Kotaku
No this isn't an early April Fool's joke. Harmonix, MTV Games and Valve have teamed up to release Portal endsong Still Alive on Rock Band tomorrow for free. That's free for the Xbox 360 and free for the Playstation 3.
"While the cake may be a lie, the free download of "Still Alive" is confirmed truth," said Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development at Harmonix. "'Still Alive' is an awesome song that brings together great gaming and great music. We've teamed up with Valve to deliver a free download of "Still Alive" as a "thank you" to our fans for their incredible support.""Rock Band has lit the industry on fire by opening a new market for cooperative musical gaming," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "We're delighted Harmonix has selected the track for inclusion in the growing library of tracks available for this phenomenal title."
With the suspicious timing I actually emailed the publisher's back just to make sure they weren't pulling a fast one, but they say it's 100 percent true.
ROCK BAND Media Alert
ROCK BAND™ TO FEATURE FREE DOWNLOAD OF "STILL ALIVE" FROM VALVE'S PORTAL™
This is a triumph ... Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games have teamed up with Valve to bring the song "Still Alive", released as part of The Orange Box collection of games on PC, 360 and Playstation 3, into the Rock Band library. And, as icing on the cake, the track will be available as a FREE download on April 1 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and April 17 for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.
Written by Jonathan Coulton and originally performed over the end credits of Portal, the experimental single-player game in The Orange Box, "Still Alive" found its way into the heads and hearts of gamers and quickly became a cult classic.
"While the cake may be a lie, the free download of "Still Alive" is confirmed truth," said Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development at Harmonix. "'Still Alive' is an awesome song that brings together great gaming and great music. We've teamed up with Valve to deliver a free download of "Still Alive" as a "thank you" to our fans for their incredible support."
"Rock Band has lit the industry on fire by opening a new market for cooperative musical gaming," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "We're delighted Harmonix has selected the track for inclusion in the growing library of tracks available for this phenomenal title."
With the addition of "Still Alive" to the Rock Band library, there are now more than 70 tracks available for download in addition to the 58 tracks in the original game. To date, gamers have purchased more than 6 million downloadable songs for Rock Band since its launch on November 20, 2007.
Downloadable content for the Xbox 360 will be available via Xbox LIVE® Marketplace using Microsoft Points and is downloaded directly to the Xbox 360 hard drive. Downloadable content for the PLAYSTATION 3 system's version of Rock Band will be available on the PLAYSTATION®Store through the free PLAYSTATION®Network and is downloaded directly to PLAYSTATION 3 system's built in hard drive.
Rock Band is rated "T" for Teen (lyrics, mild suggestive themes) by the ESRB.
Comments
well damn, I am going to have to download this before I get the game even.
I'm making a note here:
Watch everyone download it and get Rickrolled by Harmonix. X-D
YAY!
@edb87: That truly would be epic beyond words if that did happen. ^_^
But I will download none-the-less. The vocals should be interesting to follow. ^_^
What perfect timing for my kick pedal to break. I guess I could play guitar, but who wants to do that?
Oh NOOOO...here come the "Still Alive" jokes! Thanks, Crecente!
:)
@edb87: that would be awesome.
April 17th for PSN, make sure to read that part.
@Seiven: I too will be downloading this even though I don't have the game yet.
Awesome Awesome Awesome. With all the BS we have to endure from some people in the industry (example: EA Microtransactions), it's days like these where it's good to be a gamer.
Excuse me for not being excited. I'll save my excitment for the distant future when the game actually gets released outside the US. How long has it been out 5 months?
I want to have my cake and eat it too.
i bet this won't arrive on the european marketplace when the game eventually gets here.
why must you be so cruel! ):
Is it weird that the announcement of this song was the sole reason as to why I bought Rockband?
@manocheese: Absolutely. It's hard being without Rock Band and Brawl. Bah humbug [/outofseason]
what a perfect time to be updating the PSN... gosh... =P
oh well... at least it's free =)
Excellent!
Sweet -- this is what XBLM is good for.
Yay! I was all prepared to pay for this, but free? Thats much better. Much much better.
Yes! I was hoping this would be free.
Now I can spend my points on other songs.
Neat, I guess..
I wanted real music though...
This is awesome! I was really hoping it would be free.
YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best Harmonix April Fool's Gag since last year: [kotaku.com]
Wait... Does that song even have percussion in it?
Well, it's about time. That was the longest 6 weeks ever. Thanks to Valve and Harmonix! Now bring on the JoCo pack!
@Spoony Bard: Failure to complete the song will result in a negative mark on your permanent record...followed by death.
The DLC is a lie!
@edb87: That would be a epic april fools
I hoped Harmonix would do this, and they did! Awesome news, about time they released a freebie, considering the millions they made from DLC.
@The Cat With Two Heads: They redid the song a bit so it has all of the correct instruments. It's very cool.
The song you are named after would also be very cool. Aquabats for Rock Band plz
The funniest aspect of this? Going to the official Rock Band forums and reading all the INTERNET HATE for Still Alive, from people who never heard of Portal and don't get why anybody wants to play "that annoying song that sounds like a robot singing it". And how Harmonix is stupid and evil and they're threatening to throw away their game disc and etc etc etc.
As far as I'm concerned... it's April Fools on THEM for thinking of Rock Band as Serious Business.
@edb87: @t0yrobo: Indeed.
over.. rated (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) ...but hey, I'll take a free song : ) , maybe. Really liked portal but can't stand 'cake is a lie' jokes or references.
My hopes, they are up.
I'll cry if this is a joke...that or I'll just buy some more Microsoft points.
@edb87:
Speaking about rick rolls... i heard that Google or youtube censored the rickroll cip in America? its been fine in other countries, but in america, you get the "this video is not avaliable for your country". haha ironic.
\me's starting to get sick of this song...
@edb87: please let this happen! On another note i hope its not only for tomorrow since i have no xbox for now.
@Twoflower:
Yeah, the rage over there is confusing and horrifying, even for the internet. Most of the kids over there won't be happy until they get more Freezepop. Or maybe The Wiggles.
Is it only free on those dates, or even available after those dates?
I would absolutely shit if it was a legitimate download and everything and when you selected the song to play it on solo or multiplayer, it went through the regular loading screens and all n then loaded up Rick Roll...
It truly would be the most epic April Fool's joke ever...other than my birth of course! HAR HAR!
Awesome news, timing is strange. PR nightmare if not true and/or free.
@EvilBadman: Wow, the hasty conclusions and hate were abundant in the Rock Band announcement thread. I actually winced several times while reading that.
@DugDawg: the real trick is not to have your cake and eat it... Its to eat your cake and still have it ;)
If this comes true, I will buy the disc only version of this game. (Already have a GIII axe and EA doesn't need any more of my money from me).
Nice job not mentioning the fact that PS3 users won't get the content until the PlayStation Store upgrade.
Although I haven't been able to get myself back into Rockband for a while (too many other games to play!) this will definitely do it.
@edb87: Dude I would love to play that song!
@edb87: That'd be so win. ^^;;
Boo at it not being released on the PSN until the 17th, but hey - it's free. Can't complain there.
GTFO!!!!!!!!! This is unbelieveable!
ha, even better than being Rick Rolled with the music video, what if it loads up is the actual Rick Astley song to be played and sang...
You know what? I'd actually take that DLC!
This makes me sad that Rock Band isn't out in Europe yet. I'm sitting here with a complete Rock Band set (that cost ALOT to get into Norway), but I can't download any songs, which really, really sucks. Especially when we get free songs like this.
That drummer has serious skillz.
>.>
Also. I'm excited like you wouldn't believe.
@edb87: My god if that's not true I hope someone at Microsoft and Harmonix takes your idea and..rolls with it. That would be the most epic April fools joke ever.