Rock Band: How a Genre Died in 5 Years
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- Опубліковано 4 гру 2022
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Rock Band and Guitar Hero were two multi-billion dollar video game franchises that just disappeared practically overnight. So what's the story of what really happened to the most popular rhythm games on the market and why haven't they returned?
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I'm surprised (but also happy) that you got a sponsor on the first video after a channel split. Congratulations!
First video is a banger. Good job guys. Hope you get your video-game groove back after this split.
@@etankast Thank you!
@@tomsko863 Thank you so much! We had an amazing time making this one!
@@jon_j__ ❤
Neat thing about Mad Catz, is that when the company went bankrupt the line workers at their manufacturing plant in China pooled their money to form a holding company to buy out their own employer. It currently exists as a worker-owned and operated thing that makes a smaller selection of gaming peripherals.
That business model is known as a Cooperative, think of it as a capitalist execution of socialist principles. It's a great business model that has the economic potential of a capitalism while treating workers better and preventing the corruption of socialism. Sunkist in the USA is also a worker owned Cooperative and Credit Unions are customer owned Cooperatives.
@@palladin9479 I didn't know if it was actually run like a worker's co-op. On that note, just because something's a co-op doesn't mean it's a worker's co-op. ACE hardware for instance is a business co-op so shop owners can get better prices on merch but the workers aren't really treated any different than any other kind of store. I got my criticisms of how revolutionary a co-op model actually is in the context of a market economy but a well-run worker's coop is definitely not unwelcome.
I just like the idea of workers buying out their own failing business as a way to arrive at that point as well.
@@Exarian Well there is a difference between a worker owned coop and a customer owned coop. Worker owned coop's tend to be for-profit where the workers share in the profit distribution. Customer owned coops are usually non-profits that don't have profits to distribute.
The biggest example of a customer run coop are Credit Unions. They are 501.3c service non-profits where each member is part owner and elects the board members. The Credit Union exists to provide financial services to its' members and any profit above a certain amount is required to be redistributed to it's customers accounts.
I work at a non-bank financial cooperative that does large capital loans for other cooperatives. The whole point is that there is no profit incentive at the executive level. There is no annual / quarterly earnings statement to let the CEO buy another yaht.
I was wondering, I had seen them around recently, and I was surprised when (ok, this is like 6-7 years ago at this point) when I saw few options on the shelves, but they were much higher quality than I had seen from the company beforehand
@@palladin9479 I fucking love credit unions, and honestly, I was thinking about using them for a model on how to create a non-predatory housing entity.
Then I discovered that housing cooperatives are a (big?) thing in europe. Honestly, that made me even more enthusiastic, since it just proved that the model works! I also like to say that a good creation is invented or discovered multiple times, so, hey, no shame in reinventing the wheel if you don't know the wheel exists.
I'd argue that Just Dance was at least operating in a similar space during the 2010's. Sure it didn't require a plastic guitar, but it certainly made for a fun, music-based, party game
It also didn't require a big $50 peripheral. Just a Wiimote (or Switch Joycon).
Just Dance stuck to pop music, and I guess dancing is less silly than a plastic guitar and drums. It lasted longer but there's still limited space for a yearly release and people will inevitably focus on the song sets they prefer. If hard rock was a factor then JD had more longevity, but it still lacked innovation to really carry the series and gaming has become more mobile based.
That and the nostalgia parody game Trombone Champ.
Eh, I'd call that still in the same vein as DDR
@@DetectiveLance Fair enough
I was one of the developers of DJ Hero. We made a peripheral out of wood and got together a team of mashup producers and DJs and with the help of Freestyle games, pitched the idea to Activision. We went on to have lots of fun - I DJd at launch parties in Vegas and SF. Really enjoyed your video!
Dj Hero was one of my favorite music games besides Pump It Up. so Thank you for make my teenage era so fun!
I never played the game but I did get hooked on some of the songs after hearing them on UA-cam. I still love the robot rock/we will rock you mash up.
I probably played DJ Hero more than guitar hero. The peripheral really made the game and was more than just clicking buttons
you copied beatmania IIDX LOL
sorry to hear your game never sells very well
Clone Hero and ScoreSpy are AMAZING ways to relive your Rock Band and Guitar Hero days. They're community made and driven, tons of content, and they support damned near every controller. You can play drums using a full electronic drum kit, and you can find almost any song you want. I would *love* to see videos like this mention things like Clone Hero at the end. There is still a medium-sized, dedicated community to Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and it's absolutely worth checking out.
i just wish clonehero had a raspberry pi compatible version. then i could die happy.
Clone Hero is a great game and all, but being community-driven isn't a great thing when your community is as dogshit as CH's is.
I discovered a while back a whole treasure trove of Rockband Dlc by different creators. Even some streamers playing these songs on real drum kits using wired midi adapters on electric drums. I have RB 3 for the xbox 360 and i still play it more than I'd like to admit. When you can find basically any song you want, It becomes an endless journey. Still rocking almost 20 years later
clone hero is garbage
@@zorfuccio based
One thing you didn’t mention is that there is a still a small but thriving Guitar Hero/Rock Band community. Clone Hero allows you to play a mix of these games on your computer and there are people who have gotten amazing at both playing and creating CH content. While it’s considerably smaller than it was, I think the genre is not dead and if a new guitar hero game was released there would probably be some people looking to play again
And frankly, any new triple A game in the genre can’t compete with CH’s sheer variety of content. Because it’s just a platform for fanmade charts, there’s no paywall for the content either for creators or for players. You can also find wayyyy more specific genres and groups in the fanmade space than you ever could in a corporate game. Your favorite anime probably has its entire soundtrack charted for CH somewhere, rock band and GH will never have that
There's also Guitar Hero World Tour Definititive Edition.
@@blak4831 I think it can compete as long as you focus on other elements like an actual story mode with cutscenes or a overhauled online battle mode even with the ability to plug in actual guitars like Rocksmith.
@@blak4831 I see what you're saying, and for all intents and purposes, the highest highs of Clone Hero's library are beyond any triple-A publisher's wildest dreams. With that said, user-made content does make for an expansive library, but it doesn't make for totally consistent quality. There are plenty of other elements a triple-A publisher could focus on that'd make their game shine for the general public. You know, the people not even remotely aware that getting a PC controller for a freeware platform for user-generated guitar-based rhythm gaming is even an option and at a glance would probably assume that like most user-generated content platforms it's at least 90% garbage. And of course, marketing is a factor.
Much like none of the Smash-like games that have come out in recent years have even come close to the qualifications of "Smash killer" I don't think Clone Hero (despite being genuinely REALLY GOOD) could compete with a triple-A published GH or RB title if a new one dropped. Which of course, it doesn't need to. More just stating that it wouldn't be the reason such a title failed.
Can you play the Clone Hero on your TV with the rock band for instruments? How does that work? How can one get started doing that?
Beat Saber seems to be doing fine, and that's always struck me as a Drum Hero kind of game. While it's not quite the same it looks like that is the direction that spatial rhythm games has gone.
Definitely feel like this counts as a successful spiritual succeser. I'm sure it helps that using the VR controls instead of requiring extra hardware helped. As well as the ability to easily build and import custom mods for any song you want.
rhythm games are still very much alive, they just moved to their niche. they just lost the appeal of the AAA industry because of everything that was discussed in the video.
@@danilooliveira6580 i also think that since you have pcvr there is a strong custom scene (also in rockband and guitarhero).
it's so hard for me to judge what's doing well cause so many gaming channels don't play their favorite games for videos.
@@SpydrXIII it also doesn't help that once a game goes indie/underground/has a heavy mod community that the corporate/market observation stops looking into it, because they are usually blind to everything that isn't actively generating money.
You can also see it in how beat saber handles new tracks versus old tracks. The tracks that have been on since inception don't have much in terms of special beats/boxes. But the newer tracks have trails, special boxes, and other crazy things.
Honestly, for me... Getting an actual instrument is what kind of killed it ahahah
I jammed Guitar Hero a couple of times at a friend's house, but then we all went and bought actual instruments to jam together
I feel like I kinda had the same thing happen to me with my bass guitar.
Dude… it breaks my heart that I can’t buy Rockband. It is such an amazing game to gather friends around
Dude… you can still buy it. Unless you mean Rockband 1 (for PS2, etc.) Rock Band 4 is still online and getting new songs.
He obviously means the insteuments
@@victorcolon8180 You can still get instruments
can't buy it new but there is an extremely lively used market for games and controllers
@@FartsSniffer no one wants to pay a fortune for used product that may or may not work right. I bought a guitar controller for $150 and the blue button was faulty.
I think another item to note is marketing. While not matching the size or impact of traditional advertising, promotion through online creators is now a key part of game marketing. Particularly for younger demographics. And with how copyright is enforced online, especially for music, no content creator will go near a rhythm game which uses popular songs.
Yeah, this is probably a far bigger contributor than a lot of people realize. It's probably even harder to create genuine grassroots buzz and online community for a game based around mainstream music than it is even for games based around explicit adult content, because music games can't even be demonstrated online in censored form and still make sense. If you cut around the licensed music, there's just... nothing left.
It seems really... dangerous to design a game that can't be promoted through content creators, ESPECIALLY when it also requires expensive licensing agreements with big, greedy music publishers AND risky and expensive hardware production. I'd guess that the few companies big enough to _take_ all those risks and costs are too risk-averse to actually _do_ so, especially after that market crash for the genre.
I think the reason it failed was the death grip the companies held on making songs. That is why Clone Hero is so popular among people who know about it. The problem is the huge amount of music piracy necessary for Clone Hero. I think they should go the Rifftrax route. Make a Clone Hero like game that requires a Spotify account. Then the music could be legally streamed, while the non-copyrighted map data can be downloaded from a repository. And users could map songs they wanted to play. Not gonna happen, but it would be nice. User created tracks are what is keeping Beat Saber going.
It's why Rocksmith doesn't have lots of songs.
That seems like the inevitable future of a Guitar Hero game if there even is one; is Microsoft makes the deal with Activision-Blizzard and somehow convinces a streaming service like Spotify, they could make an ubiquitous music game that plays with a controller (to avoid being dependant on hardware), but it can also be played with guitar, drums, keys, etc; I think it would be wise to have instrument compatibility all over the place instead of assuring every song has guitar/bass/drums/keys/vocals; have at least two of each for every song and update them in case the game goes well. This can be to diversify the genres of songs they can put and also to cheapen development costs.
@@CrissaKentavr Aren't there like 1400 songs for Rocksmith? ^^ seems like A LOT for the average person to get anywhere near through all of that.
Another thing that REALLY helps clone hero be successful is the instrument compatibility. The fact that you can take a professional drum kit that you use for IRL performance and use it to play the game gives users a TON more value from investing in the instruments.
@@CrissaKentavr that's why Rocksmith+ is changing to subscription model
Personally I think rocksmith was a faithful successor to guitar hero, just with a real guitar. Though it’s not the most popular game, I still use it to learn songs to this day.
It's the real version of guitar hero. Plus you can use the guitar outside the game too.
I would've put so much time into that game but the lag for me made it unplayable, unfortunately. Calibrated so many times and it never seemed right.
@@blazingsnape2959 do you play in a console or pc?
@@manualex16 I played on Xbox which is prob where I went wrong. Would it make a difference if I played on Xbox still but switched to a gaming monitor instead of a TV?
@@blazingsnape2959 if your TV has a game mode try that first. Also it's almost necessary to use composite cables and not hdmi
I still play rockband to this day! And got all the instruments for it. On rock band 4 they even still add new songs every week but they tend to be hit or miss sometimes but it's still fun to play with friends ..even online!
Came to say this... like Rock Band hasn't died at all just yet
I think part of the equation with Guitar Hero and Rockband is that at the time, the plastic instruments felt like an innovation. The original Wii Sports was a big social phenomenon around the same time for similar reasons. Maybe if we get a resurgence of rhythm games it's in VR where it would feel innovative again. DDR: Tik Tok anyone?
I mean that was pretty much beat saber lol
@@dalmationblack Beat Saber benefits from the fact that its peripheral - the VR headset - isn't anywhere near as narrow as that of Guitar Hero and the like. VR games is a much larger and more varied genre than the small handful of titles that used plastic guitars.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn Rhythm games have a huge potential in VR, in variety, and potentially depth.
I can name three different kinds, and...oddly all three are weapon based. Huh. Beat saber (sword), audioshield (shield, weapon/armor/combat orientated item, you get the point), and... gotta search it, I forgot the name... Ah, groove gunner (gun, duh).
So, I would say that the body-motion rhythm genre is here to stay, if it has gone through a metamorphosis, that's the the benefit of all!
I play in a band now and literally all of us besides the drummer started playing music because of Guitar Hero. When we talk to other bands, it's a pretty similar anecdote. I think there's a good amount of people who got into playing real instruments because of these games and I know once I picked up a guitar, I stopped playing Guitar Hero. It's not good for their sales numbers but it certainly is a positive impact.
Seconded here!
Always found it funny how, because GH didn't have "open string" inputs until World Tour, or fingerpicked chords, certain songs are easier to play on a real guitar than in GH.
The two I mainly remember are "Cities On Flame With Rock N Roll" by Blue Oyster Cult, and "My Name Is Jonas" by Weezer
Same here, I learned how to play the drums by playing Rock Band. Once we got past expert level in game and started playing real instruments, there was no going back.
100%
If I didn’t have Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I most likely wouldn’t be an engineer and touring drummer.
That's really cool to hear! I remember watching an interview with Sting as he tried out Guitar Hero for the first time. He kept talking about how it was nothing like actually playing the guitar. 😄 But the experience that it gave me playing it, giving me a tiny taste of sweating it out in front of a reacting audience - that I could see sparking an interest in performing.
I was playing with the plastic guitar, but then Rock Band and their mic eventually got me doing karaoke. In the end, I think it was a positive thing that got people more into being involved with music, than just on the sidelines listening to it.
If they brought guitar hero back I would jump on that in a heart beat. I just started replaying them and absolutely love it
We had Guitar Hero and Rockband growing up. It was because of these games that I got interested in classic rock music in the first place. These games were super influential.
My friends and I went down the RockBand to real rock band pipeline over the course of highschool. It was awesome and the game was definitely the gateway into learning and performing music for us.
Stage fright is a real thing. These games may have been a real help to some people who fall in that category.
Same lol
I'm shocked to see Clone Hero not mentioned. It has a fantastically dedicated following, very active development, and some streamers have gotten very successful with it. I'd say it's the definitive spiritual successor to Guitar Hero.
Yep, and with the release of Clone Hero 1.0 it is easily accessible online play and drum support now.
Clone hero is I need. No gimmicks, no dlc nonsense. Still has a strong underground scene.
@@Ninjahankin Does Clone Hero have popular songs?
@@mae2759 If someone has Charted it, yes.
@@mae2759 All of the guitar hero and rock band games' songs are charted, as well as literally tens of thousands of songs easily available online for free download. A lot of metal and meme songs
Harmonix was such a great dev. Most of the employees were musicians as well as programmers and you could tell the entire Rock Band series was a labor of love.
It was a platform as much as a game, and it was great that you were able to transfer songs from one title to another. I was so stoked for Rock Band 4, but it’s too bad they clearly didn’t have the same budget for the reboot. Plus it sucked that Activision decided to try and revive Guitar Hero right as 4 was releasing which I think soured consumers all over again.
Rock Band 4 is still alive and well. Beatsaber, Clone Hero, Rocksmith, are going too. Trombone hero exists but is too new to say if it'll hang around.
This genre isn't dead, but it isn't as thriving as it used to be. Hardware is expensive and new ones haven't been made in a long time.
And how, I just drove 2 hours to get replacement instruments, 2 drums and 2 guitars and have 2 riffmasters on order, I feel dropping piano hurt hard and not making it easier to incorporate real instruments, I think if they get like a rocksmith thing going and clone hero combine in one game it could be cool
I'm a bit surprised that you didn't bring up VR games like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, and Synth Riders. I personally still drop hours into these rhythm games each week for fun and as a form of exercise. While the plastic instrument craze may be over, I think that the rhythm genre is still alive and well in games like these.
Yeah, VR seems like it does the “rhythm game with peripheral” space without needing a unitasker peripheral you can’t use on other games decently well.
One of the best things about these VR rhythm games is that it doesn’t need to be a party game. I use beat saber to workout most days.
I think the VR genre is very different from the genre of Guitar Hero and Rockband. From the hardware investment, to how you socialize with it, to how it is marketed, it seems like there is very little overlap.
True. VR Smash Drums has just updated to have a "Classic" mode that basically gives you a Rock Band style virtual drum kit to play the songs - and I've got to say it's pretty fun!
Yes, I wondered too why Beat Saber wasn't mentioned, it kind of fills in there.
Honestly I think BeatSaber is a bit of a successor in some way, it was probably the biggest vr game out there which allows you to feel like you’re physically engaging with the music. The difference is that you don’t need a separate peripheral for it so I would guess that’s why it did so much better
This. Also, despite the "just use mods instead of DLC" voices, there is a decent group including myself that are willing to shovel out $12 every few months when a new album from an artist they like comes out. Even some of the UI elements are conspicuously reminiscent of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band design elements.
I was expecting BeatSaber to be mentioned! Such a simple idea and so much fun.
For one I do love Beat Saber, though to me it's really more of a spiritual successor to Dance Dance Revolution and Just Dance than Guitar Hero. That said I think there's room to add all of those into the same genre together with GH and RB. Good call.
@@EyeKahnography - Oh, they're totally all the same genre. They're all effectively the exact same game even. The only real difference between them is the controller. Buttons on a controller, buttons on a controller the size and shape of a guitar, buttons on a pad on the ground, or 3 dimensional spaces in the area around you that you have to pass a controller through at the appropriate time while being tracked by lasers and/or cameras.
BeatSaber is in no way a successor, Guitar hero is not the only rhythm game that exist in the market their were many games before it
The one "game" I expected to be mentioned, byt wasn't, was Rocksmith. It uses a real guitar, has metric ton of DLCs and has a proprietary audio interface (but hackers figured out how to fake it to work with any sound interface). It's not really a game because it aims to teach people playing guitar, but it has plenty of game-like features to make it fun.
Also Audiosurf games are worth mentioning. These are mix of arcade and puzzler that uses any song to create the map...
I actually recently bought RockBand 4 along with a new set of plastic instruments (I had xbox ones, but Playstation ones are more compatible) to play with friends at a bachelor party that never happened, thanks 2020. I'm still excited to get friends together one day soon for it & I keep checking on what songs are released every so often, as every week there's new releases still!
If you see this, I'm thinking about going down the same path. Had all the instruments for the Xbox 360, but apparently none of those are compatible with RB4 for the Xbone (haven't upgraded to the series X yet). I haven't bought a Playstation console since the PS2, but my understanding is that the instruments are more compatible, like you said. Considering trying to snag a PS5 and a PS4 RB4 controller set, but I'm not sure about compatibility (not to mention actually finding the dang instruments)...any advice?
@@ballman2010 so from my research (I haven't tested yet mind you) the PS3 controllers just work on PS4 as they needed usb dongles in the first place, but 360 the wireless connection was built in to the. Controller & console. They were relatively cheap to pick up used when I did it, but I'm sure they still are now. I've still got my 360 & controllers / games but I lost access to my account with a ton of songs on it.
@@GamesTuesday Thanks for the response. Oof, I feel you on losing access to that account. I recently fought something like that myself, where I had to figure out how to log in to my 360 after years on the shelf and all of the login processes seemed to have changed. I ended up installing MS Authenticator on my phone to solve it.
I only have OG RB1 controllers, so everything is wired. My research tells me that these controllers aren't compatible with newer consoles at all 😑
As mentioned by a few, Just Dance, Trombone Hero, and Beat Saber are all kinda current. Something that I didn't see/hear mentioned in the video though was how some of these ideas were applied to real instruments with Rocksmith, Synthesia, and Phase Shift.
Yeah, I feel as if they over-represent the controller market as being the leading factor in the rhythm game industry. Many rhythm games *are* still alive and well today. The fact that the controller market has died doesn't really mean anything in the long run, especially as gaming is becoming more "accessible" to a larger audience who don't care for guitar controllers and other similar things.
Fantastic video!
Just a quick note: Former harmonix employee here: Harmonix is pronounced harMONix.
I do think there is maybe room for a subscription based rhythm game sometime in the future
Also, DJ hero was pretty fun and had a great soundtrack!
His pronunciation was bothering me through the whole video. Harmonix as a play on harmonics is something I thought was obvious.
Hey Caleb, yeah that drove me nuts the whole video.
"a subscription based" . . . . . eww 😖
Thank you for the correction. It was bugging me the whole time. As for a subscription based rhythm game, I think basically anyone that has interest in the genre is getting pulled toward projects like Clone Hero. It's certainly how I play now. It stopped me from buying RB4.
Karaoke Revolution was so good, miles ahead of any other karaoke game since. The pointer showing your pitch visually was so helpful, even my friends who were legitimately tone-deaf could play -- and even improve their singing! I bought every iteration of KR back in the day and I'd be all-in on a new series if that mechanic came back. Sing Star just ain't the same.
I still pull ours out every once in a while. Still fun to play with the kids when the weather outside is crappy, and I love that Rock Band still puts out more songs
I still have all my Rock Band stuff! 2 drum sets, 2 mics, 5 guitars, a keyboard, and an official Rock Band strobe light and fog machine. I still have people over to play and we have so much fun with it! I'd absolutely LOVE for Rock Band to come back. I've been playing it since it came out when I was a kid and I also have super fond memories of it throughout the years :)
While I do believe that, yes Guitar Hero and Rock Band are unlikely to ever have new games, Clone Hero acts as a spiritual successor of the two, allowing for custom charts of songs and even the ability to play drums (and probably other instruments). However, it’s exclusive to pc. But nonetheless, I’d say the genre is still living, though with a moderately sized community.
Also allows for online multiplayer, so you can jam out in the discord call instead of the living room
Yup, was going to mention Clone Hero too. It's a problem when there are already free alternatives to any official release put out by a company that is almost certainly better than said official release would be!
I’m trying it but the controller functionality has been glitchy for me.
Check out an Xbox one game called FUSER as a DJ Hero alternative
Yeah. I feel like a big part of the decline of commercial sales is we basically have a definitive open source expandable experience that's free and works with any old peripheral you can get for dirt cheap. You can't compete with Clone Hero's music selection because that doesn't have to bother with licensing.
I think the music streaming revolution is also a huge factor here. Back in the heyday of Guitar Hero / Rock Band, it was not trivial to get your favorite songs on demand. You had to buy and download songs from iTunes, or own a CD, pre-burned if you wanted a specific playlist. Rock games had popular songs on demand so that everybody at a party had some song they wanted to rock out to.
Oh man, why doesn’t Spotify make one of these games!?
@@aullvrch theres audiosurf if you download the mp3s.
I do wonder about how the rights issues would work now. And with Twitch's draconian rules about music streaming, I can't see Guitar Hero / Rock Band surviving long. Twitch streaming seems like a necessity for a game's success these days.
@@aullvrch There is a game called Clone Hero that lets you make custom tracks and upload them.
My brother’s copy of Beatles Rock Band was what introduced me to the Beatles…and there was a solid period of like an entire year in the 2010s where the ONLY Beatles music you could find on this very website was Rock Band gameplay.
The irony is that I got back to rock band 4, 2 weeks ago. And I’m loving it. It is so good to know that the dlc store still works.
I'm sad I didn't jump in on RB4 sooner because the rockband 2 and 3 packs are no longer available. The dlc store is still up tho
I clearly remember the BIG OL BOX under the tree one Christmas. I was in middle school, just starting to play guitar at the time, already had been playing drums for 2 years. RockBand and Guitar Hero were very influential for me as a musician because it was a gateway to music that I wouldn’t otherwise have listened to at the time.
God yes. I would love to have another Rock Band come out.
I would as well. But it's rough expecting people to drop 100-200$ every time they release a new RB...
Just play Rock Band 4! The game isn’t dead. New songs are still being released for it all the time. Geez.
I would also love to see a new rockband game. But I dont expect to see it happen
we don't need another one. Rock Band 4 is the definitive version that's existed. Exported tracks and DLC included makes it perfect. They need to remake another set of intruments individually and we'll be good.
Clone hero on PC. It's free and you can play any song. The community is thriving
As a diehard Rock Band fan, the community still has a smol but fervent fan base. RB4 is still getting weekly DLC 7 years after its release, which is longer than the original games lasted. But you're right that the investment in peripherals is a huge barrier. All of my friends are down to come over and play once in a while because I have the instruments and an exhaustive song library. They don't have the itch to get the game for themselves anymore
Still don't know why Epic Games hasn't invested in the production of new peripherals for RB4 now that they own Harmonix. They have the money to make it possible.
TIL RB4 is still getting support! I'll have to look into getting the peripherals. I don't have a friend with the instruments, and I *do* have the itch lmao
@@Sol-Orion they are so pricey!
We have rock band night every Saturday and play in every rivals challenge.
The worst part is getting the adapter to allow you to use older instruments, it's the same thing that killed Rocksmith as the digital game would go on massive sales regularly and then players would find out that the adapter is no longer made and costs like £70
This was SO popular. But then i introduced it to my younger cousins, and they were bored within minutes. Same thing with my nieces and nephews. The next generation thought it was dull. I was bewildered. And so it went until it just sat, collecting dust. A sad end to a great experience.
I was there before Amplitude came out, and I thought GH and RB were dull. Then again, I am not big into music.
This is the first time I’ve got in on a great channel right as it starts, so excited to see the content and watch it grow! ☺
I graduated from guitar hero to rocksmith and I still play that almost every day. That taught me to play a real guitar tho and I’m so happy there was something like that for me to use to ‘self teach’ at the time. Nobody in my family was musical so it was an excellent outlet for me to learn and rock out
My wife got me Rocksmith several years ago for Xmas and it's been hugely helpful in relearning to play
Same here. While I don't play RS everyday like I used to and I do have spurts of not playing at all for differing amounts of time I still play it quite often. The only thing I'd play on GH/RB/CH now would be drums. And yup, got myself an electric drum kit XD Super fun!!!
Rocksmith was actually how I learned bass back in the beginning and still has a huge influence on how I learn/write songs now.
I'm considering switching to Rocksmith. Can you really learn to play guitar or just learn how to play moving notes on the screen like in Guitar Hero/Rock Band?
@@TommyCollins93 It's both. You do learn the moving notes on the screen but the notes are what's actually being played on the guitar/bass. As the player it's up to you to memorize the song if you want to be able to play it without the game and the game has a thing called "Master Mode" where after you hit the notes correctly enough times they start to disappear until eventually there's no notes for you to see on screen.
As someone who plays RB4 pretty regularly *still,* it's kind of bizarre to me to hear you say it's dead and ask what recent songs I'd want in a successor. RB4 puts out two or three songs at a time like, weekly. Still. In 2022. And the songs are usually whatever's big right now that they can get a license for. I'm not delusional enough to think the audience is huge or anything, but it's clearly enough to turn a profit still or they would've stopped. I'd love to see a new wave of them crop up, but the most recent Rock Band didn't go anywhere and still kicks ass.
Exactly this. I still play RB4 too - in fact I played it today. I just purchased a couple of tracks that were recent uploads, and I still have no trouble playing online games with like-minded souls. I don't think we'll ever see another Rock Band game itself, but that was always the plan. RB4 is the foundation, still being supported by the developers to this day.
Yeah, as someone who's still regularly playing RB4 and interacts with the Clone Hero and RB3 customs community, I found this video missing a few important elements of discussion. Things like Harmonix long support (and current support) of the game despite the genres decline, the clone hero and rock band customs community, and Epic's acquisition of Harmonix that optimistically may lead to a revival. Video feels like it could've had a bit more research on it.
It's a shame about the peripheral situation, particularly on Xbox, but yeah RB is still excellent and supported and while GH made a weird turn with Live, World Tour: Definitive Edition is a huge deal for fans
Something that I find amazing is the willingness of Harmonix to support the game and the songs. Unfortunately you can’t export the on disc songs from previous Rock Band games, but you still can buy a lot of the songs that were available as DLC on Rock Band 1 launch and the new ones released every Thursday, including artists as big as Queen, Nirvana, The Doors, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Pantera, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, and even modern classics like Muse and Greta van Fleet. You can definitely find something for everyone.
I'm not sure why everyone is measuring music games genre by dead Guitar Hero series only, it makes no sense. New music game is coming out, then all headlines "it's like Guitar Hero, but with X, play it if you missed Guitar Hero" (add your instrument in X place), completely omitting still alive Rock Band franchise.
If Guitar Hero is dead, then every similar game is dead... at least that's what majority of journalist thinks.
Good choice of first video for the new channel! I was just thinking about rock band the other day and wondering what happened to it.
I feel like VR’s Beat Saber and the Switch’s Taiko no Tatsujin (it does have a peripheral drum you can buy) show that the genre shifted a bit but does still exist. You can use one console to play similar musically inclined games, and buy peripherals if you want an extra experience.
DJ Hero is SO GROSSLY UNDERRATED. The levels of creativity and quality of mixes for those games is just criminal, and the lack of official remix releases is so painful. It needs a revival.
it's been out for, what, 10 years, and I still don't understand the base concept
I still listen to the DJ Hero mixes on the regular. Some songs don’t sound right to me unless they are a DJ Hero mix.
IF you had a VR rig, would you play it in there?
Would you play it, in there, for your friends, while they partied in a digitial nightclub?
@@ICountFrom0 that sounds awesome! I'd be down for that.
It didn't help Activision was trying to use dj hero to save the hero brand so it was never allowed to be its own thing completely also I heard Activision was keeping free style from making dj hero how they wanted to in interview one of guys from free style said they had 500 mixes that they narrowed it down someone pointed out to me that they said in away that kinda of says hey Activision is keeping us from making the game we want also doesn't help dj hero 2 was originally dlc for first game called after party that they turned into djh 2 so we never really got sequel there is even unreleased mixes example love game x let's get it started people found it in djh 2 files on PC
I'm surprised there's no mention on Rocksmith, which allows you to plug a *real* guitar into your PC to learn to play, similar to a Guitar Hero setup, but actually taught you guitar.
Yes! Rocksmith and Bandfuse are both games that used real guitars and basses, which got me back into playing music again. This is why I stopped playing guitar hero all together.
Also, while there is a mention of VR in passing, the Rhythm Genre is quite alive within the VR space - arguably the most popular VR game is a rhythm game (Beat Saber), and there are dozens of other rhythm games available for VR like Audica, Synth Riders, etc. I know that kinda makes it a niche within the VR niche, but it has the advantage that you don't need to buy bulky plastic controllers for the best experience, as most games in VR will just use whatever tracked controllers came with your VR system, and you can do multiplayer without physically being in the same location.
I still use it almost daily. The custom song community is pretty strong. I find it an essential tool in my kit that helps me learn songs and theory better than staring at paper. RS+ is dead on arrival, which is exactly what the community said would happen when they went with the subscription model. Granted, Rocksmith 2014 has just about as much success at teaching you to play guitar as any other teacher or teaching method. The end result always comes down to whether or not you REALLY want to learn. After that, there's the mechanical hurdle of getting past software and hardware limitations. By no means perfect, but it's the best tool I've found so far! Check out Chainbrain's channel. I believe he's consistently the highest viewed Rocksmith 2014 player.
That was a long roundabout to say: Rock Band and Guitar Hero are video games, practically arcade games. While I had fun playing them, I have MORE fun playing the actual songs on real instruments. So maybe there's also a sub culture of users who moved on to the real thing, and only come back once in a while for nostalgia.
I never picked up Rocksmith because I saw it as too challenging for me at the time and too steep of a hill that required me to invest the money into a real guitar. But now? I'm really reconsidering. Is there like, a baseline set of features an electric guitar needs to have to work with Rocksmith?
@@ballman2010 you need to go into r/Rocksmith and check it out. But you only need a electric guitar and a USB cable(RealTone might be better if you use consoles, pc has more freedom to use musical interfaces).
I was just thinking about this, so I'm glad the algorithm read my mind and shared this with me.
Thanks!
This is the sort of content for why I'm still subscribed to Extra Credits
I'm surprised that Clone Hero wasn't mentioned in the video, but still really great to have a great lookback on the series.
As much as these games have fallen out of the mainstream I still think there is a strong sense of community around them. Guitar Hero, Just Dance, Taiko no Tatsujin, and Beat Saber, communities are still very much alive. I think there still is a market, it's just more niche and harder to market
It is niche, yeah. But if a really good hardcore rhythm game based around new peripheral comes out globally I think we would go ham and promote it everywhere.
It's a shame that neither of Konami, Namco and Sega care about the western market. And I don't mean to cater to western tastes but to just make their games and peripherals available.
@@xDJKerox Honestly, they still survive and thrive in arcades like Round One. And the fact that Round One and Dave and Busters/etc are still growing and doing well, proves that there's plenty of market for them.
@@stevenn1940 Yeah but that's only in the US and Asia afaik
Everywhere else you need to buy or build a controller and either pirate or jump through hoops to play the official PC versions on e-amu
Osu! And Rocksmith are also great examples of how alive and well is the genere, specially Rocksmith, because it is similar, but it requires a 30 USD cable and a real guitar or bass to play, meaning the extra money to play it is a lot.
@@xDJKeroxyep. Rhythm gaming will never be even close to mainstream if people need to buy $300 dao controllers (+$100 shipping ofc) and work with crappy sims or janky cracked arcade copies.
The genre is simply not profitable for aaa companies who rather create live service games, while those are the only companies that have the budget to create semi affordable hardware and get song licenses.
I think rhythm gaming is gonna stay in the arcade and in a few niche communities. Which is real sad since I love the innovative control schemes these games offer (not you Eterna and osu! >:( )
However, after seeing the popularity for Fnf, regardless what I think of the game, I think there is still a demand for the genre.
This explains why the companies stopped making the games, but not really why people stopped playing them. I guess it could be 'cause they got bored of playing the same songs, but Rock Band still releases new songs that can be purchased individually. I think the decline in rock popularity had a big effect too like you said
I loved these so much! I put so many hours into the games, I had both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It was so sad to see both disappear. I ended up getting Rocksmith that I could plug one of my actual guitars into my pc and do the same. I still play Rocksmith to death today. I even got my nieces into playing it and they loved it so much that they now have their own guitars and play all the time.
Excited to see what sorts of content makes it on to this channel!
Thanks so much!
As someone who still owns DJ hero and recognizing just how impactful the VR space has been in the rhythm game, the evolution is closer than you think
VR headsets are still a peripheral i'm not yet into.
in my opinion VR is nascent and needs more time in the oven.
@@SpydrXIII It needs more software, but the hardware, at least from HTC and Valve directly (with the HTC's headset I forgot the name of and the valve index), the hardware is in a good spot. Mind you, it's expensive, but it's good, and the quality is there.
Dance Dance Revolution started the craze of musical video game competition which I think evolved into the Rock Band and Guitar Hero craze. These games were a lot of fun growing up and usually present at someone's house party. However, at some point, most of my friends grew out of it and preferred real like karaoke spots. A place that served alcohol and allowed you to mingle with music was hard to resist over playing with plastic toys at someone's house.
Guitar Hero 2 was one of the greatest gaming experiences ever for me. So many great memories there. Where things fell apart in my mind was watching the band RUSH play one of their own songs on Rock Band and failing. At that point it becomes apparent that you're not really as interconnected with the songs as you felt like you were.
Honestly, would love to see Rock band return as a once per generation title.
I'd love to see a comeback of GH/RB. Mad respect to anyone who'd do Through the Fire and Flames on the highest difficulty.
Rock Band 4 still get DLC every week tho
Just go to a Round1 if you have one local - They still stock GuitarFreaks/Drummania. They were the two games that started the whole genre.
A open-source recreation of the game called Clone Hero recently came out of open beta a couple weeks ago and plays practically one-to-one with the older mainline games
It's as simple as picking up the instruments and playing again!
Loved this video! I have incredible memories with my friends and family playing both franchises - we only owned the Band Hero set but managed to make it work with the Rock Band games. :-) One thing that kept bothering me about this video though - is that the images of the music notes are all backwards!
My christmas party with friends involved bringing out the plastic instruments for the first time in years. Was so fun. And I bought a whole bunch of dlc songs. Rock band 4 is on ps4 so I can still play it on ps5. They still come out with a couple new songs almost every week. I hope they keep going. I just wish they'd get into more power metal.
I'm shocked to see Dance Dance revolution not mentioned. Red octane and Harmonix both got into the rhythm game business because of the popularity of DDR.
It was gitadora that inspired them not ddr though both games are part of the bemani linup
I remember liking the Beatles as a kid, but I fell in LOVE with the band after getting the game. I would pay through the roof for a queens version 😂
Queen has a great selection of dlc for Rock Band 4, the rumor at the time was if Beatles had done better Led Zeppelin would have been up for a game, but it didn't happen so NONE of their music has made it to games.
@@BLasherman Actually that’s not true, and the reason why there’s no Led Zeppelin in RB is because Jimmy Paige just hated Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Now, there *was* actually going to be a Pearl Jam Rock Band, but due to the declining popularity of the genre and the poor sales of Green Day Rock Band, most of the tracks charted for that were made DLC for Rock Band 3, although there are still files in RB3 that mention a “Pearl Jam Rock Band” as a possible song source.
Man, DJ Hero is still one of my favorite games to this day.
Years ago, it inspired me to want to make music and get a real DJ setup...which, coincidentally enough after seeing this video, I'll be doing this weekend.
I remember playing Guitar Hero for the first time. It introduced me to the song "Get Ready to Rokk." I still listen to this song today on my gaming playlist whenever I'm playing an FPS or any game that requires me to grind. I personally think we need games like Guitar and DJ Hero not just for the fans, but for people who want to listen to obscure artists and expand their taste in music or people who want to become an artist someday.
I've been an obsessive Beatle fan since birth. I went through school in the '90's and 2000's being made fun of for my weird musical tastes - and then I got an entire video game about them. I chocked the whole Beatles: Rock Band as a massive win - but even more so when it became apparent early on that it was a beautiful excuse to connect to the music in an uniquely intimate way. Leading up to the release, I studied their music on piano, on bass/guitar and just their general history, and here was an entire game dedicated to breaking down these personally sacred songs, instrument by instrument. Bonus, other people wanted to play too!
So yeah, it was a fad, but it was a Fab fad, and damn am I happy it happened. :)
Last year I spent a couple of months scouring eBay and second hand retailers, I now own every guitar hero and rock band disc based game, with a full rock band controller set, with some spare guitars, as well as the advanced guitar, the keyboard controller and also two dj decks, and dj hero one and two. That’s like 20ish games, 5 guitars, drum set, microphone and keyboards, set me back the equivalent of around $250 US (but in my local currency).
These games are still a lot of fun, they feel a lot harder than what they did when I was in my early twenties playing them. I got them so my kids could get into them as they get older. Rock Band 4 is still sorta going, like they haven’t gutted the store yet (as far as I am aware), and I think Harmonix are still producing stuff. To bring the genre back would be difficult now I think, striking the balance between pick up and play approachability vs more advanced instrument playing will be hard, and is there enough “classic” songs in the last 10 years that would translate well into this type of game? Possibly not.
I'd be curious about how you see Rocksmith in this - it sort of starts like Rockband / Guitar Hero but with an actual guitar, but it becomes a guitar-learning game.
i was thinking the same thing. I really enjoyed rocksmith
I still play Rocksmith. It's fun.
neat. never heard of it. i think it needs more promotion.
@@CrissaKentavr My partner and her friends all still play Rocksmith. Whenever they go to each other's houses, they will play guitar/bass etc. via Rocksmith, because they just find it a fun and easy way to play music together, while still having a backing track and not needing a drummer/drum kit
Rocksmith is great. Clone Hero is closer to the style of RB/GH so would recommend checking that out as well!
I feel what also holds back this genre from coming back or expanding is the nature of music licensing. In the age of Spotify it just feels like you should have access to every song for a nominal monthly fee.
Also, it's worth noting there is a small but healthy market for arcade accurate rhythm game controllers for games like sound voltex or hatsune miku project diva. But we run into the issue where a small group like that nor the people making the emulators people play the games on are in a position to negotiate a Spotify like licensing deal with the music industry.
Great video, me and the family still play Rock Band on Game Nights these days it's more of a throwback thing for us now but we still enjoy it
Had all the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games and ad-ons. LOVED them. Played them relentlessly. Even had the Rock Band fog machine. We used to have "band practice" at my place, which was a 4-player Rock Band/Guitar Hero gaming session. Best times ever.
When Rock Band/Guitar Hero were out I was in college. It was the perfect time to play it. We were all living close together with plenty of spaces in out college to put the game up on projectors and rock out. It was awesome. But now? Not only are my friends all scattered to the wind, we mostly communicate online and play online games together to keep in touch. I have very few friends I can see irl and thanks to housing being so expensive none of us have the room in our apartments to set up something like Rock Band. Especially my friends with kids.
So while I would love to see it make a come back, I don't think it would be successful. The demographic most likely to play it, aka people with the time and space to play it, are younger people in their teens or 20's who are in school or living with parents with houses who have the space to host this kind of stuff. But do they have the money to pay for all the equipment? Probably not. Only one of our friends in college had all the equipment and that was all we needed. We all pitched in money t keep it maintained or buy new when needed. That certainly did not help profits.
Meanwhile adults in my generation who grew with Rock Band/Guitar Hero can't afford housing for the most part so we don't have the space even if we can afford the hardware. Most of us move to live where we work rather then work where we live so we're all spread out. Not everyone of course but enough of Millennials have that I can't see the profits from those games succeeding.
100% this.
i never had the college experience, but the rest is the biggest issue (for me at least).
Very much this! Especially the diminishing purchasing power. Heck, to give an example from where I live: my aunt worked the same profession as me at a lower wage tier (wage tier being based on highest degree). When she bought her house three decades ago, it was the equivalent of eight full years' wage. Now? An *apartment* would cost me *thirty* years' wage, and next year's estimated increase to monthly food bills is the equivalent to most of what I earn in two weeks.
Even if the numbers differ in other regions, people simply don't have the same amount of money to throw around on peripherals and expensively licensed games or - as you put it - *space* for a party game.
On top of that, as others have said, there's an increased focus on remote connecting. Space, social distancing, and (what I'd be willing to argue is) proportionally fewer local friends due to greater importance of online communities and... even if one can find the money and the space for a title like this, a lot of people might not reliably get the people... and if you can't get the people regularly, will you invest in such a title?
@@Sturmensky Indeed. Increasing numbers of people just don't have the money and space to individually own such equipment, or the face-to-face social circles to maintain it in groups.
...This is going to be another "Industry" we're going to get collectively yelled at for "killing" by being poor, isn't it?
I would've hoped you guys had cross posted the past Extra Credits vids on gaming, but I'm excited to see how the separation lends to longer or more unique video topics!
There might be a thing coming on our OG channel to help direct people in a day or two... :)
@@extracredits It did come out, I'm here from it!
I remember being devastated when my mom told me about Activision killing off guitar hero. They were always some of my favorite games. I would LOVE to see a comeback for the genre
Rockband 4 is a centerpiece at most hangouts I organize with my friends.
I've spent years now trying to hunt down working instruments in second hand shops and markets.
Physical game releases have been almost completely replaced by digital exclusive releases, which although saddens me, is understandable from the perspective of the supplier.
A release with this much reliance on global supply chains and cutsom hardware just seems like a thing of the past for AAA companies.
If this genre were to come back, I believe platforms like Kickstarter might be a good medium for these releases.
Small specialized companies can cater directly to their fans, and only to their fans, which would avoid the problems of expensive, unsold hardware tanking the revenue of such a project.
Really hope the change goes well for you! Such a lovely set of series. All of your content is quality but I appreciate being able to focus my recommendations on the gaming content.
This video, the hundreds of human hours of creativity and labor that went in to creating it, the thousands upon thousands of hours of watch time it will generate- all of this is worth while just for the existence of the phrase “Super Guitario”.
LOL!
I mean... I'd play a mario/nintendo guitar rhythm game. I didn't get a chance to play the DK one, but I hear it slapped.
oh man, GREAT vid! and cause of that, liked AND subscribed! i have AND still love rockband! still have my stuff to play with too. almost 900 songs along with the Beatles, lego, and blitz added. then later they made it for iPhone, and that record run game. fuser by them? i did start this genre with GH2 when everyone was getting into it and as a musician myself and music enthusiast, it was a perfect match! had it when i was in the early days of my college life. music and the gaming world was different back then from now indeed. but what i loved about rockband was playing with others and be...well, like a band! even brought it to my student lounge at my school for others to play. then after college i would meet with some friends and get drinks and play. it was like a karaoke night but better. then later on with life coming in, just didnt play much as i used to. now and then i would play here and there and its still fun but im not good as i once was. being expert and not tired. now i gotta do medium or hard haha. but i still enjoy the atmosphere and the music! but wow i didnt know about all that with your video, dude! learned a lot today and holy cow, THOSE ANIMATIONS, LOVE THEM! Keep up the awesome work man. Subscribed now so im curious to see what else you got! Thanks for the awesome vid. it was a delight to watch. spinning rock=LOL. rock on dude, and to everyone who used to play and or still plays!
Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Ultrastar are responsible for my ability to sing with anything approaching decent vocal control -- mechanical feedback was absolutely the turning point and the reason I've been able to post cover songs (not great ones, but still).
They're also the reason I can pick out a bass line in a song, like training me to see specific trees within a forest.
At present, we don't have room to set up for Rock Band, but I've always assumed we'd eventually get back to it. Drumming was fun (though I strongly wish to discard the foot pedal altogether and just enjoy the hand motions alone). Guitar was pretty fun too. I thought I'd eventually get the keyboard peripheral -- though, being a household with a low entertainment budget, we lag behind the general market by a console generation or two (we typically got new consoles as hand-me-downs from our friends getting their newer stuff; I got Rock Band's peripherals first by buying one copy of Guitar Hero 3 for PC, then by my friend downsizing his home).
I actually bought Rock Band songs before getting the game itself -- because I was under the impression that they'd be taken away from me, that if I didn't buy them sooner than I would normally buy things, I wouldn't have access to them at all. Digital Restrictions that way annoy me: Just because I have to carefully budget and save for things shouldn't mean that I can't have access to them in the first place!
I hate companies that treat consumers as a finite resource that needs to be manipulated into buying their specific product through restrictions. This is the razor and printer method: buy our basic device and now you're stuck buying refills specifically from us no matter the cost! It's also the Cable TV method, and I hate *hate* HATE that the Cable TV method has infected the digital age.
Why would I buy a subscription -- a recurring cost! -- to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc. etc. etc., until I have fifteen different services while I'm only watching a handful of shows during the month? Why should I have to choose between my two or three favorite shows because they're all on competing services? Why should I have to fear losing access to my favorite show, or being only able to watch it on *their* terms -- anti-bingeing measures, for example -- rather than paying one specific fee and having free access to whatever I want to watch? Why should my ability to watch shows be determined by the fights between big companies -- when Disney can't even bring me a DVD set of Aladdin or Recess, because they don't think it'll sell?
So my biggest issue with companies clashing like this is that they think so much of maximizing profit that they drive me away with their greed and their restrictions. I've become allergic to subscriptions, I've accustomed myself to the ad-supported shows on UA-cam and Freevee rather than paying for anything in particular, and I figure that the shows I'm actually interested in (e.g. Loki) will eventually show up on DVD or some other one-time purchase so that I don't have to mess with that whole nonsense (and so I don't have to schedule my viewing time around maximizing how much I watch during a given subscription period).
This is also the reason I love Minecraft in a way I will never love World of Warcraft. I bought Minecraft in one of the early stages, and quickly bought copies for my dad and my nephews; years later (wow, has it been a decade?), we still own it, we can play it whenever and however we want, and even during our low-budget months we don't lose access to it. Yet WoW is a game I will never play again, because no matter how much I enjoyed it at the time, the minute I couldn't pay for it anymore, I couldn't access it anymore. That's a lesson I've taken with me through the years, the value of buying a thing once versus paying for it again and again and again and still losing access to it once I run out of money.
So... yeah. I love the fact that the games happened, I love that I still have them and could conceivably get back to playing them, and I love that I was able to beat Enter Sandman on drums at the highest difficulty even though it nearly killed me... but the way the companies handled it, churning out extra things to buy, buy, buy (as opposed to simply offering a growing selection of songs to enjoy on the core game, which is what I had expected them to do) is *such* a turn-off.
Funnily enough, the day this was posted, I started working at a Japanese Arcade here in the United States, and one of the, several, rhythm arcade games they have is something that uses peripherals like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, specifically the drum set and guitar.
That’s GITADORA! It actually just got a new mix a couple days ago which is basically the same thing as a sequel for Bemani games (all rhythm games made by Konami)
A small correction: GitaDora refers to the combined franchise of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, not just GF. And in Japan, rhythm games with custom controllers are still doing quite well, although not so much ones that simulate playing real instruments.
There's an official PC version of Gitadora now. Konami does sell a new official arcade style controller ($300+), but the game is virtually plug and play with any guitar controller and any digital drum kit.
I'm still waiting for a proper western release of Pop'n Music 🙃
@@maribakumon and JuBeat
Surprised you didn't mention the introduction of ContentID systems on UA-cam and Twitch as a reason the genre hasn't come back. I remember a time when Guitar Hero videos were common on UA-cam, but on today's internet it wouldn't be possible for people to stream or upload videos of a game where the gameplay is 100% based around big name licensed music from bands whose music can't be uploaded anywhere.
I love the "Welcome to the internet" reference at 11:48! Great video.
i think for this discussion its important to point out clone hero! a freeware successor to guitar hero, afaik more and more fans are scratching their itch through user generated charts, meaning a huge variety of songs are now getting made accessible from extremely niche places. the amount of anime opening credits songs that are playable is actually crazy, if you know where to find them!
How could rocksmith not be mentioned at all? I'm not a musician but learned how to play first instrument using videogame and branched out to more instruments, and for sure am not the only one.
Agreed. Why the f*** would I want to buy a stupid plastic toy guitar when I can use an actual guitar?
@@RuefulCenturion as someone who's tried multiple times to learn guitar, real guitar is discouragingly hard.
@@GabRioBlu not with Rocksmith, it starts with just basic notes and adds more if you're doing well...
@but doesn’t teach you how to play those basic notes to start. That’s what annoyed me. They advertised as teaching anyone to play. But then immediately throw you in telling you to play these notes without telling you how to play those notes. It’s more for people that already learned the basics and wanted help learning to play songs and mastering it. Unless they changed it since I had it, I would not recommend to totally new players.
@@fightingfaerie there's lots of tutorial videos and tutorial gameplay that teaches you. Also there's minigames to practice the stuff you learn.
little late but jsut wanna say me and my best friend still play rock band from time to time. I believe they are still putting out DLC and getting new song for a really good price. It still fun to go over and twiddle on those plastic guitars and drum sets and yell into a microphone off key and have an amazing time! I for sure think there is a spot for a newer game like this but it needs to be understood that it's a marathon, like u said over saturation will kill it but if someone was to make a game, put out song for a $1-$5 i think it could be successful long term.
Some of my favorite memories are playing Rockband/2/3 with friends (some non-gamers) while we were attending university. This was back around 2009-2010. I graduated in 2010.
One issue I haven't seen mentioned is that analog television sets had less than a millisecond delay on audio, meaning that actions on the plastic instrument could trigger sounds, making it possible to hear if one was early or late. Newer television sets often add about a 1/30 second delay which might not sound like much, but it means that if you play a note early by less than 1/30 second, there's no way the sound of your note can precede the part of the sound track where it should have appeared.
Community projects are pretty much the present and future of this genre. Clone Hero being the most popular and relevant example. It has been keeping the dream alive for about 6 years or so now, and it even supports drums in the most recent release. There's even multiple projects arising out of people that want more from what Clone Hero delivers and there's even more games on the horizon.
There's also RB4 that somehow manages to keep on trucking as well, even if it's probably the worst game in the series aside from RB1, and custom songs for RB3 still has a small but fervent fanbase, especially on drums.
OMG I haven't thought about these games in ages! My friends and I use to all go over to one house on a weekend and just play them all day and just hang out. It was honestly some of the best times and a lot of the memories I remember of that time.
Thanks for the nice summary
I remember when this was big! I spent most of my time around fraternity, friends, and parties. It was likely my most social years. The games started fading out around the same time I wasn’t partying anymore, so I didn’t even notice the decline. Thinking back, I miss those days.
I have So many wonderful memories of playing rock band with friends in college. Honestly, it’s what introduced me back into gaming. I would love for this genre to make a come back absolutely.
I still play Rock Band with friends almost weekly. The guitars gathering dust are actually selling for pretty good money aftermarket if they are in good shape. Still tons of good songs they could release. Wish GNR would let them release Appetite for Destruction that would sell a ton of downloads. If they came out with an updated game for PS5 with improved graphics and a better storyline I would definitely buy it. Rock On ! Great video !
Guitar Hero and Rock Band were a MAJOR part of what got me started on wanting to learn music on guitar. 16 years later, and Guitar Hero is still the first game I play at Dave & Buster’s every time I’ve gone over the years. Rocksmith is just an updated version of it and can give people a similar start like I had.
Rhythm games may still be niche and it sucks to know that this genre “died”, but rock never dies. It just changes forms 😊🤘
Guitar Hero 2 literally changed my entire taste in music when I first played it. If not for that game, at such a young age, I might have been stuck listening to country for the rest of my life. I would love to see them bring these games back.
The lack of newer competitors is something that Harmonix, which still to this day supports Rock Band 4 will new weekly DLC, has given a likely answer in a recent livestream: the manufacturing and distribution of the peripherals, which is the largest draw of the guitar games over other rhythm games, is far more expensive endeavour than any company is currently capable or willing to do.
*except in the arcade space, where the genre still lives and thrives.
For those who want to play GH and RB again. Do two things. Get Guitar Hero World Tour Definitive Edition on PC and get Clone Hero. Oh and there is also Guitar Hero 2 Deluxe.
Back in 2011 my brother bought the Guitar Hero World Tour full band bundle only to play The Beatles Rock Band. We enjoyed that damn game for months
Gotta say, this is the kind of EC content I've been craving. Really excited to see the gaming content take on a new life!
it should be noted that guitar hero still has a sizable community through the use of Guitar Hero World Tour: Definitive Edition and Clone Hero. Also that the guitar controllers used have usb capabilities and can be bought on Amazon. There might not be new games, but the community is still alive and well
here's a list of things the community has done over the past few months:
- Guitar Hero 2 Deluxe
- Rock Band 2 Deluxe
- Rock Band 3 Deluxe
- Clone Hero v1.0 (finally)
- Guitar Hero World Tour: Definitive Edition
- Custom songs for Rock Band 4 (PS4 only at the moment)
- Custom GHTV server for Guitar Hero: Live
Yeah the biggest issue is the amount of working GH2 USB guitars still available. If they can get the input lag down for the wireless controllers then it may end up being cheaper and better to buy a 360 wireless adapter if there are people willing to update the drivers for them for newer versions of windows
I truly believe that we’re going to get something in the near future.
Fortnite festival has to be a non-expensive/non risky demo that tests the waters and allows them to gather data to see if a new rock band game could work.
If that is true and Rock Band comes back. Microsoft will definitely pump out another Guitar Hero in order to compete with them, thus reviving the genre for a while.
Also The Beatles Rock-band is one of the best that Harmonix has ever been put out. It is a true love letter and tribute to the greatest groups of all time. The dreamscapes are specifically tailored to songs and are visually appealing. It just sucks that they weren’t able to get a majority of the songs on their because of licensing, but the ones that were on there are great.
I loved these games. They were a big influence on my guitar playing. It sounds silly but my left hand technique was helped tremendously and my hand synchronization was helped a ton. I also bought both rock band and guitar hero games lol
Excited to get to subscribe to this channel again!
The history stuff didn't interest me, but was bloating my subscription feed, so happy to get a channel just about the thing I care about. 🥳
Yay! We're so glad to be able to give you the channel you WANT to see 😄