I remember in high school, going to peoples houses every other week and relentlessly trying to convince/harass everyone that we NEEDED to play their copy of Rockband 2. Mostly because I had managed to break most of my own instruments just playing alone, and also it was one of the few games I didn't suck at, and could have fun with (In the purist sense possible).

It's probably worth noting that this series single-handedly got me into playing real guitar, and opened me up to a whole world of music that I would have never even considered/heard of (That includes bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, ect. Stuff that's now my favorite music to listen to) -And that goes for a lot of kids in my generation! I don't know... that's a pretty significant paradigm shift if you ask me (At least it was for us lol)

Great write up Alex!!!

Thank you for reminding me that I have probably spent upwards of $490 on Rock Band DLC.

Sweet Jesus.

Rock Band continues to be one of my most played series'. Loved RB2 to death (one of the few games I have a full 1000 gs for) but definitely started to feel diminishing returns post RB3. Happy that HMX can move onto new, hopefully bigger/better things, if only there was a way to get new instruments :|

My only gripe with Harmonix/RB would be they made a Green Day game. wtf!

I still look back at the release of The Beatles: Rock Band and Rock Band 3 and wonder why I never played those games. I guess after Rock Band 2, I was just done. Don't know why...

I've never played Rock Band or any plastic instrument videogame. I'm ok with that.

I'm actually scared to calculate exactly how much money I've spent on RB DLC over the years. If I find out, I might have to put a gun in my mouth.

@fetchfox said:

I wish I were like you. I was in deep with the craze back in 2005. I only was into it for a few years, though. Luckily.

Thanks for the article, Alex.

I've spent many, MANY hours with both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, playing solo as well as with a full cohort of friends and a fridge stocked with beer, and it was Good Times.

Although I haven't sifted through the Rock Band store in a long time, I still pick up a guitar now and again and play a few tracks, and I was sad to hear that the DLC was coming to an end. But American Pie is certainly the note to go out on, and it was a good run.

Long Live Plastic Rock, indeed.

Crooked X....holy smokes, never knew they were a bunch of 13-year olds!

That MTV thing looks horrid, but you can't help but smile, and ultimately gain a little respect, over their attempts at rocking out.

You should save the LEGO: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band stories for another time, maybe a follow-up feature for next year!

I'm having a motherfucking Rock Band party this weekend, gonna put this series out with a bang

I have had so many fun Rock Band experiences over the years that it is sad to see it finally die off. I remember playing through the whole of the pixies dolittle album with my friends on one drunken night. Also getting the endless setlist trophy in Rock Band 2 was an experience I will never forget. Even as recently as 2 years ago, we had epic Rock Band nights in my university dorms, especially if my friend Grant is singing american women because he is horrible at it. Hope it comes back again some point during the next set of consoles. A spotify style supscription service but with Rock Band songs would be pretty awesome

The Beatles: Rock Band had the greatest intro and extro videos of any game, ever. They were pure Art.
And sadly, living outside the US, never got access to the RBN. Still, I love my 398 songs and my full two guitars, mike, drums and keytar. They paid for themselves a long time ago and continue to be used to this day.

I pray the instruments and games work on the new Xbox when it comes out. I have over 650 some songs in my library and love to play at least once every other week for a good session. I may actually let my XBL account die, an original Xbox XBL account, with the 360 if it doesn't transfer over.

I've often wondered if Harmonix will be able to survive since all they do are music games. I never understood the appeal of the Rock Band/Guitar Hero games though I've always kind of regretted not getting the Beatles one.

Rock Band never stopped being fun for me, but games kept coming out.

I think anyone who played this game has at least one great memory of a drunken late night Rock Band romp with a bunch of good friends going nuts on everyones favorite songs. Such a unique videogame experience, and one of the few I've been able to share with my family and friends who don't count gaming as a hobby.

I'd love to see statistics on Rock Band DLC purchases. My guess is 90% of the total were either late Saturday night/early Sunday morning booze fueled buys. I know mine were :-)

@dudeglove: He looks possessed by the devil!

I had so much fun with Rock Band, and still do! But when the new consoles come out I think I might break down the drum set and put the pad section into a shadowbox frame. I want to remember the fun I had with Rock Band forever, and I doubt I ever will. Great piece Alex.

Great article Alex. What a ride the Rock Band game was.

Fantastic retrospective, Alex!

Nice article, Alex. I'm the guitarist on the right in the first picture. I spent at least $1000.00 on the franchise over the years but have not played it seriously since RB3 landed.

I still love rocking out on stage at PAX. I spent hours at the RB stage last week. Good times.

Great article Alex! I spent so much time and money with the Rock Band franchise, a lot of fun times mostly with family and friends.

I lugged in my entire Rock Band set (X-Box 360, Rock Band 2, two guitars, drums, and mic) to work in 2009 for the company's pre-holiday party and got some co-workers to play a song or two. Awesome times there.

When my Rock Band 1 bass pedal broke, my father, an actual drummer, took a broken kick pedal from a real set and stuck the switch from the RB pedal into it, giving me an incredibly robust pedal that I still use now.

Anyone remember the Rock Band Stage Kit? What a ridiculous thing. My friends and I split the cost on one on a lark after it dropped to $40 (original MSRP: $100) when Gamestops were trying to jettison their stock. We used it for just one of our play sessions and after like 3 songs in a medium size living room were pretty much all dying from whatever horrid chemical makes the fog. Still totally worth it for the laugh we had about it.

I don't care for Rock Band or Guitar Hero (I'm more of an Amplitude and Frequency guy myself), but I really dug the article. I find 'inside baseball' stories regarding video game development are pretty fascinating, even if you aren't necessarily interested in the games being discussed.

I have a feeling that if I ever have children Rock Band will be one of the things they look at and think was stupid and wonder how anyone could have ever liked it. It will be their version of 80s hair and they will laugh at old pictures and videos and think their parents were stupid back in the day. I will tell them they have no idea, you had to be there and for a few years it was the greatest thing ever.

Thank god there are no videos of me singing.

Spent way too much time and money on Rock Band(s), but loved 'em all. Those games are probably some of the most fun I've ever had playing video games. Definitely "getting the band back together" to mourn the end of DLC.

As someone for whom Rock Band is inextricably tied to some of the best memories I've ever had, this article is the sort of thing I could read a book about. I found the omission of any real retrospective regarding the downfall to be a little strange though.

I've often wondered whether the relatively rapid fall of rhythm games was something that would have happened regardless of how their popularity was handled; or whether over-saturation, market confusion, and an ill-timed economic crash ultimately cut short what could have been a long-running and healthy (if probably destined to be more niche) genre. Was it a backlash fueled by hubris, or just an inevitable return to reason?

I often think the same thing about ska music, oddly.

...

If either of those things ever come back for some weird reason, I will be fuckin' ready.

Great article, Alex.

As someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on DLC, spent dozens of hours jamming with friends over the years, it's a little sad to see the state of rhythm games.

I've since moved one, as all of you have, but I still remember the glory days of high school and college. Getting hammered and experting songs like it was the coolest thing on the street. Rock Band was truly a party starter, and I won't lie and say I don't miss it. Some of my favorite nights involve Rock Band.

A very interesting read. Kudos Alex

I've played a lot of the Rock Band over the years and it's been a great time. It'll be sad to see it officially end. Unfortunately after years of being able to get my friends together for a rock band party they haven't been up for it in a while. I'll have to force them for one last time here soon for a send off.

I would be interested to see if there was a way to see how much I've spent on all these songs.

@angrighandi: Actually, in an interview I did a year or so ago with Harmonix's head dudes, we actually got pretty far down the rabbit hole of why the plastic instrument genre blew up and fizzled out the way it did.

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/the-past-present-and-future-of-harmonix-part-i/1100-3761/

Considering how old this is, no surprise people might not have seen it. But yeah, the only reason I didn't get too far into the circumstances around the fall of the genre was because I'd already covered it relatively extensively there, and didn't want to repeat myself. Plus, I just wanted this to be more about reminiscing than hardcore examination.

Great article, and it reminded me of my own personal quest to do everything I could to get a couple of Less Than Jake songs into Rock Band. It took years (literally, I'd been trying since 2007) of bugging their drummer Vinnie every now and then (on twitter, at live shows) that he should look into it, especially after the band struck out on their own label which would obviously make the whole licensing thing a lot easier. I ended up getting somebody at HMX to meet up with them when Warped Tour stopped in Boston, and a few months later my dream finally came true and LTJ released two songs via Rock Band Network.

After it was all finally said and done, Vinnie sent me a message thanking me for cluing them in to the idea. I count it as easily the best interaction I've ever had with a band.

I just wish there was still a way to find the instruments for cheap.

Thanks for the promo. I shot that video!

I have a bunch of videos from RBN 2011 and 2012 on my YouTube channel. I didn't spend my time filming this year because 1) they were streaming it, B) I was talking to people most of the time, and 4) there was an open bar.

I too have one of the "real" guitars. The Squier by Fender Stratocaster guitar and controller. I keep waiting to be better to get back to it. Like I keep waiting to get back to the drums on my Alesis. The MIDI controller is way cool. Yes, keyboards too, but that stuff is way difficult.... Sadly though the whole thing falling apart with the real instruments, what with the corporate upheaval and such. If only that stuff had been in place from the get-go. Ah, well.

Beatles is probably my favorite one, followed by Lego. LRB was way fun, wasn't it?

I agree...great stuff Alex!

And so it's gone, before I even had a chance to enjoy it. I had such grand plans for this franchise... I was living with two friends when the first game was revealed. Already being Guitar Hero fans, we'd already started making plans for who should be on what instrument and how the heck we're supposed to split the cost of a game into three to justify buying it at that time. Such plans we had for that game...

And then it took about another year to come out in Europe. We'd all moved apart by then. But it was okay, things are bound to change, I thought, and this series doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I'll just play some more Guitar Hero 3.

Alas, we're at the end of a game generation now and my life is still in a place where I don't have the social network nor the financial stability to feel good about buying into a game like this. RB3 is especially tantalizing, to a hobby keyboardist... Oh well, maybe the franchise will come back one day in the future. Or I'll find someone who already owns a wardrobe full of plastic instruments that we can play with. Or the world will forget about the plastic instrument craze forever more and I'll pretend I never wanted to try it. I guess time will tell.

Man... Games that require other people are the best thing in the world, until they become the worst thing in the world.

Time to dust off the old plastic instruments and begin my farewell tour. I will miss you Rock Band.

Fantastic write-up, Alex! As someone who considered Rock Band one of my favorite Xbox 360 games of all-time, I really appreciated reading this coming from you.

This is awesome! I'm the girl playing the keys in the PAX East pic! I'm pleasantly surprised that ours got posted. Who snapped that pic of us playing?

That year at PAX was fun! So many quotable moments from the Harmonix panel.

....I just hope we're not forever associated with the death of the Rock Band DLC.