So look, I want the option to play any of 5,000 songs in Rock Band as much as the next guy. But Billboards claim that MTV Games had plans to up the available songs to 5,000 in 2009? Like I had guessed, it's just too wild to be true.
In a statement to us today, an MTV Games/Harmonix spokesperson told us this number was taken out of context from something Harmonix CEO and co-founder Alex Rigopulos said in a recent interview.
"That said, one of the great promises of the [Rock Band] catalog moving forward," he told Ars Technica, "as the catalog expands from 500 songs to 5,000 songs or whatever in the coming years, is that we're going to be less constrained from a genre standpoint, and I think you will see us starting to branch out into ... whether it's country or R&B and jazz or funk, or things of that sort."
OK, so to clarify, Rigopulos did not say there would be 5,000 songs available this year. Just eventually. Or to use Billboards logic, maybe he means there will be 5,000 R&B songs this year. Or 5,000 jazz songs. And 5,000 funk songs. Sure, why not.
So yeah, don't expect 5,000 songs to be playable in Rock Band this year, because that would be crazy. But considering the number jumped from 58 to over 500 in a single year, I suppose it's not completely out of the question.
Contest:
9:56 PM on 01.28.2009
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Somebody pinch me...
As for different genres, Harmonix hinted at them back in December when they announced the country pack, telling people to stop complaining about one pack of country songs when they had also been intending to branch out into ska, hardcore punk, and goth rock. I bet Harmonix's biggest regret with Rock Band might be the name itself - calling it Music Band would have been much more appropriate.
Personally, I'd like to see some more (non-mainstream) hip-hop in the game, MC Frontalot's one track is an excellent change of pace on drums amongst tons of rock pieces. Funk and R&B would be cool to, as would soul, but I'm not sure how well jazz would work with the current instrument set. I still want to see that actual effort for ska and hardcore punk, though. Oh, and Green Day's Dookie, which would be a guaranteed seller.