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Lego Rock Band Confirmed for Holiday '09
by Kris Graft [PC, Console/PC]
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April 21, 2009
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When a property has reached copious amounts of success, the natural thing to do is release a Lego version of that property.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and its subsidiary TT Games, along with Harmonix and MTV Games, have confirmed Lego Rock Band, the newest entry to the Rock Band music game series. The companies hope to replicate the success of other family-friendly Lego-based products from TT Games, such as Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman.
The existence of Lego Rock Band first surfaced March during the annual Game Developers Conference, when a slide not used but accidentally made available via Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale's presentation acknowledged the existence of the game.
Today's announcement is the first official confirmation of the title, which will appear on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. TT Games is developing the home console versions in a partnership with Rock Band creator Harmonix, while Foundation 9 Entertainment's Backbone Entertainment has taken on development of a Nintendo DS version.
All versions of the game are slated for holiday 2009.
In line with other Lego video games, TT Games is positioning Lego Rock Band as a family-friendly title with songs and content appropriate for "tweens and teens."
TT Games managing director Tom Stone said the game will be "humor-filled." Songs in Lego Rock Band include Blur's "Song 2," Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting," Europe's "The Final Countdown," Good Charlotte's "Boys and Girls" and Pink's "So What."
Internally, Harmonix is currently developing the eagerly-anticipated Beatles Rock Band, appropriately due to hit shelves on 9/9/09. The Rock Band franchise shipped 10 million units as of December 2008, Harmonix and MTV Games parent Viacom said earlier this year.
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I'm still wavering, but I'm starting to come down on the side of this being inspired lunacy - I'd certainly expect it to do better than Beatles Rock Band!
I guess a key question is how LRB will integrate into the existing RBB universe - will you be able to copy songs to/from other releases, and will there be LRB-specific DLC?
Given the "tweens and teens" focus, I'm guessing the answer to both will be no, which will be a shame. The music market is becoming increasingly fragmented - you effectively have the following standalone game universes:
Guitar Hero 2/3
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Rock Band 2 (which at least lets you import RB1 and RB: AC/DC)
Beatles Rock Band
Lego Rock Band
The only thing potentially worse than market saturation is market fragmentation...
I seriously though I was tripping balls when I first read this. I though I'd see the KISS Saves Christmass edtion before things got this weird. I guess with the rapid speed of communication means stupid ideas are traveling faster too.(it's making me rethink getting a 3g phone)
I think Lego Knights of the Old Republic RockBand is the only place we can go from here.
I have no interest personally, but my 10 year old nephew will be going nuts. Definately for kids, but kids are a huge market, so this may do okay.