Harmonix Drop Wii Support For Rock Band Network

In a disappointing move for Wii owners who play Rock Band, developers Harmonix have stated that there will be no more Rock Band Network songs available for download on the Nintendo console after January 18. Harmonix will no longer be supporting Nintendo’s console with new releases. The Rock Band Network created an outlet that enabled real bands to create their own tracks and then to upload them for play in Rock Band games. This was a way of eliminating the middleman, so that the creators of the game wouldn’t have to implement the songs into the game themselves and smaller bands would be able to get some exposure for their music.

Some of the more popular tracks for the Xbox 360 and had previously also been made available for the Wii and PlayStation 3. That will no longer be the case, as on the Rock Band forums the developers quoted that “with the smaller online install base, limited demand for releases so far and the significant amount of work it takes for our producers and audio team to convert and process these additional tracks we’re no longer able to continue submitting RBN content to the Wii.”

This will not however, affect the regular Harmonix-produced downloadable songs, and these will remain available for Wii owners and will continue to be released in the future. Did you use the Rock Band Network? What do you think of this news? Let us know in our forums.

Rock Band 3 was released at the end of October 2010 and introduced keyboard play to the series. We recommend it highly, and you can read the full Godisageek review here.