Rock Band is a series of music video games developed by Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts for the Nintendo DS, iOS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, and Xbox 360 game systems. The series, inspired by Harmonix's previous efforts on the Guitar Hero series, allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular rock music songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments. Players can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, and drums parts to songs, as well as sing into a USB microphone. Players are scored on their ability to match scrolling musical notes while playing instruments, and by their ability to match the singer's pitch on vocals.
The first game in the series, Rock Band, was released in 2007 shortly after Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games, and its sequel Rock Band 2 was released in 2008. For 281 consecutive weeks between 2007 and 2013, Harmonix had also regularly provided downloadable content, in the form of additional downloadable songs through consoles' respective storefronts; Harmonix announced that they would discontinue regular downloadable content as of April 2, 2013 as the company moves on to other titles, with the final released song being Don McLean's "American Pie".
Harmonix has also created standalone Track Packs that contain either a selection of downloadable content, or a selection of band-specific songs. The company has also designed the Rock Band Network to allow bands and labels to publish their songs as Rock Band tracks that can be purchased by players.
To date, over 13 million copies of Rock Band titles have been sold netting more than $1 billion in total sales. Over 4,000 songs representing more than 1,200 different artists are available in the franchise library, and over 130 million downloadable song purchases have been made.
Read more about Rock Band: History, Gameplay, Soundtracks, Cultural Impact, List of Games, See Also
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