The future of C3
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As we all know, RB4 has been announced. How does this impact on C3? C3 started when we put together an effort to do one more week of DLC for the community. It was supposed to be an all-star effort from customs authors to deliver a big pack of songs. During that process espher pitched taking on weekly releases so that HMX’s streak of delivering new songs every week wouldn’t be broken. 2 years later here we are (in 2 weeks’ time it’s gonna be our second anniversary), having produced more than 100 weeks of releases. Now, I simply can not explain how hard that is: we knew ONE release would have been a feat, you can multiply that for one hundred and draw your own conclusions…
Before C3 was a thing we, the authors involved, were already creating customs and releasing them on our own individual threads on various forums. The reason why we came together to offer a single place for customs was that Harmonix had stopped producing new content. If that wasn’t the case we would have probably never even thought of structuring ourselves this way. The reason is simple: we owe everything to Harmonix. They created the game, they gave us the tools… they built this. We knew that releasing custom content could have an impact on what people would buy but we also knew that the way we operated was benefiting in some way Harmonix. We lost count of the number of times people said they bought DLC because they discovered some artist through customs and so many users have admitted to having stuck with Rock Band only because of customs content.
And that was all true for a “new DLC-free†world. But as of later this year things will be different. During these weeks we pictured a number of scenarios on how to move forward but all lead to the same conclusion and I suppose there is no easier way to say it than this: once Rock Band 4 is out C3 will stop doing weekly releases. We owe it to ourselves, for the mission we took on when we started. But most importantly we owe it to Harmonix. To this day, if, and it’s a big if, customs have convinced a single user not to buy some official content, we are extremely confident that more songs were bought and will be bought because of this community than songs that were not. We can easily go back to a number of threads in various forums where user would say “I dusted off my guitar to play this new custom and I’m checking out the store to buy something newâ€. And when new DLC hit the store earlier this year a lot of users answered our call to buy DLC even if they didn’t like it, just to support Harmonix. However, our experience, what our users say about RB4, what we have built does not assure us that the same can be said for when RB4 hits the stores. And we want to be extremely clear on this: the last thing we want is to cause even the smallest amount of grief to a company that’s staking so much on a title we all love.
Does this mean C3 is done? First of all, this has never been just our call. For 2 years we have existed because those who could even just politely ask us to drop this haven’t. As long as they don’t ask us for that, we will be here. Our forums will certainly be here, in example, and C3 authors will still be around of course as long as they want to. We have no idea what the future holds for Rock Band, meaning we don’t know about the new DLC schedule and such, so it would be impossible to say how we could work around it. What we can say is that we are actively pursuing options to still bring you content (and ironically, considering our recently announced policy on the matter, pro keys content) without in any way being harmful to the franchise. We don’t know what that means yet, be it sporadic releases or anything else, but we love what we do and we want to find a way to keep doing it. Because, yes, this we owe to you all. On the other hand we are also working on giving the community a better platform to release their songs on, so that independent authors can still do what they love and reach those who want to play their songs. This is something we are actually planning so we will address this later in the year.
There will be plenty of time to discuss all of that and to address many other issues and thank friends and supporters. We estimate Rock Band 4 to be out probably October/November, which leaves us with a lot of weeks to fill with great content. We have lined up a lot of great material, including themed, artists and decades packs and we have a treasure trove of pro keys content that should keep the synth community very happy. So, here’s to RB4, here’s to a 2015 of new amazing content, be it customs or official material, and here’s to our community. It’s an awesome year to be a Rock Band lover and we are so proud to be a part of it. We look forward to that day, later this year, when we will be able to say “Take it away Harmonixâ€â€¦
When this was discussed internally I posted the following image, and I think it’s still applicable today:
I completely understand the lead post. I do think it is unfortunate that those of us with Wiis will almost certainly never get another official DLC release from Harmonix, and that even if we do, there will be zero support for keys or pro mode (outside of drums, of course). I purchased over 600 DLCs from Harmonix for my Wii, and there is 0% chance that I will be able to use those on XBox One or PS4 (and I know that is out of Harmonix control – I’m sure they’d be happy to offer that kind of transfer if Nintendo/MSFT/Sony would cooperate, but that will never happen), so I have zero incentive to purchase a next gen console just to play a version of Rock Band that does not play my old DLC, does not support any of my instruments, and does not support pro mode or keys. RB4 is something I will never own, and it has nothing to do with C3 or customs.
As such, I really hope the C3 authors continue to make content for all of us RB3 users that see RB4 as a massive downgrade and/or have a platform (Nintendo) that is being completely abandoned by Harmonix.
But even if 100% of the C3 authors abandon the day RB4 ships, I suddenly have double the # of songs to play on my Wii (or PhaseShift) thanks to the folks here. I can’t thank you all enough for that.
Long live C3!
I’d be sad if C3 ends, of course, but I’ve enjoyed C3 customs (and many of the other ones posted around here) immensely so I’m grateful that you guys did anything at all!
That is about what I would expect, and it seems appropriate.
Having the forums around is a welcome and useful move; allowing people to keep contributing the kinds of customs that are unlikely to ever see the light of DLC.
And then, of course, one day support will end for RB4 DLC, and then…C3 Reborn, perhaps?
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />In the meantime, with 20-25 (or so) weeks of customs yet to come, I fully expect to reach the song cap by RB4. Looking forward to tons more great content!
I have nothing to say honestly… I’ll be sad when the time comes but at the same time, I am quite pleased and content with my RB3 game.
I don’t believe its been announced that weekly official dlc will be back when RB4 comes out. I don’t see why they wouldnt go back to weekly especially for a few years. I do know that I’ll be back to more playing and less authoring once RB4 does come out. We really have it too good though with all these tools to make customs. I don’t see the community stopping for a long time.
You guys don’t owe us anything. I can’t possibly express how grateful I am for what you’ve done so far, and I’m sure I speak for the rest of our group as well.
This is probably the classiest way you could have handled the situation; congratulations on being an amazingly talented group of programmers/musicians/enthusiasts and upholding solid values and respecting those that gave us the game in the first place.
You Rock! (GH Pun TOTALLY intended)
You guys don’t owe us anything. I can’t possibly express how grateful I am for what you’ve done so far, and I’m sure I speak for the rest of our group as well.This is probably the classiest way you could have handled the situation; congratulations on being an amazingly talented group of programmers/musicians/enthusiasts and upholding solid values and respecting those that gave us the game in the first place.
You Rock! (GH Pun TOTALLY intended)
What he said.
Sad to see that C3 will be going on a “vacation”, but very happy for all the great songs that have been added to my RB library and excited to see what Harmonix has in store for us later this year.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />Hopefully, this will not be “The End”, but just a bit of a break. I look forward to seeing what C3 has planned before RB4 comes out!
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />there will always be weekly Customs, on Forums, by Myself. Nunchuck and other amazing authors, there will always be customs even when C3 Customs are not around. What you have to remember is that as much as i agree with this choice, C3 is not the only place for customs, never has or will they dont hold monopoly nor do you have to agree with the strings they pull (within the forums you do) .
Anyways i will always be here as for many dedicated rockband 3 customs charters.
C3 is not the only place for customs, never has or will they dont hold monopoly nor do you have to agree with the strings they pull (within the forums you do)You really have a special way of being special, don’t you?
Why am I always late to the party? I found this place back in September, started working on my own customs, got one out the door and am just about done with a second (yeah, I’ve been “just about done” for over a month now, but anyway), and had grandiose plans of making other contributions once some other chores were done and I’d dusted off my music books and the MIDI sequences I’d made back in the day. Then, bam. Suddenly it’s almost over.
I know, it’s not truly “over” nor will it ever be “over” as long as people out there want to make customs and other people want to play them, but still, it’s hard not to feel like something is ending, and not to I wish that I’d gotten to the party a little earlier.
Oh well, that just shows you how much fun the party’s been. Thanks to everyone who helped make it possible.
Having said all that, I totally understand C3’s position, and I agree with it. This is Harmonix’s baby, and we all want to see it live long and prosper. Still, I do hope we discover there is still room for C3 and other high quality customs in the future. If for nothing else, I still want my pro instruments!
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