80+ tracks for Rock Band 2, no music creation

by Majed Athab { Jul 3rd 2008 at 5:00PM }

It's not surprising to hear that Rock Band 2 will be at E3 with some megaton details being dished out (including playlist), but it is quite luscious to hear that round two will feature over 80 tracks. That's quite an ambitious feat for MTV Games and Harmonix, especially with all songs being master recordings. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has said: "With Rock Band 2, the focus is on perfection of the experience. We've had a year to listen to our fans and build out the scope, depth and polish ..." Rock Band 2 is set to add more variety to the rhythm game with more female-fronted bands and new artists who've never contributed to games before.

On another note, Rigopulos addressed that user-created music won't be coming to RB2. "We really felt like we wanted to do it right," said Rigopulos. "We're taking a radically different approach to that problem. It's something we wanted to take more time to do it right. It's actually something we're not focused on in Rock Band 2. We're really focused on other areas related to the music and bringing the community together." With 80+ tracks for the second game and a constant stream of DLC, we think we'll be too busy to actually care about user-created content anyway.

Tags: harmonix, mtv-games, rock-band, rock-band-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Juan San @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:11PM

So, there is no creativity. They'll just sell extra songs.

Jam919 @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:23PM

if you want to be creative, get a real guitar. if you want to have fun with a game, buy this.

Max @ Jul 3rd 2008 7:05PM

finally, a valid "real instrument" comment. kudos, jam919.

Juan San @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:46PM

Creativity in a game has nothing to do with playing a real guitar, I do play a guitar, and I know how to read notes, the problem here is that they are selling a song pack with a name of rock band 2, there will be no difference within RB1 and RB2, they didn't have mention something cool and creative in this game

King JMY @ Jul 4th 2008 11:55AM

...the difference is 80+ new songs. I'm still playing Rock Band and I bought it in January...why try to re-invent the wheel if this one's rolling just fine?

macserv @ Jul 4th 2008 1:13PM

Maybe because you want to attract people to your game. Rock Band 2 is going to get wholly owned by Guitar Hero: World Tour, and it's because of the innovative new features. All new drum kit, touch-sensitive solo area on the guitar, new play modes and features in the game itself, etc.

This is good though, competition is awesome. There's no reason the next iteration of Rock Band can't top a new Guitar Hero. And there's always the new guy (Konami's Rock Revolution) to consider...

StevenRafael @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:12PM

It better be compatible with RB's peripherals... And the DLC being compatible would be nice too...

kevin @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:25PM

yeah they are boh instruments and dlc if it wasnt id be mad i have 4.1 gbs of songs..

mixel @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:27PM

They've already said it *will* be compatible with the DLC, I think they said it would the instruments too. :D

mixel @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:19PM

If this means them doing it better than it's being done in GH4 I'm all for their "wait and see" approach. Seems like the games are just (on paper) leapfrogging each other. The competition is good!

Harmonix have my money in terms of actually getting things right though, shame they can't manage to release the PS3 version of RB1 in most of the world.. >.< I'm kind of hoping they skip it entirely now!

Lgil25 @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:29PM

rock band 1 was great. had it's share of good songs and some that made me wonder what harmonix was thinking of when they put them in. also 80+ songs sounds great to me because rock band 1 only had around 58 songs. Hope they make the instruments higher quality though my friends guitar broke after a month or two.

Juan San @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:56PM

Come on, I play guitar too, what I mean is that there is the same game with no different features, no different instruments, there are just selling the same thing where is the creativity with them!? they can add things or something, or the can Add a string button or something. As I play guitar I prefer the touchpanel instead of button fret, they can Add something like guitar hero on tour (the plectro) or something. I know is fake guitars and all, but I know lots of people will be interesting on music after playing these games. Well afterall I like games evolving and RB2 is not doing it.

knickf2j @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:32PM

I've been playing guitar for about ten years, and I absolutely love rock band and guitar hero. But yeah I agree with Jam919, I mean come on man. Playing covers with fake instruments is all well and good...but if you're taking time to sit down and trying to write a song on fake instruments...then you're just a douche. It's time to play a real instrument.

jimmygotsmack @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:40PM

How long before we see rock band 2009, rock band 2010, and rock band 2011. I Swear to god, rock band 2010 better come with a fog machine, strobe lights, and lasers, or I'm not buying it.

Duscrom @ Jul 3rd 2008 6:13PM

Compared to 2 new guitar Hero's a year.... all of them Full Price?

It shocks me how people are being dismissive of Rock Band 2, because it doesn't "evolve". Harmonix Evolved this Genre in the first place. Took it from Konami, made games that Continue to be Pop Culture icons, Even at Rock Band's steep $199 price tag, it's still, in less then a year can easily stand toe-to-toe with Guitar hero... Harmonix's own creation.

Rock band is very good, but very rough, They said themselves, they created it, now they want to Refine it. Which says to me, this is going to be much more then a song pack.

Harmonix changed the Game world with Guitar Hero, then refined the experince with Guitar Hero 2. They went on to evolve the game with Rock Band, and will perfect it with Rock Band 2. The next game after that may not even be called Rock Band, and may be the ultimate digital music maker.

lorddshadow @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:00PM

@ Duscrom

well said. looks like someone finally knows exactly what he's talking about. i definitely couldn't have said it better myself.

jimmygotsmack @ Jul 4th 2008 1:00AM

So despite that it will not "evolve" its a continue to grow as a game. What?

I was making fun of EA strategy of whoring out sequels every year with little to no change to them. Even though they are just the distributor. I never really paid any attention to guitar hero, "They really make two games a year? wtf?"

I am personally not a fan of games that are just the same game with a different coat of paint. "Maybe the first time, or even the second time if it is a really really good game" Why not simply release all the songs in a music pack for download instead of having to buy a new cd if they are not going to really add anything to the game?

Anyway, your points are valid.

Page @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:53PM

Maybe someday when they are finished concentrating on hating europe, I might actually buy a rock band game. Until then it seems guitar hero is the way forward. Go Neversoft!

maroofh @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:59PM

lool dnt forget disco ball

Chris @ Jul 3rd 2008 6:37PM

"We've had a year to listen to our fans and build out the scope, depth and polish"

Someone please let them know it still isn't released fully in Europe yet - they seem to have forgotten?

Dumpertaker @ Jul 3rd 2008 6:54PM

This is great...just wish I could play the first one already!

ballernaz @ Jul 3rd 2008 7:40PM

guitar hero wt ftw
gh said theyed have 80-90 songs, now rock band says the same, but gh will have cooler drums and touch frets on the guitar

Organic_Shadow @ Jul 3rd 2008 9:38PM

If the main difference between RB1 and RB2 is the songs, then why not just release the songs on RB1 and call it a day?

Seriously, why even make a sequel with exclusive songs to make for some dumb disc swapping to kill the mood at a party when your friend wants to play the song that's not on your RB1?

b-way @ Jul 4th 2008 12:18AM

I'm sure they are adding improvements to the graphics and game modes as well. Will definitely buy when it comes out, I've got 2gb's of DLC for Rock Band, the box set, plus an extra guitar.

voltarin @ Jul 4th 2008 2:42AM

Well.....I think Harmonix have a bl**dy cheek talking away about Rock Band 2

Im still sitting here waiting for Rock Band 1 in the UK for PS3

As far as I am concerned, Harmonix have lost the sale. The announcement of GH4:WT with the drum kit and the mic etc before Rock Band came out over here in the UK killed Harmonix. I personally stood over the coffin with hammer and nails.

Besides, all Harmonix will do is charge us double the US price and claim 'shipping'. Seriously, do they think we are all stupid? I could ship a full container (25 pallets of 40 kits) from China stacked full of peripherals for £1.50 each on the slow boat. So Harmonix charging us circa £50-60 and calling 'shipping' is to be frank an insult.

People in the US can go to a shop, buy Rock Band, Fedex it over to the UK and make themselves $20...........and still sell it on ebay for less than it retails for

Lastly, I believe the Harmonix were paid by M$ for a timed exclusive on Rock Band.........I hope the money you took from them was a lot, because it lost you PS3 owners buying Rock Band......and has also lost you Rock Band 2 sales as well

MakaiOokami @ Jul 4th 2008 9:13AM

It won't lose them PS3 owners really. Cause face it, if you had a choice between all your dlc working for the sequel, having to switch back and forth betwen PS3 and 360 to play favorites, or just purchasing the songs all over again, what sounds like the best consumer friendly option?

Also about Rockband all I can say is can't you get it shipped in from somewhere else? If what you say is true it shouldn't be an issue. PS3 is region free unless Rockband decided to go and region code it specifically. I can understand your frustration but it doesn't seem to me like you were entirely left without choices. Besides me living in America means I couldn't understand what you'd be going through in that sense.

MakaiOokami @ Jul 4th 2008 12:31PM

Personally I lost faith in them with Guitar Hero 3. The expert difficulty was too hard. By that I mean the gauge drops so fast that if you're in a hard part and trying to get adjusted to the speed you fail. I'm not big on practice mode cause either way I still have to be able to do it at full speed and complete the entirety of the song.

Look at how the 2 companies did business. Rockband in 1 letter category surpassed ALL guitar hero add ons. Rock Band add ons were 1.99 a piece. Guitar Hero ones were 2.50 a piece. So you're paying 50 cents more for 1/4-1/2 the playability? On top of that the production values seemed to be quite lower. With them providing 2 games this year (one whoring off of a band that I don't really care for) and the other one trying to compete feature wise with their ex-comrades they seem to me like they just don't really know what they're doing.

Rockband creators said that they were trying to add a new feature to each instrument. GHWT only has a redesigned drum layout which may or may not really be great and may or may not entirely bleed your savings dry. Will I buy Rockband 2 at the release using my DLC from the first game to increase my library past 100 songs? HELLZ YA. Will I buy any Guitar Hero games within this year? Not a chance. Not even a 1 percent chance. I'm waiting to see how well they improve, how much they back up their games with DLC, and make sure they're not working on yet ANOTHER game. They lost me. They will have to add more support, and build my confidence in them up from scratch.

MakaiOokami @ Jul 4th 2008 9:00AM

Oh one more thing, the whole user content thing... I seriously doubt that will pan out as expected. Remember Dance Dance Factory? A lot of people will just want to create stuff that's overly difficult or overly simplistic. User generated content needs precision and I seriously doubt they'll offer that well enough for the average joe to make something decent.

Mike @ Jul 12th 2008 4:52PM

I'd buy just the software for $40, but no more. As far as I'm concerned this is an expansion, not a new game.

I'm dissapointed to see that user created music will not be part of this expansion. That feature is something that I've been waiting for since I first played Guitar Hero 1. IMHO user created music is the only way to show any "creativity" in these rhythm based games.