Keep on Rockin'

The biggest news so far this week is Harmonix announcing an end to regular DLC additions to the Rock Band store.
Some might say that this news has been long overdue as the wave of music rhythm games (or whatever you want to call it) has long since passed, those who've played it have since moved on and it's now only the diehards left still playing Rock Band.

Personally it's something I have mixed feelings about:
On one hand, the time of Rock Band has passed. But for me it's not just in popularity but somehow Rock Band 3, unlike it's predecessor, had no sense of longevity. Rock Band 2 had enough gigs and challenges to justify the DLC and hours of play time - conversely Rock Band 3 had a story mode and...then what? What do you do then? Face down a list of unplayed songs in the Music Library? It's far from a carrot and somehow, it makes the idea of obtaining more DLC feel more like a hollow exercise.

But on the other hand, the use of DLC available to RB2 still holds appeal (as mentioned above). Why, when Harmonix announced the 50% off sale, I picked up a lot of new stuff and gave RB2 another spin. And I must give props to Harmonix for keeping the music rhythm game genre going for as long as they did: they had a great selection of music and they didn't fall into the trap Guitar Hero did of releasing a new game every year.

Still, this may well be the death knell of the music rhythm game genre (if it hasn't already happened). And, like most people, I have a whole wide range of DLC songs on my console hard drive so there is certainty that I won't stop playing Rock Band for good. Whilst a potential revival seems (however remotely) possible it's unlikely music rhythm game genre will match the heights of it's heyday.
But for what;s worth I invested many hours in the Rock Band games and enjoyed it to bits.
So, for now, lets all raise a glass to Rock Band...