UPDATE: Harmonix has clarified that the piracy concern is over the songs in the game, not the game itself. This means we can expect other games from the company to hit PC, it is just an extra concern with Rock Band.
Rock Band 4 looks to revive the music game genre later this year as it launches the first game in the series in five years. However, while players on PS4 and Xbox One will get to rock out with their plastic guitars and drums, those on PC have been left wanting. In an interview with Eurogamer Hamonix’s Daniel Sussman explains why.
“There are a few reasons,” explains Sussman. “One has to do with the fact the library is not there on PC. The library is there on Xbox and PlayStation. So, for players who want it on PC, really you’re looking at a new audience that hasn’t played before, and I don’t know to what degree there is an audience for new players who have never played Rock Band before on the PC. That’s one piece of it. The other piece is all the security issues, to be perfectly frank. There’s something comforting about the closed network that comes along with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. That’s important to our partners in the music industry. Not to say that’s an unsolvable problem.”
Still, Harmonix isn’t ruling out the PC market entirely. Sussman says that they will be keeping an eye on things and “if we determine there is a market for PC, then we’d be crazy to ignore it.” Although with the music industry so involved in the process it might be an uphill climb given their track record of piracy fears. Having the music files so easily accessible is most likely a sticking point for them. However, while Rock Band has never hit PC before, Guitar Hero has, so there might be a way through this.
Published: Jun 4, 2015 08:41 am