Posted in: Games, Movies, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, games, Harmonix, Rock Band, rock band 4, video games

Updated: Rock Band 4 Not Coming To PC Partially Because Of Piracy Concerns

Rock Band 4 has been pleasing fans since it was announced adding multiple incentives to invite fans of the rhythm game back. What with it being able to use all your Rock Band 3 DLC and old instruments in this revival, Harmonix are really bending over backwards to please fans here.

There is one community that won't be feeling the love though. PC users. Harmonix have decided to miss the platform and in an interview with Eurogamer, project lead Daniel Sussman explained why.

One has to do with the fact the library is not there on PC. The library is there on Xbox and PlayStation. So, for players who want it on PC, really you're looking at a new audience that hasn't played before, and I don't know to what degree there is an audience for new players who have never played Rock Band before on the PC. That's one piece of it.

However, the ease of piracy is a real concern for the developer. Sussman added:

The other piece is all the security issues, to be perfectly frank. There's something comforting about the closed network that comes along with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. That's important to our partners in the music industry. Not to say that's an unsolvable problem.

However, There might be hope yet. If there is an audience on the platform, Harmonix will look at the platform again in the future:

To me, it's an interesting conversation to have in the context of the tale of Rock Band. As we start to think about Rock Band 4 and how we build out from this platform, part of that is content and features, another part of that is platforms. If we determine there is a market for PC, then we'd be crazy to ignore it.

The idea of playing Rock Band on PC is inherently kind of weird to me, as I equate it with living room parties. Having said that with PC streaming around the house becoming a bigger issue, perhaps there could be a market for this.

Update:

Harmonix have since clarified their position on Sussman's comments, saying that the security was more about the music licsencing, rather than the actual threat of Piracy. In a statement, the company said:

• We're not concerned about software piracy on PC. We have and will release games for PC. In fact, last year we released A City Sleeps for PC, Mac, and Linux. As Daniel stated, the security in question is related to licensed music in the game. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have robust functionality in that area. It's added security that's handled by the platform holders.

• In the case of more open platforms like PC, we're responsible for that. It's something we can build. It's not off the table for the future, however we're first focusing on delivering Rock Band 4 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this holiday.

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