Hey gang,
With the recent launch of the new video game crowdfunding platform, Fig, Harmonix is bringing something special to the table. You told us how much you want Rock Band to make its way to the PC community of gamers, and now is your chance to support this request! Beginning today, we launch our Fig campaign to bring Rock Band 4 to PC!
“Why PC now?” might be the question running through your mind. Well, good human, we kicked off the plan to bring Rock Band 4 to PC soon after the console version launched. We spent months carefully scoping this project to create a game we think will satisfy everyone. We are going to crowdfund this project to help us gauge interest in the product, and make the development a collaborative effort between players and Harmonix. When we were initially developing Rock Band 4 for consoles in 2015, we wanted to focus our resources on the core console experience that Rock Band fans have always enjoyed. Now that the game is out, and continuing to expand and improve with monthly updates, we knew the time was right to fire up our Fig campaign and start rocking on an entirely new platform.
Steam is a widely adopted and accepted digital distribution channel that allows us, as a developer, to bring our products directly to players. On top of that, we can now offer Steam Workshop features to content creators of beatmatch gaming– do you know where I’m going with this?
After an almost five-year hiatus, the Rock Band Network could once again return to the Rock Band community via Steam Workshop. Rhythm gaming authors and gamers alike will remember the content creating community that appeared around RBN for Rock Band 2 and Rock Band 3. It was fun, it was magical, it was committed, and it was incredibly productive; RBN released over 2,000 songs. Best of all, it was filled with songs that couldn’t be had anywhere else. The ability to allow anyone to bring their original content to Rock Band was amazing! And now, if our Fig campaign is successful, we’ll be letting the Rock Band community create content for themselves all over again. Most song authors are working off of computers to create original gameplay anyway, and we have the luxury of making the most out of the Steam Workshop for the creative community. Even if you’re new to the content creation scene, the Rock Band Network for Steam Workshop will have something everyone can get on board with.
Like any successful crowdfunding campaign, Harmonix is courteously asking you to back our development, and bring Rock Band 4 to your PC later this year. We’ve got some tempting Fig backer rewards to sweeten the deal as well! Rewards include:
With the introduction of Fig, users can not only support the campaign by backing at these reward tiers, but also have an opportunity to invest in the game itself. If you would like to learn more about investing on Fig, head over to this link!
As an indie studio, Harmonix must seek funding for projects. Back in the Rock Band heyday, Harmonix was owned by media giant Viacom, and distributed by game publishing giant Electronic Arts. What you might not know is that a few years ago, Harmonix spun back out of Viacom and went completely independent. Releasing Rock Band 4 for the Xbox One and PlayStation®4 was a massive undertaking for us as an indie studio. With crowdfunding quickly becoming a popular and influential alternative to publisher deals, we’re able to choose services like Fig to help make our ambitions a reality, and provide quality content to the folks who want it most.
So what does this mean for Rock Band 4 on console? It should have almost no effect on our team’s development. We’re partnering with Sumo Digital, a well-known and respected external developer, which allows the folks at Harmonix to keep the core Rock Band team dedicated to developing new features and content for both consoles and PC. The engine team here at Harmonix will support Sumo by upgrading the Rock Band Network tools to work with Rock Band 4 for PC; the content and feature teams at Harmonix will be largely unaffected.
Rock Band 4 for PC will have updates released in parity with its console siblings – everything new, fun, and exciting that makes its way to console will also be on this new PC platform. The only distinct difference across platforms is the Rock Band Network, which will be an exclusive feature to Rock Band 4 on PC. That, and the ability to navigate using your computer keyboard and mouse!
While you can click on that dandy link above, we’re also here to recap all of the awesomeness that’s (potentially) coming to PC. If you don’t want to read all of that, here are the heavy-hitting bullet points you need to know:
Have more questions? Be sure to check out the FAQ section on our Fig campaign page, and join us online to discuss Rock Band 4 for PC on Twitter, Facebook, and the Rock Band Forums!
Love,
Harmonix
