Mad Catz Brings Rock Band 3 Back For the Holidays

[Andy Chalk]

Mad Catz Brings Rock Band 3 Back For the Holidays

Mad Catz has signed a deal to re-release Rock Band 3 [http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Band-3-Xbox-360/dp/B003RS8HG6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313008589&sr=8-1] for the 2011 holiday season.

Rock Band 3 bombed pretty badly when it came out last year, badly enough that Harmonix parent company Viacom put the studio up 50 bucks [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105221-Rock-Band-Developer-Harmonix-Put-Up-For-Sale] for it. But that's not stopping Mad Catz from trying again this year with a re-release of the game, this time bundled with its own Rock Band 3 peripherals, including a wireless Fender Mustang Pro guitar controller that will help players learn to play real guitar and bass parts from the Rock Band set list.

"Rock Band is the ultimate interactive experience for any music fan," said Mad Catz CEO Darren Richardson, "whether they're looking for a great party game to share with friends, playing through Rock Band's 3000 plus song library, or seeking out a fun way to learn guitar, drum or keyboard skills using Rock Band 3's PRO Mode."

Rock Band 3 didn't tank because it's a bad game [it owns a 93 rating on Metacritic [http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/rock-band-3]] but because the music game market is saturated and for most gamers, it simply didn't bring enough to the table to warrant yet another expensive, multi-peripheral purchase. How Mad Catz plans to get around that is a mystery; consecutive holiday seasons isn't much of a cool-down period for a franchise the public is obviously sick of. Price could go a long way toward increasing the appeal, but Mad Catz did not indicate what the re-released edition will sell for.


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[mjc0961]

If people didn't want this with game with quality accessories it launched with last year, they sure aren't going to want it with the pieces of junk MadCatz makes. But hey, if MadCatz wants to run their company into the ground, fine by me. Less companies making cheap, shoddy accessories is only a good thing.

 

[Rawne1980]

That's a great idea Mad Catz, pick a time of the year when some big name games are being released and then put the shower of shite that already bombed back up for sale.

I'll take a wild stab in the dark at it probably doing about as well this year as it did last.

 

[mrblakemiller]

If it just had better music. I actually would like to learn to play keyboard, but they had to get some crappy songs to pad the set list so the keyboard could actually get used. Oh well.

 

[Ophiuchus]

That's not actually the worst idea in the world as long as they do it properly. Dunno about anywhere else in the world, but in the UK the original release got no promotion at all. Couldn't hurt to give it another go, it's not like there'll be any more major plastic guitar games coming out.

If people didn't want this with game with quality accessories it launched with last year, they sure aren't going to want it with the pieces of junk MadCatz makes.

Just so you know: those 'quality accessories it launched with'... MadCatz. Certainly the pro guitar and keyboard, at least.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

If people didn't want this with game with quality accessories it launched with last year, they sure aren't going to want it with the pieces of junk MadCatz makes. But hey, if MadCatz wants to run their company into the ground, fine by me. Less companies making cheap, shoddy accessories is only a good thing.

It launched with only the keyboard last year, which was also made by MadCatz. Later on the cheaper pro-guitar came out. Then Fender's pro-guitar came out.

There never was an actual full-band instrument set released with RB3.

Still, this year is littered with massive titles and I doubt this'll get much attention.

 

[Maze1125]

That's a great idea Mad Catz, pick a time of the year when some big name games are being released and then put the shower of shite that already bombed back up for sale.

Shower of shite?
Did you get bored of reading the article before you got to the third paragraph, where it pointed out that the game has a Meta-critic score of 93/100?

 

[Rawne1980]

Shower of shite?
Did you get bored of reading the article before you got to the third paragraph, where it pointed out that the game has a Meta-critic score of 93/100?

Meta critic may have given it a high score but it sold about as well as cat piss flavoured alcopops.

I've never gone off reviews to tell how good a game is, not everyone has similar taste.

Rock Band 3 didn't sell, people didn't want it regardless of how high it's scored.

Now they are releasing it again in a summer with some pretty big games already lined up.

 

[Shale_Dirk]

I've never gone off reviews to tell how good a game is, not everyone has similar taste.

Rock Band 3 didn't sell, people didn't want it regardless of how high it's scored.

I heard DNF sold really-well. Must mean its a good game :/


People didn't want Rock Band 3 because there was absolutely no marketing, and it was hard to justify to the consumer that "It has these pro guitars. They're pretty cool...but they won't be out for another few months".

They should have waited until the market had a bit of a break (Like until just about nowish), the pro guitars were ready, and they had actually done some advertising. If they were approaching the market right now (for the first time) with the pro guitar stuff I think they would go nuts for it...but since they felt they had to release something alongside Activision's newest shit-sandwich they forced consumers to compare the two, which no self-concerned company should ever want.

If they pump the advertising, it could be done. If they just re-release it, it shall flop - and likely destroy what's left of Harmonix; which would be a shame considering they almost invented synchronicity between games and music.

 

[gsf1200]

Rawne1980 did you read any of the article? The first line said holiday season, not summer. I am getting really irritated by people commenting on articles they haven't even read,and it seems to be happening more and more often.

 

[Something Amyss]

If people didn't want this with game with quality accessories it launched with last year, they sure aren't going to want it with the pieces of junk MadCatz makes. But hey, if MadCatz wants to run their company into the ground, fine by me. Less companies making cheap, shoddy accessories is only a good thing.

Errr...Mad Catz was already making a good chunk of the official RB accessories back when the series was still selling well (and so were the peripherals).

My bundled keyboard, for example, was a Mad Catz. It's actually pretty damn solid. And it survived being drowned in the dowsing of the fire that claimed my apartment building. XD

Shower of shite?
Did you get bored of reading the article before you got to the third paragraph, where it pointed out that the game has a Meta-critic score of 93/100?

People frequently do not let reality intrude upon their own prejudices.

I'm betting there will be some other excuse if it does sell well this holiday season.

Anyway, the re-release is cool and all, but I've already got everything I need. Except a replacement wireless mic. TBH, a pro guitar would be cool, but the Mustang's crap. The buttons do little to replicate the actual experience of a real guitar, so its just a slightly more expensive fake plastic instrument with more buttons.

I just have trouble justifying the more expensive Fender Squier model when I own my own guitars. While the pro instruments do have the benefit of making practice fun and accessible, it's hard to justify dumping that kind of money on a "fake instrument." I mean, yeah, you can plug it in, but I hear it sounds terrible. And it's horribly crippled to begin with.

 

[chuckey]

I don't think the problem is releasing the game in the holiday season but I think it's with the facet that people most likely will not want to pay what maybe $100+ dollars for a music game that many people already own or own a variant of. In addition this is probably not the best time to release this considering how many major title are going to come out between October and December.

 

[Artemis923]

The best thing Rock Band did was release some good death metal tracks and about three good black metal ones.

Other than that...the rest of the music in the game is lackluster and boring to play, making the game just that.

 

[Rack]

I'm the kind of moronic deviant that enjoyed Rock Band 3 and Beyond Good and Evil even though they didn't sell. That has me hoping this will retroactively become an awesome game if this sells well by virtue of having a real guitar bundle and an opportunity to get shelf space.