If you`ve postponed purchasing Rock Band 4 digitally over the last decade, you have just under a week left to acquire it. Harmonix`s popular multiplayer rhythm game is slated for removal from the PlayStation and Xbox digital storefronts this coming Sunday, October 5th, marking nearly ten years since its original launch.
Kyle Wynn, a producer at Harmonix, confirmed the imminent delisting on the official Rock Band Discord server, a notice initially brought to wider attention by Wario64 on X. Wynn explained that the primary reason for this action is the expiration of the original licensing agreements for the game`s core soundtrack. However, players who already own a digital copy of the game will still be able to access and install it from their libraries.
Furthermore, Wynn clarified that downloadable content (DLC) songs will face a similar fate, being delisted once they complete a decade of digital availability. Just like the base game, any DLC songs previously purchased will remain accessible to owners in their digital collections. Rock Band 4 initially launched with 65 songs in its base game, and its DLC support, which included the “Rivals” expansion, continued until January 2024.
“If you`ve been meaning to pick up any final songs, now is your last opportunity,” Wynn advised in his announcement.
The expiration of music licenses is a frequent cause for older games to be pulled from digital platforms. It`s therefore not surprising that a significant portion of Harmonix`s back catalog of rhythm games has been unavailable on digital stores for quite some time. For example, Rock Band 3 was delisted in October 2015, only five years after its initial release. Nevertheless, physical copies of these titles remain fully playable and can often be found on various secondary markets.
Harmonix has been a subsidiary of Epic Games since 2021, and is currently involved in the development of Fortnite Festival, a game mode inspired by the Rock Band experience. Fortnite Festival offers a rotating selection of tracks, its own seasonal music pass, and features prominent artists, with Gorillaz being a recent example.