In an interview
earlier this month with Game informer, Chris Rigopulos, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Harmonix, revealed some interesting tidbits about the
Rock Band franchise, including future DLC artists, how many people are playing Rock Band and more. The entire interview is worth a read, as RB is arguably one of the premiere franchises in gaming right now despite the lull in the genre. Here are some key points from the interview:
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All DLC released in early 2011 was selected while Harmonix was still part of MTV Games. Going forward, it will be Harmonix alone, and “I doubt you will see any more SpongeBob SquarePants packs” according to Rigopulos.
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May DLC will include previously released Foo Fighters as well as Lady Gaga and more Ozzy Osbourne.
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Ozzy is rereleasing Diary of a Madman and Blizzard of Ozz at the end of May, so it’s a good bet the DLC tracks will come from those two albums
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There are 900 artists with over 2,700 songs in the DLC catalog right now.
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Almost 5 million accounts have downloaded at least 1 Rock Band DLC song
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Over 1 million unique users log in monthly to play Rock Band
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Rock Band 3 retail disc price was recently cut to $19.99
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No Rock Band 4 in 2011 (we already knew this), but they are working on developing new ideas and concepts for the future
It sounds like Harmonix isn’t planning on letting the DLC go any time soon, and some of those Guitar Hero exclusives may be freeing up in the near future to open up a whole bunch of new artists to the game. They also will have a group of folks out at E3, so we could see some announcements at the various press events or in the booths.
