ROCKSMITH 2014 LEAVING STORES - Ubisoft
ROCKSMITH 2014 LEAVING STORES - Ubisoft
Nearly 10 years ago we launched Rocksmith 2014 and set out on a journey of learning and playing guitar together, practicing old favorites, and discovering new ones along the way.
You may want to know that Ubisoft's Rocksmith(R) 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.
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).
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.
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
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.
This is a prime use case for quality open source software.
Even with open source software, there would still need to be license to use the music and that is expiring
This is a prime case for the abolition of intellectual property rights.
3rd party rhythm games are usually dont ask dont tell about how they source their songs.
Osu is a taiko no tatsujin, Beatmania, Elite Beat Agents, O2Jam, DDR, DJMax clone. Clone Hero is a rock band/Guitar hero clone, and the list goes on.
They will generally pack a few songs that were given to them for use, but the rest is on the users
the software being open source would do nothing to solve the underlying issue, which is expiring music rights
Theres a torrent by Fitgirl that has all the Dlcs btw
This is the only comment I need lol
Does it also include the game itself? I wouldn't mind not paying ubisoft
Yep, the whole 9 yards, it cost like 2 grand for all the dlcs on a good day
The Rocksmith+ song selection is garbage. Don't bother.
The one thing a subscription kinda makes sense for, as opposed to paying for every song a la carte, and they don't even have all the songs of the previous games. What a fucking embarrassment.
I imagine the licensing just doesn't carry forward and it has to be re-negotiated, but if that's the case then they're hilariously slow at it. I check every six months or so and there's still only a handful of bands I recognize.
Check out customsforge.com for custom dlc.
sigh Time to add Rocksmith to my growing collection of physical copies of abandonware.
Any idea if the scarlett usb audio interface works with rocksmith on linux? was looking in to rocksmith at some point but never bought it
Yes. There is a mod that allows audiointerfaces to be connected directly to RS via asio drivers.
https://github.com/mdias/rs_asio
Tho it is stated that you also need wineasio for linux.
You need some fiddeling to get it working even under windows but once it works its almost perfect.
Generally it will work. If it's recognized as an audio input or microphone then it will work just fine under Microphone mode, if you want to use it like a RealTone Cable or whatever it was called, you will have to rename that audio input interface and make sure the bitrate and number of channels matches that cable.
Focusrite interfaces have been known to have issues with RS ASIO in general. I never got it to work properly with my Solo 3rd gen but I also haven't tried recently. YMMV.
Thanks for the heads up! What cable do you use under linux?
Shouldn't the same RealTone cable work?
Any microphone or better yet audio interface with an "instrument in" jack will work with the game. I'd personally rather not rely on a single use type computerized cable from a game company that doesn't support the game anymore.
The RealTone cable works outside of the game too, I've used it to record bass in a DAW.
You can use the same cables. The Rocksmith cable is simply a standard guitar to USB, it isn't doing anything Linux doesn't know how to handle.
If I buy it now, will it be DOA if the music expires?
Ubisoft has announced that people who have the game and official DLCs, will continue to be able to use them after delisting.
And as far as I can tell, the game still works despite not connecting to Ubisoft servers, so Ubisoft would have to release an update to the game purposely to break its offline function (now I wouldn't put it past Ubi to do it but unlikely).
Historically, and I believe per the announcement, any content you'd already bought you will be able to download even after it's been delisted.
Aw bocce balls I guess i'll go back to learning guitar from someone else or Yousician.
If you have purchased RS2014 you will still be able to use it, and with the DLC installed you will still be able to play custom maps though I presume the amount of submissions will continue to dwindle.
Glad I bought a physical copy a while back cuz I needed the cable to plug my guitar in.
I bought on Steam, am I gone lose access to it?
No - it should remain in your library.
Thanks!