Rock Band 4 won’t release on PC following crowdfunding failure
Sorry, computer shredders: you missed your chance
Nine years, several major editions, and thousands of downloadable tracks later, we’ve still never had a PC version of party favourite Rock Band – and now we never might, after a crowdfunding campaign crashed and burned.
Harmonix released Rock Band 4 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 last autumn, and last month launched a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money to bring the game to PC for the very first time. Unfortunately, the attempt proved too ambitious, as the effort closed overnight with just 52% of the total goal raised.
The Fig campaign, which allowed both common backers and higher-spending investors to throw money at the project, ultimately pulled in just US$792,817 (about £561,000) from 1,674 backers on a goal of US$1.5 million (£1.06 million).
Surprisingly, almost 75% of the funds came from investors, seemingly showing a lack of interest from a PC player base that had demanded Rock Band for years. Unfortunately, the failed campaign means that Rock Band 4 isn’t coming to PC; it’s unlikely that some mystery investor will swoop in to make the funds available now, seeing as they had more than a month to get onboard.
Harmonix admits some issues with the campaign structure and promotion, responding to a lot of the feedback in a blog post, but says that ultimately they can’t afford to make the PC version if enough fans don’t put their money where their mouths are.
"We learned exactly what we needed to learn: there doesn’t seem to be enough of an audience to make Rock Band for PC a viable project for us right now," they wrote. "As an independent developer we have to be careful about how much money and development time we risk on a project we’re not sure has a big enough audience."
However, development and support will continue on the console versions of Rock Band 4, and Harmonix also has Rock Band VR coming to the Oculus Rift this year, as well.
[Source: Fig]
Read More › Rock Band 4 review
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
