Tag Archives: rock band 2

Harmonix has warned that some downloadable tracks may disappear from the Rock Band store as long-standing license agreements expire, with some Metallica tracks already pulled.

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Harmonix has announced that more country music will be available for Rock Band on February 1 through the Rock Band Country Track Pack 2 disc.

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Broke after the holidays? Harmonix might be too, since they’re holding a fire sale on Rock Band DLC. You have until January 11 to take advantage of discounts on various track packs and even full albums from The Cars and Rush.

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Rock Band 3′s a definite must-buy.

No, we mean that. You must buy it if you want to keep downloading Rock Band DLC.

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Harmonix has announced Jimmy Eat World and Stone Temple Pilots tracks are coming to the Rock Band Store next week.

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Harmonix has detailed the Jimi Hendrix tracks from Are You Experienced?, which is set for release next week.

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EA’s revealed this week’s Rock Band DLC, with songs from Anthrax, My Chemical Romance and The Doobie Brothers joining the game’s huge library.

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Snoop Dogg is to become the first hip hop artist to have tracks on Rock Band next week.

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Canadian rockers Nickelback make their Rock Band debut next week with six song from their back catalog.

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Harmonix and MTV Games announced today that a five pack of songs from Alice In Chains will be added next week to the Rock Band Music Store .

Hell yes.

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Dan Teasdale, lead designer on Rock Band 2, has posted some updates for the title over on the US PS Blog.

Due to loads of consumer feedback, a few tweaks have been made to the hammer-ons and pull-offs, along with changes to sorting in Quickplay and, finally, the long awaited addition of SingStar mic support in the US.

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Viacom has said that its Harmonix and MTV game franchise, Rock Band, has been a a bit of a slow rummer, but that the series is finally picking up the pace.

It may possibly break even or become “slightly profitable” by the end of Q4 if Christmas sales are good, said CEO Philippe Daumann.

“The economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we’d like,” he said during Viacom’s latest call to investors. “We had a great launch of The Beatles product but obviously at this time of year we await the holiday season to begin as the month of November unfolds. We will start putting in more marketing dollars together with our retail partners behind that product.

“We just have to be cautious given that we are entering, over the next several weeks, a retail season that will depend on how consumers spend their money generally. So we have to be cautious about how it is unfolding. Meanwhile we continue to manage that business with a close eye on inventory levels and with a greater focus on software.”

Music game sales in general are down in part due to high-priced bundles which are slower to gain momentum compared to stand alone discs.

More through GI.biz.

Harmonix has announced via press release that next week’s bit DLC for the Rock Band franchise will include Foo Fighters, Joan Jett, and Nirvana.

Here’s the details:

• Foo Fighters Track Pack: Best of You, The Pretender, Wheels, Word Forward (560 MS Points -$7.00/£4.76/€6.51)
• Joan Jett & the Blackhearts: Fake Friends
• Nirvana Bleach Pack: About a Girl, Blew, School (440 MS Points – $5.50/£3.74/€5.12)

Each hits November 3 and 5 for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively, and can be downloaded individually for 160 MS Points ($2).

Wii gets ‘em too.

EA has announced that a software version of Rock Band 2 will be released on Wii from October.

It’ll retail for £29.99 in the UK.

Only the original, a couple of standalone track packs and Beatles: Rock Band have been released on the console so far.

PR is after the break.

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Rock Band 2 received a title update earlier today on Xbox 360, which added support to wireless mics, especially the LIPS mics from Microsoft.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs were fixed, background downloading for music store purchases was added and “Audition Mode” was added as well, so that Rock Band Network users can test their created tracks.

Harmonix’s Sean Baptiste explained in the Rock Band forums that the update for PS3 is undergoing certification and will be implemented soon.

Via Joystiq.

The Rock Band Network Store is to be ported over to the PS3 version of Rock Band 2, according to this Joystiq report, although Wii owners won’t get a look in at all.

The facility allows users to buy tracks made in the Rock Band Network interface, which is made in XNA and therefore can only be used on 360.

There’s a bunch more through there. Also, there’s impressions of Rock Band Network’s tools here. Warning: not for the fainthearted.

Harmonix gave the business to GamesCom this year in the form of a colossal cacophony of Rock Band news.

First up, the world’s rockin’-est game developer announced that The Beatles: Rock Band has three DLC albums lined up for the rest of 2009, with Abbey Road coming in October, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in November, and Rubber Soul in December. You’ll also be able to jam to Abbey Road’s full 16-minute B-side as one continuous track. Rock on… and on and on and on.

Don’t think Rock Band and Rock Band 2 missed out on the fun, though. Harmonix announced that Queen, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Elton John, Iggy Pop, The White Stripes, Pantera, Talking Heads, Korn, The Raconteurs and more (!) are taking their tours into Rock Band’s virtual world.

The full press release is after the break.

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The ESRB has revealed an upcoming Rock Band metal track pack for PS2, PS3, Wii and 360.

Tracks listed include D.O.A. by Haunted, Transmaniacon MC by Blue Oyster Cult, Killed by Death by Motorhead, Hair of the Dog by Nazareth, and Master of the Universe by Hawkwind .

MTV, Harmonix, nor EA have announced this, but its the ESRB, and it has better things to do than sit around and make things up, we reckon.

Via Joystiq

MTV and Harmonix’s parent company, Viacom, has reported that sales of the Rock Band franchise are down this quarter “due to the soft retail environment”, which has directly impacted revenues for the company.

Q2 revenue dropped 8 percent to $1.97 billion with a 41 percent decline in revenue blamed on poor sales of Rock Band which saw a 12 percent decline in profit to $671 million in the Media Networks division.

Besides the “soft retail environment”, the loss was also attributed to lower advertising revenues and $16 million in severance charges.

Overall, quarterly revenues dropped 14 percent to $3.3 billion, and profit dropped 26 percent to $586 million.

Chief exec Philippe Dauman assured shareholders that the decline is “short-term”, and with Viacom’s “aggressive” cost management and the pending launch of The Beatles: Rock Band in September, a “brighter future” is in the cards.

More through the press release below.

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Harmonix and MTV games has detailed next week’s Rock Band DLC, and if you like KISS, Weezer or Blink 182, you are in luck.

Too bad all the KISS stuff is live and Black Diamond and God of Thunder still have not been released for the game. We keep hoping though.

The following tracks land on July 28 and 30 for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively, for 160 Microsoft Points ($2) individually or 440 Microsoft Points ($5.50) per pack.

• Weezer Pack 2: My Name is Jonas, Pork and Beans, Undone – The Sweater Song
• Blink-182 Pack 1: The Rock Show, Down, Feeling This
• KISS Pack 1: 100,000 Years (Live), Deuce (Live), Parasite (Live)
• Damone – Out Here All Night