Rock Band 4 will receive its final batch of new songs on Jan. 25 after more than 8 years of support. Harmonix Project Manager Daniel Sussman confirmed in a blog post that all other aspects of the live service will continue on, which includes Rivals seasons and online play.
Over the course of the game’s life, almost 3,000 songs were added through weekly DLC, with even more if you include game soundtracks. Sussman stressed that all owned DLC will remain playable.
After merging with Epic Games in 2021, Harmonix began working on Fortnite Festival, which Sussman cites as a reason for ending DLC. “Looking ahead, the Harmonix team has been hard at work over the last two years to develop Fortnite Festival, which brings rhythm action gaming (and more) to the Fortnite ecosystem,” he wrote. “It’s free to play, we have a rotating selection of songs that you can play (for free) anytime.”
“If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be; and with support for RB4 instruments coming, this is not the time to hang up your guitars just yet….” he continued. The game launched with 34 tracks, a small percentage of Rock Band 4’s final count, so it can be expected that the majority of Harmonix’s efforts will be focused on rounding out that lineup.
As for the final round of DLC for Rock Band 4, expect some ballads. “We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era,” Sussman concluded. “The last two weeks will feature some tear jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment. We thank you for your commitment to and passion for this wonderful game.”
With 8 years and over 3,000 songs, it’s understandable that the developers would be ready to move on. The game’s support is quite a feat, and one that they are particularly proud of. “Working in support of the Rock Band community has been a high point in my professional life – wading through the thousands of song requests we get, working through what songs to pursue and release, it’s all hard work but also really satisfying,” Sussman wrote. “Taking a longer look back, I see the Rock Band DLC catalog as a huge achievement in persistence and commitment.”