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Is the Rock Band franchise dead and buried?
EA loses money on Rock Band franchise and the Harmonix deal is coming to an end. Where next for Rock Band?
Written by Steven Williamson, 10 February 2010
Hidden in the depths of EA's financial report this week are release plans for all of its games up to end of fiscal year 2011, which takes us right up until March next year.
Among some interesting snippets of information, including confirmation of an unnamed title currently in development by Epic Games, and the news that Spore is coming to consoles, there's a notable omission from one of the company's major franchises, Rock Band.
NPD figures last year showed that the music genre had been a commercial flop compared to 2008's figures. Indeed, EA even said that it expected to lose $400 million on Rock Band in 2009.
360Zine Issue 36
For our latest Rock Band coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 36 for free.It's also no secret that sales of Beatles Rock Band, released in September 2009, have been below expectations. MCV also recently revealed that the deal struck between EA and Harmonix to work on Rock Band is almost at an end. At a recent investor's conference by Wells Fargo Securities, EA COO John Schnappert was quizzed on the future of Rock Band, and its omission in the financial report. He commented:
"Our deal with Aviacom and Harmonix continues through FY '11 at that time. As you can see from our modelling, we have not included a lot of revenue for distribution next year, but we continued to have talks with them and hope that maybe there's an opportunity to continue the relationship beyond that."
But we think that Harmonix may have its eyes elsewhere. News leaked last week indicates Harmonix has requested use of the licenses of four hip hop and rap tracks. These certainly don't fit into the genres of music we see released for Rock Band, so what else does it have up its sleeves? A brand new music title perhaps?
The only thing we can be certain about with the Rock Band franchise is that all parties concerned will try and claw some of the losses back via digital distribution and the release of many more song packs over the next 12 months. But as for the Rock Band franchise, well that could truly be dead and buried before its even had a chance to get off the ground.
Rock Band coverage available in 360Zine Issue 36 - click here to download it for free!
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