Today marks the end of Harmonix's 281-week schedule of regular Rock Band DLC song releases, and the studio got together in a video to sing the last song, Don McLean's "American Pie," while recounting the history of the franchise.
Members of the Harmonix team touched on moments of uncertainty and joy from the five-and-a-half-year history of Rock Band — the original game was released in November 2007 — including the seemingly crazy idea of launching a massive box with plastic instruments for $170, and the honor of working on The Beatles: Rock Band. Other highlights included the launch of Rock Band Network, which let players author and sell their own music in the game, and the implementation of Pro instruments in Rock Band 3.
For another Rock Band retrospective piece, check out our write-up of Harmonix's PAX East 2013 panel, during which the studio gave details on the difficulties of licensing songs for use in the games, as well as premature announcements that never came to pass, like Rock Band: Japan and a Pearl Jam game.
