The Harmonix Story. ...And why they are a terrible company now.

Long story short...if it bothers you so much, don't buy it. Enjoy what you have. I personally and psyched for RB2. Seeing it on the shelves for the 360 for a month is going to be torture. (I have a 360, but I refuse to re-buy guitars and downloaded tracks.)

Here's some news to you:

1. They're a business. Business needs money. Oh no! They're being consumed by money. Cry about it, because they're a business.

2. GH came from the Konami arcade guitar games so let's put this whole "rip-off from so-and-so" business out of the situation.

3. Then stop buying Harmonix stuff. This is like saying "OH GAWD. CRACK AND DRUGS ARE RUINING MA LIFE!" and still using them. Boycott them if you're going to complain, or keep buying their stuff and leave us alone.

Long story short...if it bothers you so much, don't buy it. Enjoy what you have. I personally and psyched for RB2. Seeing it on the shelves for the 360 for a month is going to be torture. (I have a 360, but I refuse to re-buy guitars and downloaded tracks.)

ItsEvolution

[QUOTE="ItsEvolution"]

Long story short...if it bothers you so much, don't buy it. Enjoy what you have. I personally and psyched for RB2. Seeing it on the shelves for the 360 for a month is going to be torture. (I have a 360, but I refuse to re-buy guitars and downloaded tracks.)

Cutekitten6_18

All my RB stuff is for the PS3. So I'll be buying the PS3 Rock Band 2 in October. I'm just saying that it's going to suck seeing RB2 available for the Xbox a month earlier.

My first post on gamespot and im sure im gonna get my score lowered for stating what i beleive is the truth. Oh well, im doing it anyway!

Alright. So, I have been a huge Harmonix fan since the beginning. Yes, i bought Frequency on day one, and still to this day play Amplitude at least an hour a day. I also got insanely excited for the original Guitar Hero, and have bought all the sequels afterwards. I've been through well over 10 guitars and have no problem whatsoever with that fact. I had fun today showing off my Fire and the Flames skills to a bunch of my friends (Yes, I realise that Guitar Hero 3 isnt Harmonix - im just trying to show how much dedication i have put forward into the games). Yes, on Expert.
Of corse, Rock Band came out shortly after that, and due to the annoying "You cant back up your save for some stupid reason", i have beaten it... god... at least 4 times now. With all the instruments. I've place in infinate hours into the multiplayer on it as well - Both on, and offline. Yet again, I have been through 2 drum sets (with one still remaining broken on the 360, though that isnt my drum set. It just stays here... I wouldnt touch a microsoft product nowadays if you were to pay me.), 5 guitars, and about 10 bass pedals before buying 2 "Pedal Metal" things off ebay. Again, I really dont care - if the game is a good, original concept i am willing to pay money.

So now Harmonix, With how much i loved and supported you - why? The funding for Guitar Hero came from Amplitude. The only reason they had enough funding to get Amplitude out there was because SONY fully supported making a sequel to FreQuency as long as the music becomes mainstream and more appealing to a "normal" audience. So with Amplitude - which didnt exactly go outselling Halo - they created Guitar Hero. "Thanks Sony!". Then with the drama between RedOctane and The Ant Commandos, and of corse the Drama between Harmonix and Activision - Rock Band was somehow created. This was the big Harmonix game. It was original and basically alot of fun. Pure genius actually.
But then or corse we started to see them hanging out over at the Microsoft booth at E3... Last year? Yeah. Last year.
No problem. They can go to whatever booth they want. Who's gonna stop them?
Well, Thats when i started to sort of take notice. Amplitude online was shut down (which if anyone is wondering, is now available through connecting to a fellow FreQ over at freq.com's DNS server). Ditching the online in Amplitude - to say in a "as not-rude" as i possibly can kinda way - pissed one or two of us original Harmonix supporters off. Though, They did it! Thanks guys.

So now, in present time - We have Guitar Hero 4. With a MIDI Input on the drum set for a "new instrument for the song creator. Coming soon". Oh and yes, a sng creator. As well as all 4 instruments.
Harmonix's time to out-take Activision with the standard Harmonix Originality and consumer-listening was perfectly possible right here. Rock Band 2 was expected. People were wanting and expecting a Keyboard... nope. Instead, we get this re-hashed version of Rock Band with multiple rip-off's of previously announced Guitar Hero 4 features. Such as a pressure sensitive drum pad with symbols. I was amazed right there... Really.
But now they have just totally and blatantly Ripped Off Guitar Hero 4.. Here we have the recently announced Song Creator for Rock Band 2. Which obviously has totally not been thought of before. Yet another original idea from Harmonix. Thanks Alex Rigopolus! (Yeah. I know his name. Reason being that i have begun to despise him with a passion - and that his brother is the singer of one of my favorite bands. )

So, with all these original concepts of two music games ripping each other off trying to get yet another $200.00 out of us - we have Rock Revolution. But this post is long enough and that game just simply isnt worth mentioning at all... Lets just say its another Rock Band/Guitar Hero ripoff. Okay...

In conclusion here, Harmonix has ceased to amaze me since the original Guitar Hero release. They've blatantly been consumed by Microsoft in trying to make money, and more money. Whereas before it was more about creating music experiences using the Remix mode in FreQ and Amp. Its becoming rather pathetic, and i will not be buying any of these 3 games at release. If I see Guitar Hero 4 releasing downloadable content on a regular basis, then i will buy that bundle and maybe get the Rock Band 2 disc seperately. Harmonix has lost all suport from me, and despite them "tricking" everyone else into thinking that they deserve that "Best Game Developer" award from E3, i havent seen anything original from them coming in Rock Band 2. Whereas Guitar Hero 4 added multiple new features - which Harmonix has blatantly ripped off every one of them.

Sorry for the uselessly long rant - im just rather upset with my (ex)favorite developer selling themselves out to microsoft and taking the "rip off and make it cheaper" route.


EDIT: OH YES! How could i forget. The thing that spawned this sudden hate toward Harmonix and their new money-loving ways. The fact that Rock Band 2 is coming out this September on 360.
Great. Us original sony fans get to wait till "Later this year". Gotta love'em.

So yeah. Again, sorry for the long rant... Thanks...

Rock Band 2-

Pressure Sensitive Drums rip-off- I cant find any links. Its a rather known fact though. Same with the velocity pads.

Song Creator rip-off- http://www.gamespot.com/news/6196675...dlines;title;4

Betrayed! - "Rock Band 2 is expected to arrive for the Xbox 360 in mid-September, with the PlayStation 3, Wii, and PlayStation 2 editions arriving later in the year. Guitar Hero World Tour is expected to go on the road--song creator and all--this fall for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, and PC."
[Above link. "Song Creator rip-off"]

Guitar Hero 4-


Pressure Sensitive Drums - http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/... k_band-2.html

MIDI proof- http://www.breakitdownblog.com/guita...ith-midi-port/

MIDI instrument proof (Probably a keyboard...) - "On July 31, 2008, Logitech and Activision announced that the former company will produce "premium" instruments to be released later this year." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_hero_4#Instruments)

Axecution

Put this as a blog and you might go to the soapbox

I would be a lot more irritated at activision... they've copied FAR more.
Rockband was the GH2 sequel that never happened.
GH3 was a GH2 rehash...
Rockband featured new instruments, customization, and was more party oriented.

Activision has copied tons of stuff... as well as over populated the market with guitars like aerosmith bundles and crap... why wasn't all that online DLC?

It is true though, Harmonix has let us down a little.... but their just trying to compete... at least they're making improvements to the instruments.

i totally agree. i think it's BS for them to give Microsoft a month of exclusivity. why? why not release both in Octoboer? or work harder and release both in Sep? it's stupid. it makes them look like a bunch of dicks for basically saying F-U to all their PS3 fans. granted, there aren't quite as many as the 360, YET, but how much money did it take for them to turn their backs on all of us? danduron

Though I'm obviously irritated by it, too...I hardly call a month of exclusivity "turn(ing) their backs on all of us". It's not like we have to wait til March or something.

Just a news flash:

1- You dont need a new set of instruments, maybe a new drum set if you want cymbals and double drums (dont know its name in english)

2- Nobody is forcing you to get it, songs will still be available to DL for the first game.

3- A keyboard? There are not that many songs out there with them, its as usefull as having a cowbell as an instruments. 2/3 guitars each having their unique routine is way better than keyboards.

4- Go play Wii Music, apparently its what you want. Cheap, and lots of unnecessary instruments.

5- RB 2 is released in Sept for the 360, with no instruments. The instruments are released with the other versions on October.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are trying to say Harmonix makes poorly made peripherals and copies others...? I've had my instruments for a couple of months now, and I have NOT had any problems with them. I play drums on expert and they seem to be working perfectly fine (All drum pads are intact and foot pedal in one piece). You need to learn to take care of them and to be GENTLE. Secondly, Harmonix originally developed GH1 and 2, and as far as I know, they were the first to add other instruments besides just guitar. Who are you to complain that Harmonix lacks in orginality and creativity?