1,000 songs by the year’s end? Yes, I think it’s safe to say it’s a platform, whatever else happens now.
My guess is that if there had been any way The Beatles would have allowed it, Harmonix would have still loved to let us export the songs over to Rock Band. It seems clear it wasn’t their decision to make though. So, no Beatles in any game, or Beatles in their own game? I’ll take the latter. And my more speculative guess, but one I stand by, is that if we have another one-band game from Harmonix, it will be a similar situation with a band that wouldn’t allow it any other way. So when Rock Band: Any Band We Already Have In Another Game is announced (assuming that like The Beatles, it won’t allow exporting to Rock Band), feel free to come back and laugh at me. But if Rock Band: Led Zeppelin is announced (for example), we may never get an official statement to this effect, but I’d be willing to trust that Harmonix was faced with a similar decision: no Zeppelin at all, or a Zeppelin game.
Now if you want to really stretch, you could make the argument that maybe making any one-band games at all encourages other bands to hold out and demand their own game. Maybe Led Zeppelin was just about to relent and allow some DLC, then they saw that Beatles game and said “We want that!” But that seems pretty pointless to try to speculate about, we’ll never really know what the bands were thinking in a situation like that.
Unrelated: somewhere else in the thread someone mentioned Pink Floyd. Rock Band: Pink Floyd would be incredible. It’s probably the least likely suggest of all given the situation with Waters and Gilmour, but wow, they’d be right up there with The Beatles for having the “art” and style to flesh out a game around their music in a way almost no other band I can think of would be.
^ And shit it would move albums too! Don’t they want more money?
Reldan
4163
My understanding of the Led Zeppelin issue is that Page controls and is incredibly protective of the masters. Either he would need to cede control to Harmonix engineers to remix their work (which is doubtful) or he would need to involve himself in the project with creative control, which would probably be a lot of work that he really has no impetus to do. I mean, the guy can literally pick up a guitar and shit money like he had some crazy money diarrhea.
The Beatles managed to get Harmonix to basically give up most of the more obvious stuff they do during the mastering process. According to the Wikipedia entry, there’s no whammy effect, no plunks and wails - just scoring (as in points) stuff. I would have thought they would be able to work out an agreement along those lines.
The_B
4165
Well, apparently they weren’t allowed to work with the true masters at first, they had to do most of the work on low quality versions, and then had to take them to Apple HQ once the gameplay had been done to put the ‘true’ masters on top. Or something like that.
From the NYT article:
Apple’s preoccupation with security meant that the high-quality audio “stems” he created never left Abbey Road. If the separated parts leaked out, every amateur D.J. would start lacing mixes with unauthorized Beatles samples. Instead, Martin created low-fidelity copies imprinted with static for the Harmonix team to take back to the States — in their carry-on luggage. They were just good enough to work with until the game coding could be brought back to Abbey Road and attached to the actual songs.
So the masters never left the building or control of the owners. Same could be done for Zep or anyone else on the short list.
According to the recent Wired article there were no masters for the old stuff. So they had to use some advanced seperating software developed for survelliance and with the help of George Martins son Giles Martin.
- and that was just for the demo built to convince the Beatles members and heirs.
It’s a good read.
The_B
4168
Aye, a mixture of both of the above was where I had read it from, just couldn’t remember from the top of my head, thanks,
gotta be the Stones for one huge reason: They have no hesitation in licensing their music. There are many films that feature their music and television shows, commercials. I cannot think of a single movie that has a U2 song in it while I can think of 10 just off the top for the Stones.
While the Stones makes the most sense to my mind (broad appeal, recognizable, great catalog with numerous styles), there have been a couple Stones songs in RB already, and there is a (i think) 5 song stones pack coming out for GH5. If they were getting their own game, you’d think they’d at least have held out on the Guitar Hero DLC.
Apart from the handful or so where U2 wrote the music specifically for the film and the more than 20 other soundtrack appearances, you make a good point.
Yes, but they only their music for serious artistic cinema. Such as Mr. Deeds, Tomb Raider, and Showgirls.
Yes, Wim Wenders and Martin Scorsese those no good hacks!
(I allready called them sellouts)
The_B
4174
Never forget Batman Forever. NEVER.
wumpus
4175
Runnin’ Down a Dream is OMG AWESOME to play. That one is a must buy.
That guitar solo at the end is really really hard though, almost GG&HT style. Recommend practice first.
Let’s not forget their appearances in commercials for both Apple and Blackberry.
i am getting a new plasma tv and a game console to go with it. does rock band have any advantages on one platform or another? i think one comparison had the xbox better looking for one of the guitar hero games. i can buy the songs from either console right?
sinfony
4178
As far as I know, the 360/PS3 versions are identical.
wumpus
4179
The Xbox 360 is the better fake plastic rock platform, hands down.
- it gets DLC first
- it has the Rock Band Network
- it has the best online features
- more exclusive fake plastic rock peripherals (Stage Kit)
Shadarr
4180
Yeah, I don’t know of any differences in RB. Your decision should be based on what other games you want to play, how much you care about online play (or are willing to pay for it), and whether or not the idea of your system crapping out within the first couple years is a big deal for you. I went 360 for Crackdown and Assassin’s Creed, but if I were getting a system just for RB I would probably get a PS3 for the free online play and better hardware.
