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We're no strangers… More »
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As both a game developer and a gamer, I am sad to see the guitar controller fading into obscurity. More »
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Music isn't a visual art-form, and many amazing musicians, from Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles to Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Roul Midón have created incredible sounds despite (or possibly even enhanced by) their inability to see. More »
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Call me out of touch, but I can think of nothing I'd rather go for than three classics tracks from rockers Hall & Oates coming to Rock Band on January 10. More »
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Because Rock Band's existing library just isn't punishing enough, Harmonix will be releasing Rush's epic 2112 as downloadable content for the game over the next week. More »
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Viacom is fighting an order to pay Rock Band makers Harmonix Music Systems $383 million, or a bit more than half of the money sought by the former shareholders in a long-running legal dispute over unpaid bonuses. More »
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The Holidays are upon us; Chanukah is underway, Christmas is almost here, and it's time to get those last-minute gifts. We've given you ideas for people who already have all the games they want, for people who like science and other thinky pursuits, and for your teenage son who seems pretty normal but who you don't talk to. All those lists, and so many more. More »
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In October of 2007, Rock Band hit rock bottom, crashing its car into a tree in an alcohol-soaked haze. It was then it knew it had to turn things around. On November 20, 2007, Harmonix introduced it to the world and changed everything. More »
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A couple of weeks ago, Dance Central and Rock Band studio Harmonix was being advised—by someone from the company that sold it off—to make "the world's first immersive shoot-'em-up," using Kinect. Today, the firm reported it is doing juuuuust fine by sticking to the rhythm genre. More »
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Imagine you live in a future ruled by robots. It's not that hard—between Milo, Siri, and their pet AIBO, we're about halfway there already. So here you are, going about your afternoon break from work at the cyber-mill, and you stop by the "Museum of Rock And Roll." More »
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Today marks the release of Ubisoft's Rocksmith, a music game that may seem a bit on the late end of the Great Music Game Craze of 2009. All the same, it comes with a tantalizing promise: it allows players to plug a real guitar into their game console via a 1/4 inch-to-USB cable and play real notes along with the game. More »
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Hopefully all you iOS users have had a chance to play around with Rock Band edveloper Harmonix's goofy new music-type app-thing VidRhythm. If you haven't, I recommend giving it a go. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5843447&view=rss&microfeed=true Last year, Harmonix shareholders sued the Rock Band developer's former owner Viacom for a ton of money. This week? Viacom sues them back. I am rubber, you are glue, etc etc. More »
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A few years back, Rock Band exploded in North America. In Europe. In Australia. It didn't in Japan. There must be a reason for that. More »
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VidRhythm isn't a game per se; it's an app that allows users to quickly assemble custom-made music videos. But given that it's made by Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, we're gonna go ahead and call it a game just so we can write about it. One of my favorite things about the Rock Band games was how it allowed musicians and non-musicians alike to share music in a new way. There was nothing quite like sitting down with my non-musician friends and sharing music in a new way. VidRhythm offers an evolution of that same inclusive spirit, and opens musical performance up to an ever greater audience. More »
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Harmonix's rock solid 2010 rock 'n' roll game Rock Band 3 will be re-released later this year under the guidance of a new publisher, Mad Catz. That's right. The people who make Rock Band guitar and keyboard controllers are now publishing the game. More »
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I've not been giving much consideration to Rock Band's new music releases, what with the franchise skipping a year and interest in the rhythm genre waning in general. It turns out all Harmonix had to do to get my attention was say Yes. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5823778&view=rss&microfeed=true Like a civil court filing just beating the statute of limitations, Bed Intruder has officially made it to Rock Band's catalog of downloadable songs, 11 months after it was first uploaded (July 30, 2010, for those keeping score.) The song is 160 Microsoft Points/$2 [h/t Kariodude] More »
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Any great video game has a groove to it, a kinesthetic dance of feedback and response that can easily be thought of as a kind of music. More »
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We've already told you about Rocksmith, Ubisoft's foray into the rhythm-and-music game genre. The title brings something new to the table. Unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero, players of Rocksmith will be challenged to use a real guitar. No, seriously. The French developer promises that the title will come packaged with "a unique quarter-inch USB cable that is the first of its kind, allowing users to plug any real guitar with a quarter-inch jack directly into their favorite console." More »
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With Guitar Hero on extended leave and no new Rock Band title coming out this year, now is the perfect time to trade in our toy guitars for something a bit more substantial. Going from five colorful plastic buttons for six strings with 22 frets each is a daunting task however, especially when music games have trained you to respond to visual cues to guide your playing; you see a green circle, you hold down the corresponding button and strum. A regular guitar won't flash little circles in front your eyes to help you hit the right notes. More »
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The key to Rock Band's lasting appeal hasn't been the core games. It's been the ton of downloadable content released for the titles, which just hit a significant sales milestone. More »
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Guitar Hero publisher Activision has already announced its intentions to take a breather from the music game genre in 2011, now it appears that the Rock Band team will cool its heels as well. But there's some good news for Rock Band 3 owners. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5798689&view=rss&microfeed=true When Viacom said vaya con dios to Rock Band and its studio, Harmonix, the price of sale was $49.99. Actual retail price of the tax writeoff they got to take? $115 million, with about half of that returned this year as a cash refund on past taxes. [Gamasutra] More »
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Publisher Activision put its Guitar Hero business on ice earlier this year, signaling the end of a genre that was once white hot, but quickly flamed out. Why did Activision just bail on this formerly billion dollar business instead of taking it in a radical new direction? More »
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Antoine Dodson went full meme in late July; his local-news anti-crime rant was autotuned into "Bed Intruder" in early August. The Blue and Gold Marching Machine of North Carolina A&T State University performed it at halftime about a month later, and then Rock Band 3 arrived two months after that. Why has it taken so long for this game and that song to get together? More »
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Rock Band is between publishers. Guitar Hero is taking a long sleep. In short, the "expensive plastic instrument" music game bubble has finally burst. Which isn't stopping Ubisoft from releasing one! More »
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Even though their biggest competitor in the rhythm video game genre is now essentially dead, the people who started the Guitar Hero franchise say they were saddened to hear that Activision had put the seminal music game to sleep. More »
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Wii owners, there will be no more Rock Band Network songs for you after January 18. Rock Band developer Harmonix said today that it will no longer be supporting Nintendo's console with new releases. More »
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The hardware that can turn real instruments, from guitars to drums to keyboards, into Rock Band 3 controllers arrived a little later than some rhythm game fans were hoping for. And Mad Catz is sorry about that. More »
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I haven't played guitar since university, and haven't done science since high school, so the particulars of this are lost on me. What I do know, though, is that rigging up a real electric guitar to play Rock Band is awesome. More »
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"Vault 101," the Fallout 3 ballad by nerd rockers Kirby Krackle, is now available on the Rock Band Store. The download is $1 or 80 Microsoft Points. You can see it performed in-game on the jump. More »
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One of your resolutions for 2011 should probably be "play more Rock Band 3." Harmonix is encouraging that kind of behavior with a long list of new additions to its full band music game, including an injection of Johnny Cash. More »
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The people who make Rock Band and the breakout Kinect dancing game Dance Central have been sold by MTV's parent company Viacom. But they can keep making sequels to those series, if they want to. More »
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A group of former shareholders in Rock Band developers Harmonix - including company CEO Alex Rigopulos and his co-founder Eran Egozy - are suing parent company Viacom, amid claims massive bonus payments are being avoided. More »
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Truly terrible arcade-inspired album Pac-Man Fever is coming to Rock Band Network next year, letting Rock Band owners relive the 1982 Buckner & Garcia classic from the comfort of their plastic instruments. More »
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The current "plastic instruments" phase of the music game scene seems to have run its course. Next up must surely be the genre's logical conclusion: Air Guitar Hero. More »
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From the University of Maryland comes this tale of holiday cheer - starring GameStop, Rock Band 3, a guy on PCP, cops, and the requisite taser. More »
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There once was a time when music games were the biggest - and in some cases best - thing to happen to the video game industry. Oh, how those times have changed. More »
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Viacom, like any good media conglomerate, loves big bottom lines... and it cannot lie, you other investors can't deny that when a subsidiary walks in with itty bitty net earnings you've got to sell it... More »
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