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Rock Band, Casual Games Headline EA's E3 Offering

Posted by Zonk on Wed Jul 11, 2007 06:23 PM
from the finally-getting-around-to-actually-challenging-something dept.
E3 Entertainment Games
The EA focus on family-oriented content, casual games, and expanding the gaming audience echoed the statements made at the Nintendo press conference earlier today. Next Generation has an overview of the EA press conference, which highlighted titles like Boogie and EA Playground. The company's cellphone game lineup also received some attention, and will feature properties such as Madden, Harry Potter, and Bejeweled. EA's ultimate goal is to 'lock up the 200 million casual gamers'. The presentation ended with a long Rock Band session; it was revealed that Metallica will play a heavy hand in the game's lineup. Other tracks shipping with the game at launch include: The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," David Bowie's "Suffragette City," Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive," Rush's "Tom Sawyer," Nirvana's "In Bloom," Stone Temple Pilots' "Vaseline," and Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly."
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[+] Rock Band Bundle Only Option Available This Year 68 comments
Via 1up, an interview at the site bits bytes pixels and sprites with the folks at Harmonix clarifies a great deal about Rock Band . The co-op multiplayer rhythm game is due out before the end of the year, and at least in 2007 the only way to get it will be the $169 bundle pack. There's also some information on the game's downloadable content, which sounds like it will be considerable: "Harmonix is committed to providing gamers with a wide selection of new content and promises that one week from launch The Who's famous album "Who's Next" will be made available for download. Harmonix has also scheduled new content to be released every week until the end of 2007 to keep the game fresh throughout the holiday season."
Offsite: Game|Life Coverage
Offsite: Gamespot Coverage
Offsite: Kotaku Coverage
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Rock Band, Casual Games Headline EA's E3 Offering 34 Comments More /

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  • Of course! (Score:5, Funny)

    by An Ominous Coward (13324) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @06:25PM (#19832271)
    it was revealed that Metallica will play a heavy hand in the game's lineup

    And after the whole Napster deal, we know how heavy-handed Metallica can be.
  • Ummmm.... is it time to panic yet?

    • Ummmm.... is it time to panic yet?
      Apparently they want to keep their team focused on development, but are still going to Leipzig in Germany due to prior booking.
      Interview, videos and new screenshots found here [ign.com]

      As for the release date...

      IGN: So April 1st, 2008, or beyond. Patrick Buechner: Yeah, but I wouldn't say too far beyond.
  • Any word from E3 on a ship date for Duke Nukem Forever?

  • Metallica (Score:4, Funny)

    by ucblockhead (63650) on Wednesday July 11 2007, @08:52PM (#19833455) Homepage Journal
    They say Rock Band will ship with "Enter Sandman". Weird. I've never heard of that song. I just hope it's as good as that awesome track I got off of Napster: "3ntar s4ndmn".

  • Peripherals Galore (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11 2007, @10:04PM (#19834005)
    The game looks quite innovative (surpised that EA has a hand in that) and I really believe that this game will change the way people think about games. After all, Harmonix started as a research group in MIT's Media Lab where they're trying to do stuff like bridge the gap between Second Life and real life [boston.com]. However, I don't think the game will be as successful as it should be.

    My prediction is that the game will be released, but it won't be as popular as everyone hopes because of the high entry cost. Sure, I would love to be able to play my favorite music sim with people across the world, but why should I shell out $50-$80 for an electronic drum set or a microphone or a different guitar (because I doubt the SG controller from Guitar Hero will work on this) when I already paid $50 for a Guitar Hero controller that works just fine on Guitar Hero? The casual gamer doesn't want to spend needless amounts of money on peripherals every time you release a new game. Then on top of it, they expect you to pay even more money for extra songs. I don't like this business model and I hope they do something to fix it. Until then, I'll stick to GH3.
    • I don't think Rock Band will change anything about the way people think about games. It's just a Guitar Hero ripoff which stretches the idea of accessories to cover other instruments. I'm sure it will find a lot of buyers, but it's not some revolutionary earthshaking paradigm or whatever. It's just another game that uses gimmick controllers to sell itself.
        • Well, much like Guitar Hero [i]borrowed concepts[/i] to Konami's Guitar Freaks, Rock Band is also [i]borrowing concepts[/i] from Konami's Super Session mode from Guitar Freaks, Keyboard Mania, and Drum Mania.
        • How can a game be a rip-off if it's created by the same people?

          Go and read the background behind RedOctane and Harmonix. Lots of politics and contractual stuff going on but the upshot is that RedOctane produced the guitar peripheral and Harmonix wrote the software for it. Clearly the rights to the name and software were owned by RedOctane since Activision acquired them and now own the Guitar Hero brand. Harmonix have no rights to the brand at all, the software or to the controller. So they've have gone an

      • I don't think Rock Band will change anything about the way people think about games. It's just a Guitar Hero ripoff which stretches the idea of accessories to cover other instruments.

        How can it be a rip off if it's developed by the same people (Harmonix) and they still have the original code? Activision bought the "Guitar Hero Franchise" but not the source code. Neversoft had program GH III from the ground up.

        I suspect RockBand will Feel more like prior Guitar Heroes just based on that.

    • "(because I doubt the SG controller from Guitar Hero will work on this)"

      They've already said that GH guitars will work for guitar hero.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by xero314 (722674)

      A few years ago Rush was only popular in circles of Rush fans mostly being dismissed by the mainstream
      I'm guessing you are either not in the US or Canada, or are 12.

      You would be hard pressed to find a musician or rock music fan (the target audience of guitar based music games) that has never heard of Rush. Everywhere in the US I have ever lived Rush has received regular airplay.
      • I'm a Rush fan, but there is a difference between well-known and popular. We all knew the kid who ate paste in school, too; that doesn't mean we liked him. Prog really fell out of favor in/after the 80s, and Rush was viewed as largely appealing to, well, dorks. They seem to have made quite a bit of a comeback in recent years.
        • And I'm really glad. Their latest album is excellent... much better than their previous one, possibly their best since the late 80s/early 90s. I'm a big prog geek though, so my opinion doesn't really count for much.

          I'd like to see prog find its way back... but with bands like Dream Theater now doing dungeons and dragons style lyrics (listen to their new album, if you can stand it) I think that's going to be kind of hard.

          At this point, I'd like to see a resurgence of instrumental rock and jazz, but people se
            • Fuck yeah... been listening to the PT for years now. They've become a surprisingly large inspiration on my own work. I don't care for his voice much, but his vocal harmonies are something to be studied. I don't have their new album yet, as I'm sorta wanting to go back to jazz/fusion and classical material for a bit, but I hear its great, and I'll eventually pick it up.

              Although, PT is a lot like Marillion, who have been doing great shit forever.

              Oh, I was also on a big Flower Kings kick for about a year there

          • And I'm really glad. [Rush's] latest album is excellent

            I must be in a minority here since I do not like Snakes and Arrows nearly as much as Vapor Trails which I liked less that Counter Parts, and of course anything from signals and earlier is even better yet. My issue with S&A is that it has no energy, no power. Vapor Trails had fast riffs, Counter Parts had hard driving rhythms, and the others mentioned were really the templates for Progressive Metal. I can remember the first time I heard Stick it Out, or One Little Victory, but I'm just not finding an

            • You make some good points, although my beef is that everything on Vapor Trails sounded the same, and it was also reflected in it's extremely high compression, which kept everything at the same volume. That's NOT what progmetal is about, progmetal is about the peaks and valleys, the tension and release.

              BTW: Counterparts, a template for ProgMetal? Dream Theater and Fates Warning were already around for quite a few years before that, and DT came out of the docket with a bang with WDADU (even if it didn't sell

              • Counterparts, a template for ProgMetal

                I certainly never meant to imply that. I think Counterparts is a straight forward metal album. A good one, but not a progressive one. What I said was the "others", being Signals and earlier, where templates for Progressive Metal.

                And I don't understand why you hold Signals as being one of their greatest

                Signals was a turning point, it marked the end of an era, in my opinion the best era of Rush. The albums after Signals, which is a great album marred by poor production, up until counter parts can't really be classified as Metal let alone progressive. I mean how can an album fe

                • Rush is a BIG exception, Rush has great lyrics, Peart is a god. Even though I completely dissagree the Ayn Rand school of thought, Rush definitely is able to make great lyrics out of it. But aside from them, I really don't listen to progrock/metal for its lyrics. Genesis had some witty things back in the day, same with King Crimson, and once in a while DT pens some decent words, but even those I wouldn't call "excellent". Folk music probably has the best lyrics out there, but I'm not interested in the instr
        • "Rush was viewed as largely appealing to, well, dorks"

          Man, not where I live, I always hung out with people that were in bands, and I dont know of a single person that plays rock music that does not love RUSH.
          Most tof the serious RUSH fans I know, are definitly not dorks, and had no problems getting laid etc... but might have a hard time holding a regular job now adays.
          I really dont know where you got your idea that RUSH fans were dorks though, somehow I get a mental picture of a guy listening to Winger in h
          • Heh. Winger wasn't a bad band either (though Kip Winger is no great singer). Beavis and Butthead was pretty much singlehandedly responsible for the demise of their image. You lose a Winger, you gain a Zombie. I'm not sure it was a good tradeoff in the long run, musically, but at least we've gotten a couple of decent horror movies out of the deal.

            You're right, there's definitely appeal in the musician crowd. I think that's true for a lot of very complex music. As for Rush's image, it's the same situati
  • I wonder what effect this will have on the sales of GH3. I love GH2, and have two controllers, but would hesitate to buy the next one if only a few months later I could get a game that would allow more friends to join in and probably be twice as fun. Especially, as the cost of adding the drums and mic will not be trivial.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by trdrstv (986999)

      I wonder what effect this will have on the sales of GH3. I love GH2, and have two controllers, but would hesitate to buy the next one if only a few months later I could get a game that would allow more friends to join in and probably be twice as fun. Especially, as the cost of adding the drums and mic will not be trivial.

      There's a reason GH III is shipping before Rock Band... It HAS to. If I were Activision I would be pissed. They bought the GH franchise for something like 200 million dollars, and alrea

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