Harmonix Announces Rock Band Anniversary DLC
By Brad Jones 04 January 2017
In celebration of the franchise’s tenth anniversary, Harmonix details the first wave of classic songs being added to Rock Band 4 as downloadable content.
This year marks a decade since 2007, the year that saw the release of the inaugural Rock Band game. Harmonix has revealed that there are big plans to celebrate this important anniversary, and the festivities kick off this week with the re-release of some classic songs from the series’ back catalog as downloadable content for Rock Band 4.
First up is (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult, which was featured in the setlist of the original Rock Band game. However, it’s not just the first title that’s being tapped for classic tracks, as all iterations of the series seem to be fair game for Harmonix’s celebrations with this Rock Band 4 content.
With that in mind, the second re-release confirmed for January is Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas. This song was part of the tracklist for Rock Band 2, and also appeared in Guitar Hero II, and more recently in Guitar Hero Live.
Finally, there’s a representative from the franchise’s often-forgotten brick-based spin-off Lego Rock Band. Swing, Swing by the All-American Rejects will also be available for purchase before the end of January, although the studio’s blog post announcing the festivities doesn’t list an exact date.
Longtime Rock Band fans will no doubt appreciate this opportunity to take a trip down memory lane. Over the course of four mainline instalments and a wide variety of spin-offs, the franchise has amassed quite a selection of memorable songs, many of which aren’t available to download via Rock Band 4.
Speculation will no doubt be getting underway as to what other songs could be added to the game to celebrate the series’ tenth anniversary. If Harmonix sticks to its current rate of three classic releases every month, we could see some interesting picks to flesh out the field of 36 songs released over the course of 2017.
Hundreds of songs have been released for Rock Band games at this point. Each title would typically contain between 40 and 60 tracks, and DLC tracks were released on a weekly basis for much of the last decade, save for a brief hiatus between 2013 and 2015.
With that in mind, the only question is which classic tracks will make the cut. Given the subjective nature of music, it’s guaranteed that not every Rock Band 4 player will be satisfied with the anniversary additions once 2017 draws to a close, but hopefully the majority of gamers will enjoy the options available.
Rock Band 4 is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
