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Harmonix: Rock Band “will be back” in one way or another

Harmonix Co-Founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos took to Reddit recently to say that Rock Band isn’t completely dead. In fact, it’s just taking a break.

He also had some kind words for Activision, the publisher of Guitar Hero.

“I think there’s probably some truth to the notion that Activision ‘over-published’ Guitar Hero,” Rigopulos said, referring to Rock Band‘s biggest competition.But I wouldn’t agree that the decline of the genre was ‘entirely the fault of Activision’,” he said.

“Reality is always more complicated than this,” he continued. “For example, it didn’t help that GH and RB were the most expensive video games on the market during a brutal recession. I also don’t think that either GH or RB delivered enough (or the right kind of) evolution of the experience in the years that followed the initial releases – something we hope to address at some point in the next outing.”

“Of course I was sad when Rock Band passed its (first!) peak, but one way or another, it will be back,” Rigopulos confirmed.

Harmonix is still in the business of making music games. Fantasia: Music Evolved is soon due on Xbox One and Amplitude has just been taken to Kickstarter.

“Music games need to evolve just like every aspect of pop culture. The band game boom was followed by a dance game boom, which will be followed by some other manifestation of music games -hopefully some of the new stuff Harmonix is working on,” Rigopulos said. “Music is a permanent aspect of the human experience, and so is gameplay. It’s Harmonix’s job to figure out new ways for music and gameplay to amplify each other’s emotional power. Stand by.”


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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.