep up a free update train in perpetuity.
Best way to go about this would be a bundle pack that includes the online play update + a bunch of DLC tracks. Give people something more tangible & immediate for the money.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
If it's a paid expansion over £10-15 it'd better have some extra musical content on there to justify it. Just modes would be fucking ridiculous.
It's definitely not a million seller, but finding a good baseline and keeping it has always been one of Harmonix's better talents as a developer.
It sounds like they're going to effectively relaunch RB4 this fall, which makes sense since they're changing out publishers.
Neuromancer
Member
No way it'll be free. They'd be advertising it as an update not an expansion.
metsallica
Member
ION support for Bone? Woooo!
Xaero Gravity
NEXT LEVEL lame™
How in the world was that a shit post?
chrominance
Member
There's a photo from the PAX presentation with a timeline of features. Things of note:
- Double-kick support in May
- Practice mode in June
- NO updates for July/August
- Expansion pack in September
- Music library enhancements in September (listed separately, could this mean separate from expansion?)
- Online multiplayer in "Holiday" (again, listed separately, could this mean separate from expansion?)
I've complained a total of zero times about this game, I love that I have my collection on my bone, and it's cool that they've been updating here and there. That being said, these are features people wanted from the start, the game launched unfinished, and now they are discussing charging extra money for something that should have been there from the start? I don't care about multiplayer, but for the people that do, it's pretty lame. This isn't a shit post, it's an opinion about their line of thinking, it is certainly not unwarranted.
Great to see practice coming finally, though.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
It's Harmonix's main source of income right now. It's not a huge hit, but it's probably HMX's best-selling game in years, and the DLC keeps selling, too (even if it has largely been mediocre for the past few months).
PROh1bited
Banned
I don't think they put a price on Online at all. They just said an expansion is coming in the fall, and that will most likely be a bunch of songs you can get for a cheap price.
Neuromancer
Member
Where'd you see that? That'll make a friend of mine very happy.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Agreed. It's a valid post. I'm especially cautious of them after the whole PC Port/RBN fundraising stuff and the initial state of RB4 when it came out. Hoping this is just a big song pack or something and not a bunch of modes that should be in the game.
I'm glad that this is the case, but what is the source for this information about the revenue?
PROh1bited
Banned
2nd post.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
It requires a yet-to-be-revealed adapter, but yes, it's true.
chrominance
Member
https://twitter.com/RockBand/status/724329241504960512
EDIT: video of Practice Mode. The vocal guide feature, is that new?
PROh1bited
Banned
I think some people are mislead, but Online will not be a paid update. It'll be free.
At the top level of playing just a ms or two off will throw you off your game and make you miss easy notes. I've got a 144hz 1ms monitor that I'd love to play with, but we couldn't raise 1.5mil for a port of an unfinished game so I'll just keep this genre in the past.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
I feel like it's evident from the fact that it made the October NDP and that Dance Central Spotlight and Fantasia both flopped. Dance Central's DLC support essentially ended within three months of the game's launch, while Rock Band is still getting DLC.
If there's a song expansion included and it's a new disc run, I have no problems with them charging for it.
Mine is mostly audio related latency issues. The game can probably adapt to display latency just fine. (My home theatre sound set has a 110 ms latency, The TV has a 80MS latency if I were to use the TV sound.)
It makes it impossible to do vocals and free-style drumming.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
Neuromancer
Member
Mushroomer25
Member
It's 100% speculation from me, but I think the right path would be another single band-focused Rock Band game. Get a new SKU into stores, that uses the existing Rock Band 4 base game with a focused track list. That gives them a meaningfully different product to push to the public, and something excitement worthy for the core base. Specific announcement at E3.
This is my appeal for Rock Band: MUSE
))IceDoesntHelp
Banned
Maybe they'll release good music for once too.
PROh1bited
Banned
The secrets are out: Synchronous online multiplayer is coming to Rock Band 4! PDP is making an ION/E-Kit adapter for Xbox One! Huge new features coming in our first ever expansion pack later this year!
For those who didnt follow along on Twitter as we livetweeted the panel, heres a quick recap of our 2016 roadmap:
May: Battleborn characters These were announced at the Gearbox panel on Friday, but were confirming them for the May update hitting soon.
May: Double kick support Yep, youll be able to use that other port on your drums to use double kick pedals for tougher songs.
June: Practice Mode -- All the features youd expect are here. Picking sections of a song, slowing them down, vocal pitch guides, etc.
Summer: Pausing updates -- Heres when we wrap up Chapter One of Rock Band 4 and put a pause on updates. We have some huge features in store for the fall, and we want to give them the attention from the dev team they deserve.
Fall: Expansion Pack -- In the fall, were launching our first ever expansion pack, which is going to have some really big features attached to it, which havent been seen in Rock Band before. Much more to come about everything here at E3.
Fall: Music Library Enhancements -- Arriving alongside the expansion pack (But available to everyone with Rock Band 4), were making a bunch of tweaks to the music library, allowing you to sort, filter, and rate songs more easily.
Holiday: SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER -- Its coming. We want to be sure this version of online is better than in previous games, so were going to be using a modified version of Quickplay that has improvements for people with differing DLC libraries and groups where a random person tries to pick every song.
Im really excited about everything we have coming this year, especially because it means I get to talk about it with all of you guys and gals. Ive gotta run to our event at the planetarium for now (And then pass out immediately after thats over because holy crap its been a long, exhausting, amazing weekend), but rest assured that Ill spend a bunch of time in here tomorrow answering questions and virtually high-fiving people.
Some more info from JoshHMX.
So it looks like online will be free!
For those who didnt follow along on Twitter as we livetweeted the panel, heres a quick recap of our 2016 roadmap:
May: Battleborn characters These were announced at the Gearbox panel on Friday, but were confirming them for the May update hitting soon.
May: Double kick support Yep, youll be able to use that other port on your drums to use double kick pedals for tougher songs.
June: Practice Mode -- All the features youd expect are here. Picking sections of a song, slowing them down, vocal pitch guides, etc.
Summer: Pausing updates -- Heres when we wrap up Chapter One of Rock Band 4 and put a pause on updates. We have some huge features in store for the fall, and we want to give them the attention from the dev team they deserve.
Fall: Expansion Pack -- In the fall, were launching our first ever expansion pack, which is going to have some really big features attached to it, which havent been seen in Rock Band before. Much more to come about everything here at E3.
Fall: Music Library Enhancements -- Arriving alongside the expansion pack (But available to everyone with Rock Band 4), were making a bunch of tweaks to the music library, allowing you to sort, filter, and rate songs more easily.
Holiday: SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER -- Its coming. We want to be sure this version of online is better than in previous games, so were going to be using a modified version of Quickplay that has improvements for people with differing DLC libraries and groups where a random person tries to pick every song.
Im really excited about everything we have coming this year, especially because it means I get to talk about it with all of you guys and gals. Ive gotta run to our event at the planetarium for now (And then pass out immediately after thats over because holy crap its been a long, exhausting, amazing weekend), but rest assured that Ill spend a bunch of time in here tomorrow answering questions and virtually high-fiving people.
Some more info from JoshHMX.
So it looks like online will be free!
I apologize for my pre-emptive assumption. How was the game unfinished? What features are they charging for that they announced would be in at launch?
VichoCardenas
Banned
Price TBA for features that should have been included at the games launch?
Uh.
Uh.
should be noted that the slower speed in practice mode now keeps all the instruments playing
guessing the labels didn't like the ability to solo the instrument stem via practice mode before.
Setlists were patched in on April 2nd
guessing the labels didn't like the ability to solo the instrument stem via practice mode before.
Setlists were patched in on April 2nd