After 10 years on the market, Rock Band 4‘s farewell tour begins this week, as licensing expires over the weekend, effectively removing the game from digital storefronts.
After 10 years of touring, Harmonix has confirmed in an official statement on its Discord (found by VGC) that Rock Band 4 is disbanding this weekend. The title’s community manager, Kyle Wynn, broke the news in a lengthy statement, detailing why the game will be delisted, and thanking fans for their passion and community presence over the past 10 years.
The statement reads, “With this milestone comes one big change: the original licenses for the core soundtrack are expiring. Because of that, Rock Band 4 will be removed from the PlayStation and Xbox digital stores. If you already own the game, nothing changes — you’ll keep full access and still be able to download the game and songs to any new, compatible devices. The same applies to Downloadable Content (DLC): songs will come down as they hit the 10-year mark, but anything you’ve purchased will remain in your library.”
The statement essentially means that if you’ve ever been on the fence about purchasing Rock Band 4, you have until October 5 to do so and keep it forever before the entire base game is delisted. Fans who have purchased the title will get to keep it after it delists. Rock Band 4 has notably added thousands of songs weekly to the catalogue over its decade on the market, and after the base game goes offline on Sunday, the DLC licensing will soon follow.
After dominating the rhythm video game scene in the 2010s, Rock Band‘s (and Guitar Hero) relevance continued to wane until they announced they were ceasing new DLC in January 2024. CGMagazine’s 2015 review of Rock Band 4 called it ” a great game for all the rock stars out there,” and after Sunday, the curtain will be called for the last time.
