If you owned a Wii at the height of it’s craze, it’s likely you had either a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game for the system. Back in 2008-2010, the music game genre was booming and the Wii was one of the primary consoles for those who enjoy those type of games. So now that Harmonix is back and developing Rock Band 4, that must mean they’re keen on supporting the Wii U, right? Mmm, not exactly.
According to a recent interview from HardcoreGamer, the developers of Rock Band 4 don’t feel like there’s an audience for these types of game on the Wii U anymore. Here’s the exact quote from Daniel Sussman, the project manager for Rock Band 4:
Daniel: The Wii U is a really hard call for us, but from our initial research the audience is not there yet, and I would be really psyched for there to be this public outcry of “Where is the Wii U? I will absolutely throw money at you and I wanna buy it and preorder it!” and all that. And then we start working on it.
Nick Chester: We’re seeing all these people flock, especially towards PS4, and people are abandoning their Wiis, and using their Xbox 360s as… We don’t have a version of it because neither of the consoles are backwards compatible.
Currently, Rock Band 4 is only in development for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, leaving the Wii U out of the mix. It’s a bummer, but perhaps fans of the music game genre should do as Daniel suggests and let them know that they’d buy the game if it were released for the platform. As Nick Chester points out however, Wii U development is a completely different architecture than that of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, so it’s likely it was never a target in the first place.
Are you disappointed with Harmonix’s decision, or are you over the music game genre?