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Rock Band for PC canned -- Consoles only

This is a terrible way of gauging interest ...

One year late port of a (not-so-great) game that requires expensive, proprietary hardware, which people then should kickstart themselves? When has that ever been successful?
 
Too little for what they were asking, I'm surprised they got that much in the end. Most people who really wanted Rock Band on PC moved on years ago or used free clones like Phase Shift.
 
I'm sad to see people being down on Rock Band 4 on consoles. It's a miracle that we got the game and I continue to enjoy it as Harmonix continues to update it.

A PC version might have been successful once released, but there was no way the crowd funding would reach such a high goal when Rock Band fans like myself are tied to the console versions already.

But supporting a new platform is expensive. Rock Band is a continuing concern for Harmonix and adding PC to their line-up would be a huge investment for peripherals and DLC licencing. It's not as simple as porting the base game and then abandoning it. I have to imagine that part of the $1.5million was to ensure they could support the game and manufacture hardware. Comparing it to other kickstarters seems unrealistic.
 
Considering the amount of shit players are STILL waiting for in the console versions and the barebones state RB4 originally came out in last year, I'm not surprised this didn't come anywhere near it's goal. Most of the fanbase just want the base product complete, not yet another version.
 
I'm sad to see people being down on Rock Band 4 on consoles. It's a miracle that we got the game and I continue to enjoy it as Harmonix continues to update it.

I agree wholeheartedly. The game being a disappointment seems like something being repeated by people who haven't actually played it.
 
Only one of these games let's me use my electronic drum kit to play along can you guess which one
Guitar Hero World Tour on PC? (because, well... it does and it actually exists)

You can even get every single Rock Band 1 2 3 Beatles Lego and Greenday song in it with a pack, with the original charts. (The game is prety moddable)
 
Among other reasons it's BS because they don't ask console players to finance their development before it starts, they instead sell them a finished product.
 
If Harmonix had made and released RB4 on PC without this train wreck of a crowdfunding campaign, I would have bought it.

Two MILLION dollars (HMX said they were covering 500k, how generous of them) to outsource a port of an unfinished game is absurd, no matter what kind of QA and testing is involved. I just couldn't get myself to back this, it was run so silently and unenthusiasticly compared to Amplitude's campaign with the crazy live streams and everything. I've wanted Rock Band on PC forever and usually play RB3 alone at my desk on my computer monitor.

I honestly don't know what the fuck is going on at Harmonix, but the last couple years of them has been depressing to watch, as I've been a HUGE fan of theirs since the PS2 Amplitude days, have hundreds of posts on the official RB forums, and backed the Amplitude KS for $125.

Side note: The Chroma alpha was a lot of fun and I really hope that project isn't completely canned. Sadly it probably is.
 
they still have RBVR coming but i don't expect them to be an actual, functioning studio with projects in the pipeline by the time it actually comes out

if only there was some sort of industry event coming up soon that a lot of people pay attention to that would be a place for Harmonix to announce projects..
 
Heaven forbid you pay for a game.

heaven forbid that a company tries to port their own game without needing consumer funding so that they can make more money for themselves.

if only there was some sort of industry event coming up soon that a lot of people pay attention to that would be a place for Harmonix to announce projects..

i don't need to see if they announce something at e3 to know that if they can't even afford the burden of porting their own game to PC that they're likely in dire straits with very little promising work in the future.

I mean, they just helped to bankrupt Mad Catz, i'm not exactly seeing a line forming out of their door from publishers fighting to get the next hot Harmonix exclusive
 
They asked us to fund Amplitude and that was only on Sony consoles.
Sony owns the Amplitude/Frequency IPs, and Amplitude is honestly way more niche of a game than Rock Band. It sold poorly on PS2 and will probably sell poorly on PS4/PS3 as well.

Amplitude barely reached its goal of $800,000 on KS, and that was with Harmonix actually trying to spread the word and promote the campaign.
 
There's no BS in the fact that PC gamers just don't care about Rock Band. However if you take a look at some of those responses to questions, there's BS left right and center.

The timing for this campaign is terrible, we wanted it years ago!”

Goes on to talk about Rock Band 4 which was released less than a year ago. Didn't know that counted as "years ago". Makes no mention of previous titles not coming to PC.
 
Oh shit, I've never seen Phase Shift before.
I like Phaseshift but the media they use are either terrible quality youtube rips, mediocre quality MP3s, or decent quality multi-track rips from the games themselves (which i assume are illegal). And even those can be terrible quality as well, it depends on the guy who rips them.

The very reason i love this series (and i own almost all games, including GH games) is the sound quality / remasters / multitracks. And the actual games sound better than whatever you can put on Phaseshift. However, this gen i only have a PC. So i would love to get the actual game there since i'm not going to buy a console just for this game.
 
Maybe they can put that money towards getting the ION drumset to actually fucking work on Xbone. RB4 is my biggest disappointment of the generation so far. Most of the old Disc songs haven't been available and no drums for me either. It was 90% of the reason I bought an Xbone and I have barely even played it.
 
Ah yes, all those record labels that had no issues letting their songs be sold on PC. Yes, sure.

There is a vast difference - in the RIAA's eyes - between selling your song on a PC storefront and being afraid that consumers will rip it from another product it's in. You seem to forget that these are the same people who said it should be illegal to rip CDs you already own to your PC.

No amount of pithy falsehoods in lieu of actual arguments is going to change the fact that the Rock Band franchise is completely and utterly at the mercy of the recording industry, because nobody's going to buy a Rock Band game made of indie music. They tried it. It was called Rock Band 4.

Maybe they can put that money towards getting the ION drumset to actually fucking work on Xbone.

Harmonix has stated, multiple times, that this is an issue on Microsoft's end.
 
I like Phaseshift but the media they use are either terrible quality youtube rips, mediocre quality MP3s, or decent quality multi-track rips from the games themselves (which i assume are illegal). And even those can be terrible quality as well, it depends on the guy who rips them.
Have you checked out C3 customs? I haven't used the Phaseshift versions of the songs since I just play RB3 on 360 but I thought they sounded pretty decent!
 
Maybe they can put that money towards getting the ION drumset to actually fucking work on Xbone. RB4 is my biggest disappointment of the generation so far. Most of the old Disc songs haven't been available and no drums for me either. It was 90% of the reason I bought an Xbone and I have barely even played it.

They've already said dozens of times that it's all on Microsoft.

Also, if you're on XBone the only songs you're missing are the AC/DC export and the track pack discs.
 
Dead Island 2 is the only PC port Sumo has done. So excuse me if that doesn't light confidence in me. Along with a bunch of other numerous farmed-out to port-housed and not done in-house (sup, Arkham Knight) feeding that as well.

Sonic Racing games have great PC versions. And didn't Sumo do Outrun 2006? Don't know anything about Dead Island 2, though.

They are coming to a false conclusion based on their campaign failing rather than an audience not existing, it's an example of causation without correlation. Harmonix ran a poor campaign no marketing, and a high barrier to entry for both new fans and returning fans all on a niche platform. This was set up to fail from the start.

Couch co-op, party, and even music games frequently sell 500,000 or over one million copies. Harmonix's assertion is the blame should fall purely on the community when that is patently false.

I don't think they're asserting that blame even be placed at all. Maybe I'm weird for not seeing this as a blame-and-punishment situation, but I agree that their campaign wasn't run all that well and I think it would have been a good move for them to acknowledge that their metrics may not be ideal for that reason. Doesn't mean I think they're obligated to throw the numbers out entirely and try making a port anyway, though.
 
Have you checked out C3 customs? I haven't used the Phaseshift versions of the songs since I just play RB3 on 360 but I thought they sounded pretty decent!
No i haven't i was only interested in Bluzer's multitrack rips (i do have the games so i feel fine). Are these multitracks as well?
 
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yes when 50,000 people are actively playing an off-brand rock band from two and a half years ago it surely must be a lack of demand for instrument based music games for PC, not the poorly run campaign (which mostly consistent of "throwing it for free" free music from indie games to people who had already paid full price to fund the development of Rock Band PC risk-free) coming a year after the release of the main game launching on a no-name crowdfunding service no one cares about

Like others have answered before me, although Rock Band and Rocksmith are conceptually similar, they are aimed at different markets within the music 'game' genre. The number of players you present for Rocksmith does clearly show it is popular and actively played, but that doesn't mean those 50,000 people want what Rock Band delivers. Rocksmith is a learning tool whereas Rock Band is a couch game. I don't believe that Rock Band or similar titles would not be a good fit for PC, and I certainly don't subscribe to the commonly outdated notion that all gaming PCs are desk-bound and aren't being used in more casual surroundings - but I don't believe the fundraising being on Kickstarter, or an increased marketing spend would have generated enough of an impact to raise the funds necessary for development.
 
Can you just bring RBN back?

No. Steam Workshop offered us a lot of infrastructure to make a new RBN possible. Without those systems RBN represents too much work for our console team right now, who already has a long list of priority features. We may revisit the idea in the future.

lol okay, fuck you too harmonix. "Too much work" to get songs back that people paid money for.

Rock Band 4 is such a joke.
 
Sonic Racing games have great PC versions. And didn't Sumo do Outrun 2006? Don't know anything about Dead Island 2, though.

I'm not sure about the first All-Stars Racing, but Transformed's PC port is arguably the best version of the game, even ignoring the exclusive DLC.

lol okay, fuck you too harmonix. "Too much work" to get songs back that people paid money for.

Rock Band 4 is such a joke.

Lgeacy RBN tracks might be an even bigger licensing nightmare than the official DLC.
 
What is the actual ratio between people willing to crowdfund a project and customers who would buy a finished product? Anyone?

I don't know.

But some of you are claiming failure to meet a target on a relatively unknown crowd funding platform is absolute proof of a lack of demand, so you must have an idea of that ratio.

As a general rule of thumb, the more popular the Kickstarter, the more people will buy the finished product. However, Fig significantly muddies the water with the investors, which means that campaigns looks substantially more popular with the general public than they actually are.
 
I only am interested for a PC version to be able to play on my electric drum kit. I refuse to buy RB4 on X1 if I can't play it. MS needs to get their shit together, I'm really hoping to new instrument manufacturer will come out with a midi converter like madcatz had for PS3/X360
 
I think this would have got more traction on Kickstarter. I'd never heard of fig before.
Maybe, but not 1.5 million worth of traction. They wouldn't be able to prop up with investments either and would have had to lower their target accordingly.

The excuse isn't bs per say, but Harmonix itself has not done its potential PC market any favours by overlooking the platform for so long and pitching one of the weakest versions of the game as well.
 
Fixed that for you.

Not true. Rock Band will always be one of the ultimate party games. Mad Catz themselves said the bundles in a box sold well. It was the ridiculously priced solo guitar bundles that killed them. $130 for a new guitar and a game when for $250 I could get the whole set? What were they thinking?
 
How dare they ignore (or at least require some sort of show of good faith from) an audience that has piracy issues? And yes, running customs absolutely counts. Anything that stops them from making money is a problem.

Could they have been smarter about this? Of course. But it's an inherently flawed idea from the get-go.
 
Like others have answered before me, although Rock Band and Rocksmith are conceptually similar, they are aimed at different markets within the music 'game' genre. The number of players you present for Rocksmith does clearly show it is popular and actively played, but that doesn't mean those 50,000 people want what Rock Band delivers. Rocksmith is a learning tool whereas Rock Band is a couch game. I don't believe that Rock Band or similar titles would not be a good fit for PC, and I certainly don't subscribe to the commonly outdated notion that all gaming PCs are desk-bound and aren't being used in more casual surroundings - but I don't believe the fundraising being on Kickstarter, or an increased marketing spend would have generated enough of an impact to raise the funds necessary for development.

Granted that they are not 1:1 substitutes, but I refuse to believe either a) this is not useful information or b) Rocksmith is more popular/appealing than Rock Band.
 
lol okay, fuck you too harmonix. "Too much work" to get songs back that people paid money for.

Rock Band 4 is such a joke.

You do realize they're talking about the RBN network, and not just entitlements for your previously purchased RBN songs on Box, right? You don't think it's a lot of work to create a user-generated content platform from scratch rather than using an existing one already incorporated into the platform? Perhaps I'm missing something in what you're saying, but to me, their explanation of that being more than a small indie studio can handle given their current work seems pretty believable. What's not to believe about that?
 
How dare they ignore (or at least require some sort of show of good faith from) an audience that has piracy issues? And yes, running customs absolutely counts. Anything that stops them from making money is a problem.

Could they have been smarter about this? Of course. But it's an inherently flawed idea from the get-go.

This is not a smart post at all. Please educate yourself on PC gaming. Thanks.
 
I completely understand Harmonix saying Not enough money = no port. However, I think its stupid to say that there is no audience for RB4 on PC because people didn't crowdfund. Crowdfunding can be a good indication of how strong your initial audience is but I don't think it necessarily means that no one will buy your product because people weren't willing to give you money before you give them anything.

A lot of things about this campaign rubbed me the wrong way and the cost of the game ($50 based on backers rewards) is much too high when my xbox experience let me bring over all my past DLC and back catalogs of other rock band games. Make it $30 and I'll pump my money into this game by buying back DLC or steam workshop music. Not to mention many people will buy instruments if they don't already have them or want to upgrade old ones. During steam sales, I'm sure even more people would buy the game once the price reduced. Like another poster said, I really felt like Harmonix didn't care with their lack of marketing towards this campaign. Even their sponsored add on Facebook has angry reactions which doesn't make donating any more enticing. Obviously, the audience wants the game but does not like how it's being presented to us.
 
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yes when 50,000 people are actively playing an off-brand rock band from two and a half years ago it surely must be a lack of demand for instrument based music games for PC, not the poorly run campaign (which mostly consistent of "throwing it for free" free music from indie games to people who had already paid full price to fund the development of Rock Band PC risk-free) coming a year after the release of the main game launching on a no-name crowdfunding service no one cares about

You are comparing Rocksmith to Rockband?

Rocksmith is amazing on pc it is a guitar tab player that teaches you actual songs and it is moddable on PC where people can add their custom songs. It is not a party game like rockband is. You are not gonna invite people over to your house and go "hey guys lets all get in front of my monitor and play some rockband. This game is hardly popular on consoles anymore, it would have cratered on PC. They did the right financial decision cancelling it.
 
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