We’ve all been here before, and it seems all too familiar. A promising new music game falls victim to the perils of being niche and under-performing in the hostile retail world.
We had noticed that BandFuse had been pretty quiet on the social media front. They hadn’t updated their Facebook since February 28th and their twitter activity was close to non-existent. Our suspicions of bad news were confirmed hours ago via their Facebook Page:
@BandFuse This is truly terrible news. I hope it can get resolved soon. I hold out hope that there will be more DLC coming in the future.
— Scott Dillon (@elvenoracle) March 13, 2014
The BandFuse news is pretty awful 🙁
— Steve (@SteveMightSay) March 13, 2014
Very sad news from @BandFuse
— Tommy John (@tommyjohn4400) March 13, 2014
Woah woah woah, what happened with Bandfuse/Realta?
— Craig Munn (@CraigAMunn) March 13, 2014
I was really looking forward to playing Bandfuse when it would come to the UK. Another nail in the coffin for music games 🙁
— Tom (@GrumbleVolcano6) March 13, 2014
Some sad news for BandFuse USA that can finally be shared. I will post something more personal shortly. http://t.co/0yxqndv6Na
— GrumpyFuse (@GrumpyFuse) March 13, 2014
We will update with more information regarding future content and patches as it becomes available.
Update 3/14/2014:
Future DLC may still be released.
Update 3/17/2014:
“One parting tip – Its my understanding that Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady (Live) is suppose to come out from being a “hidden” track and only available by code at the end of this month. Check the store and grab it, its an awesome version of the song!
Until we meet again…”
All good things come to an end. MY time at @BandFuse is over today. Its been a lot of fun. THANKS 4 UR support! http://t.co/pHky3fF5PS
— Jeff Marshall (@BandFuseJeff) March 17, 2014
Post by Jeff Marshall.
Update 3/19/2014:
@TheRiffRepeater looks like FOXEY LADY will be “unhidden” and available for purchase on 3/25…but don’t quote me 😉
— Jeff Marshall (@BandFuseJeff) March 19, 2014
Update: June 16th, 2014
For education: myself, my son, my autistic daughter are learning to play using bandfuse and are lured by the variety of musicians and videos. We get a lot of replay value and are ready to pay for more DLC. My boy Loves Rush, and my daughter Loves Heart. We love how this game brings us together and it draws us in knowing the skill helps us learn music reading. C’mon back to life why don’t ya!?
Too bad !!!
At least we know what happened so mystery is over no take over by rockband or rocksmith what a shocker. Someone should buy the software it has real potential with good execution because rocksmith is not likely getting any better for sound, ability to hear yourself and recording option
That is an interesting update but they just close shop? They don’t fight for their money? Shouldn’t they have gone down with a flashing announcement about the fact they were not getting their money?
Just got bandfuse a few weeks ago from u.s. im from england. I got it for about thirty quid and believe it to be money well spent even if no more dlc comes out. I also use both rocksmiths. Anything that keeps me playin has got to be good. Rocksmith has alter bridge and a satriani song so will always be my favourite.
Great job, mate.
how sad, I was really looking forward to another “already available on Rock Smith” song pack.
They took down the forums today on the site I wonder how long dlc will be available at this point?
That’s really strange, not sure why they would disable it.
I assumed the released DLC would continue to be available. I also find it hard to believe they wouldn’t at least release all of their Hendrix DLC. I haven’t kept count, but there are still a few Hendrix tracks left aren’t there?
I am sad to hear about this honestly.
RS2014 is superior in most ways to me. But I purchased both games and still put a bit of time in BF for what it did have. The differences in the two games allowed me to mix it up a bit when things started to get stale.
It is a shame that will will probably never get any more content for BF. I would even wish that maybe it could be opened up somehow to allow players to add songs to it.
Well, I was waiting patiently for Bandfuse to come out in the UK. Rocksmith is great, but we still have no really ‘enjoyable’ game that teaches TAB – yes there’s Guitar Bots (but its’ not great) and there’s Rock Prodogy (which had the most appalling lag on my PC and no intuitive way of teaching finger positions.
Unless Rocksmith tutored players go out of their way to learn TAB from scratch, there’s a whole host of sheet and online music that will be out of bounds for them, and some groups are not very interested in guitarists who can’t read, at least, some sort of sheet music.
There is only one response to this extremely bad news – denied!
Tabs are so intuitive, though–do we really need a game to show us how to use them? Just go online, find tabs for an easy-sounding song, and work your way through them. Hell, some argue that learning tabs discourages people from learning how to actually read music anyway, and that their songwriting suffers as a result.
Don’t get me wrong, I already know TAB. I can’t make the conversion from the Rocksmith note highway to TAB (unless I slowed it down and had wrote every note, that it) is one of my bugbears. The other is, unless you get really good in master mode, it’s damn hard to remember how these songs go outside play.
^Typo: ‘had wrote’ should be, ‘hand wrote.’
Well, isn’t that because RS way is so easier for sight-reading and you don’t need to memorize it? I for one think this makes learning playing guitar more effective as I can spend more time on HOW to play and not WHAT to play.
Tried bandfuse, returned it due to horrible ui, lack of enjoyment, and let’s face it, even a pro can’t sight read scrolling tabs at a moderate speed. Was a terrible system to use.
Anyone who says “scrolling tabs are so much more professional” fails to realize that tabs were never considered the right way to learn a song, they were always considered amateur.
The sound engine was amazing, and the master tracks were a vast provement over rocksmiths, but it was poorly put together, and I found myself playing through everything until it was burned into my memory. At that point the game isn’t even useful. It just kept track of errors to see after the song was over.
The note highway, riff repeater, and technique games are so vastly better than what bandfuse was selling, that the games aren’t even comparable.
As much as I would like to see a competing product to keep them competitive, bandfuse wasn’t even competition. It name dropped enough celebrities to get people to buy, and their inclusion was entirely time wasted.
Note 4 note tabs were completely different from expert level with no reason, and no way to work up to, lick lab was broken and even without being broken was inferior to riff repeater, and required way too much dicking around just to get to from the song.
Sorry to bandfuse fans, but scrolling tabs will never work as bandfuse wanted them to. Get used to the note highway, or use guitar pro for tabs. Both are vastly better.
I’m so pleased for you. *Pats Rockout on the back* I’m so happy for people who really get what they want – you must be so proud! 😉
I am far from a pro but I have found with time I am able to read the scrolling tab now. But that’s just it, I put the time in, I didn’t wimp out and quit after a few hours.
And there is a reward for the time, I have several Guitar Play Along DVD’s, the ones with tab at the bottom. After over two years of Rocksmith I was never able to play along with them. I even bought slow down software for them and still didn’t have much luck. But last week I put one in and to my amazement I was able to play along to several of the songs. Thanks to putting the time into Bandfuse. So my point is the scrolling tab doesn’t fail, it is you who fail because you were to lazy to put the time in.
Tabs are for reference. No PRO can sight read a lot of lead riffs, or even chords while scrolling. That’s where practice and repetition come in.
Nobody can read 6 lines for chords coming out all crazy. Again, it’s for reference. Guitar players have been using visual tabs and tab sheets for decade after decade. How Jimmi Hendrix, Frampton and Slash ever learned without Rocksmith, nobody will ever know… I mean, they used sheetmusic… bleh! And only a prodigy could even site read some VH solos.
/sarcasm off
I am still a big fan of bandfuse and will await some kind of comeback… of any kind.
The comment above was in response to people hating on tabs. I have had better retention using tabs than a graphic coming at you. Yes, a graphic zinging at you is great for visual learning, but retention wasn’t there.
I didn’t say no one could play using tabs or bandfuse. I said no one can sight read even a moderate tempo in the scrolling method bandfuse used.
As far as memory retention goes, that’s your method. A lot of people don’t memorize tabs. They memorize the rhythm, and scales. Memorizing songs by individual notes is a lot of unnecessary memorization.
I’m not hating on tabs. I also said Guitar Pro is a better alternative if you read my whole post. It uses the same scrolling tab basis, but you can see the entire thing at once, rewind to wherever you want (instead of one of 8 spots in 5 minute+ song), etc.
I reiterate my main complaint against the game. I had to actually memorize every section before playing the whole song, at which point I’m no longer playing the game, it’s just notating that I screwed up once or twice while I watch a music video.
You’re entitled to your opinion on Bandfuse. I stated why I thought it was garbage, and your sarcasm wasn’t necessary. The game failing miserably is more than enough assurance that many people shared my opinion.
Also, anyone who knows a scale can probably sight read a Van Halen solo, since it’s almost as predictable as an AC/DC solo.
Well, I hope something happens to bring it back. Yeah, I like BF, RS, RS2014… hell Even guitarbots and rock prodigy. I’m sucked in.
But I have to admit, Bandfuse had a SUPER rocky start. Months at a time w/o any PR. Delays after Delays. I said this back in Feb 2013 on their facebook that they chose a small NINTENDO dominate company “Realta” w/o any major releases to do their production w/Harmonix as a super-sub-sub-sub-minor role partner. (Hell, I thought they’d get licensing all over the place).
So a “Should have been” game that was “Mismanaged” from the start, “made by musicians for musicians” dream down the toilet.
looks like Seth Chapla backed the wrong horse
As a silver lining, this could hopefully mean a return for Jules in Rocksmith 🙂
Why is Jeff still tweeting about the game when he said I’m done the other day? I would love to know this whole story its gotta be good
Just because he isn’t on the clock doesn’t mean he won’t inform people about something like a GameStop exclusive being available for everyone…
Yeah I could see that, looks like Marcus is done too but Seth may still be left at least based on linkedin
Nevermind I saw Jeff posted reply today that everyone is gone so that’s your final score
how about fixing the Lick Lab
😯
If they’re not in a position to release DLC that they already made, they sure aren’t going to finish getting a patch through the review process and pay the money that entails. Hopefully Bandfuse bounces back from this snag and DLC and patches resume.
Sometimes there is no bouncing back from an inferior product…Rocksmith ftw! Scrolling tablature was a joke from the beginning. Hardly anybody is going to go from Rock Band to Bandfuse. Rocksmith is much easier to make that transfer. TABS are everywhere on the net for free. I’m just sad that I let the jimi hendrix dlc sucker me into purchasing the stupid game.
Spoken like a True Fan Boy..
Some people just have to pick a side I guess
What’s wrong with the lick lab?
After the patch once you went through the note 4 note mode it would progress on it’s own without having to get 80% correct to advance.
Ok thanks. I think I might have noticed that and found it odd that I would just continue through without playing correctly. Thought that was jus the way it was. Like not being able to restart a song 😉
right when i buy this game there merging with rocksmith shame this game has a much more realistic way of playing and learning
compare cult of personality from each game see which is more realistic plus the note charting is very different between games bandfuse all tabs for the distortion solo rocksmith cuts 2 parts out and lives on the 20-22nd fret which is not how the solo is charted. Rocksmith good song not a way to learn guitar also fun game. Bandfuse rip 2nd best way to learning guitar music videos instead of harmonix bars and amps for a backround. anyone who was around when guitar hero merged with harmonix and saw guitar hero self destruct should expect the same for this old dead washed up 1 hit wonder songs and probably bring back the plastic guiar
Not sure where you got the idea that BandFuse was merging with Rocksmith but that isn’t what is happening at all…
A real shame. Hendrix and backing tracks without guitar would have been a real selling point for me. It’s a shame it never came out in Europe.
Sad news indeed.
My experience with Bandfuse evolved as I got used to it. At first I hated it, and was lost trying to play along. Once I go used to reading it, things got better. I found that for whatever reason I was really driven to focus on one song and get it right.
It’s also amazing to “duck” the guitar from the track and hear yourself carrying the tune. Sometimes I would stop and was shocked to not hear anything – I couldn’t believe that my playing blended in so well. Very satisfying – Why can’t RS do this – This is a major selling point and makes BF very satisfying to play. I also find that BF just makes your guitar sound better than RS, but who knows.
I’m sad because there will be no more Social D/Mike Ness. I was looking forward to having a bunch of Mike’s song to play along with – especially with the Ducking. Much cooler than just playing over the songs.
If only the Bandfuse team could have partnered with a solid publisher. I mean, It’s Realta itself that shut down right? It was probably Realta that came up the dubious “Legends” scheme as well. Having a bunch endorsements from major artists, and then claiming they would interactively teach your rock journey sounds like a way to get funding for the project from investors who have no clue. When I was watching the clips I felt like I was back in the early 90’s with the advent cd-rom and “multimedia” PC. Everything was video clip based. I also imagine that big chunk of money was spent on these endorsements. Money wasted, and money that would be hard to earn back without the support of a big publisher.