You may want to know that Ubisoft’s Rocksmith® 2014 Edition will be de-listed from Steam after October 23rd, 2023 which is one week from this post date. This is a game that makes learning to play the guitar like Guitar Hero/Rockband, which can score you or let you slowly practice a part with scrolling fret indicators.
Now, it’s not on sale or anything (hasn’t been for a couple years), there might be W11 issues (I’m using Win 10 and Linux computers), and you’ll need a real guitar and either a mic or special USB cable to properly play the game. However, after this date you won’t be able to purchase this game anymore unless you buy from a key-seller or a retail CD copy.
Of course, Ubisoft is going to replace this 40 CAD game with a subscription service model called Rocksmith+ which is 20 CAD per month and not available on Steam. On the other hand, RS2014 works without the need of a Uplay account and can be played offline (Just press Esc twice at the signin screen).
Now there are 1555 DLCs available but they will eventually be delisted as well at some point in the future but you won’t be able to get them without the base game. The only DLC you will “need” is the Cherub Rock DLC because of…
Custom DLC is a community created mod lets you play user-created and converted maps. By default it uses the DLC ID of Cherub Rock which is why you need it, but this is configurable if you really don’t want to spend 4 CAD. There are tens of thousands of Custom DLC songs available online so you will be hard pressed to run out of new ones to try.
More likely the music license expires and they can’t distribute the game without one.
You’re probably correct, they’ve already delisted some DLC songs due to license expiry…
But if they are or will be relicensing many of the songs for their subscription service Rocksmith+, why couldn’t they use those same licenses to keep distributing Rocksmith 2014 and its DLC in stores? Unfortunately I’m not too thorough with music licensing.
My guess is the record companies refused to renew the perpetual license for a cost that Ubi could justify in order to keep the one time purchase model. Everyone wants subscription model from the top to the bottom.
which is still bullshit
So why not renew the license?
Even if true, it’s a convenient excuse to convert to a rolling subscription service. Enshittificarion continues.
Renewing the license probably costs more money than what a nearly 10 year old game is likely to make.
You would think licenses for a game hardly anyone buys anymore would be incredibly cheap to renew. OTOH I know the music industry is run by greedy fucks who make Ubisoft look like a charity, so I don’t expect reasonable license terms to be offered.
But Rock Band 4 still lets you buy and play songs from the first three Rock Band games and those were from the X360 era.
Interestingly enough, Harmonix still releases new music for the game that was released the sams year as the first Xbox One.
Nah its more that they don’t want to further canibalize there own customers. New customers will/are steered towards the subscription game. However old players may or may not have all content so if they want new dlc for their current game they are out of luck and will be funneled twords you guessed it the subscription model.
I bet they will probably launch a massive mail campaign for old and new players and update the game as well so they can insert a pop up with a message like "want more and better experience " or “want to continue the journey…” I fear they will alter the game a bit nothing major just slightly to steer you
It’s shitty but it’s not enshittification.
This is what happens with every single music license game in existence.
It sucks but there’s nothing they can do because the shrinking user base does not justify renewing the licenses, both in terms of fee and effort.
At least you get to keep the DLC titles you purchased, which probably wouldn’t happen with a SaaS title
Precisely. This is why I’m giving people a heads up that this is the last opportunity for this game with the “buy it, keep it forever and do whatever with it” model.
Since I’m not aware of CustomDLC for Rocksmith+ or if there will ever be, you’d be entirely at the mercy of what songs Ubisoft has the license for you to play, even if their catalogue is sizable.
You do know how exploitative the record labels can be, right? Those license fees will not be small. This is part of the reason games like Guitar Hero stopped being made.
It’s like they’re more interested in being dicks than they are in making money.
Oh no, they’re interested in making money. The problem is the record labels have formed an oligopoly on a massive part of our culture, so there’s nowhere else to go.
I guess you are going to front those fees for them right?
Because this game costs $40 and they want to release a direct competitor to their own product for $20 month.
It’s a learning tool: practically every user will need more than 2 months of play time.
It’s a good thing I have a copy of this already. Yar har.
Because it’s a 10 year old game with few players and even fewer that are going to buy it new….
Music licenses are expensive as a hell and it doesn’t make sense to pay for a license when you’re only gonna have a few hundred/thousand people using it.