After almost three years of work, all of the thousands of Rock Band legacy songs now work on the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Rock Band 4. Any DLC song you have purchased from the store or Rock Band 1, 2, 3, and Blitz should now show up on your current system’s respective digital marketplace for free. This only works within the console family, so PS3 songs will only show up on PS4 and Xbox 360 songs will only appear on Xbox One.
Rock Band‘s official Twitter account tweeted the news out today. The tweet also entertains the possibility of missing a few Rock Band legacy songs, giving users a link to their support website to leave a ticket. But their shared Google Sheet is all empty for Sony Interactive Entertainment America and Europe as well as Xbox One. Sony Interactive Entertainment America was the last to cross the finish line today.
It's…done. For those affected, every legacy song on Xbox One, SIEA, and SIEE now carries forward as intended. It's all fixed. The lists are empty. As always, if you CAN prove us wrong, please do so at https://t.co/YPKQD53b1d Enjoy! https://t.co/2H49Rn8CQW
— Rock Band (@RockBand) June 29, 2018
While the musical instrument genre has seen better days, this update shows developer Harmonix’s ongoing commitment to Rock Band 4. Earlier last month, the studio announced that they were bringing select Rock Band Network tracks to the marketplace.
Rock Band Network was a marketplace for users to make Rock Band DLC songs for their own songs and it shut down in 2014. While the service as a whole isn’t being resurrected, Harmonix is going in and grabbing specific songs to put up for sale as regular DLC. Sadly, entitlements won’t carry over for RBN songs, meaning users will have to repurchase songs they already owned on previous systems.
It is hard not to compare these Rock Band stories to the recent news surrounding Guitar Hero. Activision announced earlier this month that Guitar Hero Live‘s Guitar Hero TV is shutting down later this year. Guitar Hero TV was the game’s cycling jukebox of playable songs is disappearing forever in December 2018. Users can’t even purchase currency for the mode anymore. The mode was a big part of the game’s appeal and its incoming absence will most likely not be a great signal for its community.