this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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[–] MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Man, this sucks. I haven't played any games like this in a while (i legit have my guitar hero mounted on the wall) but it sucks to see something like this going away

[–] umfk@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

I've heard good things about YARG (yet another rhythm game). Basically an open source rock band clone on PC.

[–] MufinMcFlufin@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Frets on Fire is the one I knew of back when Guitar hero was at its peak

[–] gramie@lemmy.ca 24 points 16 hours ago

For about 1 year my two sons and I played Rock Band, mostly The Beatles, everyday when they came home from school. At least an hour each day. We played other versions of Rock Band, but the Beatles was easily our favorite.

It directly led one of them to learn the piano and eventually get a master's degree in composing, and the other to enjoy playing in bands and performing in musical theatre.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 41 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (5 children)

It should not be legal for a product such as this to just cease existing due to an agreement between IP owners ending.

It's like Disney saying "We agree you can make this Mickey Mouse game using our characters, but it can only be sold for 2 years." Fucking why?

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 31 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

"Because in 2 years the value of the product might be higher and we expect to always be paid more, regardless of the current deal we are making today."

~Disney, since it was established as a business

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 17 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

~~Makes sense they bought Star Wars, so they can legally say “I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it further.”~~

[User was moused for this comment]

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Uh oh. You quoted a Disney movie. Prepare to be litigated.

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 hours ago

[Jawa noises]

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 6 points 16 hours ago

Except if you bought the game you still own a copy, they're just not allowed to sell new copies.

[–] Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

There are a bunch of Marvel games that are exactly like this.

Somewhat related. I tried to watch Guava Island, which was apparently only made available for Amazon for a limited time, then it just disappeared.

I think it should be legal to download or stream any of that stuff that's no longer available.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's certainly ethical, if not legal.

You could make a good argument in court, too. Hard to show damages when there's no possibility of profit because you're not selling it.

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

That's actually a very bad argument in court. Taking things off the market to drive scarcity and boost sales at a later date is a normal and common business tactic. See: the McRib, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and the Disney Vault.

[–] Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I think there's a difference between unavailable and limited availability.

There are some old games that may never come back. In many cases, there's no agreed owner. Imagine if something became public domain after a short period of no use (5 years, 10 years maybe).

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 2 points 8 minutes ago (1 children)

Rights-holders can make these products available whenever they want. Nintendo added many old "abandonware" games to their subscription catalog that had been unavailable for much longer than ten years. If someone else is putting them out for free, they're stealing Nintendo's lunch.

There are very few cases where copyrighted material would have no owner and no legal mechanism to determine ownership.

Not saying I support the current system. I think current US copyright law is ridiculous and a net negative for our culture. Just clarifying that "Well, no one was selling it" is not a legally defensible position when it comes to copyrighted work.

[–] Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 1 points 1 minute ago

It absolutely isn't a legal defense. You're right.

I'm saying it should be legal. Starting now, since digital is a standard. Nintendo needs to put it out or let people share it. They can have 10 years (or the highest of 5 years from now/10 years from when it was last available). Something like that.

The TV movie standard of everything being available should be the video game standard.

[–] III@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

It doesn't stop existing, you just can't buy it.. Not great but not unreasonable.

Wouldn’t the solution just end up screwing artists who have to give up their song in perpetuity? You can have those buy pay way more

[–] Undearius@lemmy.ca 96 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Now's a good opportunity to promote Clone Hero

[–] Viirax@piefed.social 12 points 16 hours ago
[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 19 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It'll never be quite the same without the master tracks.

[–] Flatfire@lemmy.ca 31 points 19 hours ago

For customs? Yeah. But pretty much every master used in the RB or GH games have been ripped and are available for use there too

[–] criss_cross@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I’m sad I never got this to fully work with my Td 17

[–] Pupschism@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

What's not working? If any amount of midi is being picked up then you may need to remap, otherwise you might need drivers for the usb, or need to use a hardware usb midi box instead of usb

[–] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I have so many good memories of playing Rock Band in college. I just picked this up for PS4 for like $10, but it looks like the instruments are going to cost an arm and a leg...

[–] Coldcell@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 hours ago

Just like being in a real rock band!

[–] pinheadednightmare@lemmy.world 43 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

And this is why disc games should never go away.

[–] vateso5074@lemmy.world 29 points 19 hours ago

Don't worry, the games industry has you covered on that now. They just release games that are broken or half-finished without the day 1 patch, but then allowing it to update removes all of the licensed content.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The digital download isn't going away either (yet).

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 7 points 18 hours ago

What like the songs or Kindle books that can be removed from your library next time your computer logs onto the Internet due to a licensing dispute?

With more games and systems requiring online access every X number of days, downloads don't mean shit.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Too bad PS4 emulation isn't quite there yet. You can, however, pirate the fuck out of the earlier games, DLC and all. Truly a better way to play, cause that DLC was hella expensive.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 2 points 2 hours ago

Rock Band 4 does get in-game now on ShadPS4, but it's a long ways off from playable.

https://github.com/shadps4-compatibility/shadps4-game-compatibility/issues/1165

[–] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 15 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

End of an era 🥲

Obligatory plug: Rock Band 3 Deluxe mod, Rock Band 4 Deluxe mod
Shoutout to the Milohax team

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 26 points 20 hours ago

This is one of the weird aspects of games that seems to make no sense because of archaic laws that never entered the 20th century, nevermind the 21st. It seems to be about manufacturing new copies of the already made game, not selling them. So it only affects digital sales, I would assume because of their "creation" on a new sale, every physical game copy was already manufactured and out there, nothing changes there.

[–] degen@midwest.social 24 points 20 hours ago

So uh, happy... anniversary... I guess?

[–] Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

And the songs will start to become unavailable to purchase over the next 9 years. I guess it's a good reminder for me to buy all the songs I want to get.