Rock Band developer: Music and gameplay are permanent aspects of the human experience

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May 19, 2014

According to Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Rock Band and Dance Central developer Harmonix, music and gameplay are permanent parts of the human experience. As part of a Reddit AMA today, Rigopulos said he was sad to see the living room music game phenomenon cool off, but explained that because music is so ingrained in the fabric of humanity, we're likely to see a resurgence in music games some day, including potentially a new Rock Band game.

"Of course I was sad when Rock Band passed its (first!) peak, but one way or another, it will be back. Also, music games need to evolve just like every aspect of pop culture," he said. "The band game boom was followed by a dance game boom, which will be followed by some other manifestation of music games--hopefully some of the new stuff Harmonix is working on! Music is a permanent aspect of the human experience, and so is gameplay. It's Harmonix's job to figure out new ways for music and gameplay to amplify each other's emotional power. Stand by!"

Harmonix also created the once-lucrative Guitar Hero series, which Activision officially put on hiatus back in 2011 after sales began to fall off. Rigopulos said Activision cannot be individually blamed for the demise of Guitar Hero.

"I think there's probably some truth to the notion that Activision 'over-published' Guitar Hero. But I wouldn't agree that the decline of the genre was 'entirely the fault of Activision'. Reality is always more complicated than this," he said. "For example, it didn't help that GH and RB were the most expensive video games on the market during a brutal recession. I also don't think that either GH or RB delivered enough (or the right kind of) evolution of the experience in the years that followed the initial releases--something we hope to address at some point in the next outing."

Last month during PAX East, Rigopulos teased that Harmonix has "grand plans" to revive the Rock Band and Dance Central franchises some day. Activision has also spoken of bringing back the Guitar Hero series eventually. Though it's clear that no new Rock Band game is in development, it's looking more likely that a new Dance Central could be in development.

In an interview with GameSpot last week about the Xbox One and Kinect, Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi name-dropped Dance Central, despite no new game in the series being announced for Xbox One. What's more, in today's Reddit AMA, Rigopulos was asked if there was a chance that Harmonix would return to the Dance Central franchise someday.

He responded: "There's a chance. ;-)"

Though there are no new Rock Band or Dance Central games officially announced, that doesn't mean Harmonix is sitting by idly. The Cambridge, Mass. studio is currently working on PC music/shooter hybrid Chroma and Fantasia: Music Evolved for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The company is also currently looking for funding for a new Amplitude game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and recently released a free-to-play iOS game called Record Run.

Regarding Chroma, it is announced only for PC right now, but on Reddit, Rigopulos teased that he'd like to see it come to consoles as well. "I certainly hope so!" he said in response to a fan who asked if the game would be coming to consoles.