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UPDATE: Rock Band 1 Export Now Available For Rock Band 4
Update: According to the official Rock Band Twitter account, the Rock Band 1 export is now available for download through individual tracks. A bundle option will be made available at some point in the future.
Original Story:
One of the big promises Harmonix made leading up to the release of Rock Band 4 was that the vast majority of songs from previous games – including DLC and on-disc tracks – would carry over into the new game. Since the game's launch last year, Harmonix has been slowly delivering on that promise. Most of the downloadable content was forward compatible at Rock Band 4's launch, while Rock Band 3's setlist made the jump in December. Harmonix has announced that U.S. PlayStation 4 players that have previously taken advantage of the Rock Band export offer can now download the songs from the original Rock Band setlist.
Right now, the Rock Band 1 Export Pack adds 47 songs to your Rock Band 4 library. Those tracks are all of the songs from the Rock Band 1 song list, with the exception of "Blood Doll" by Anarchy Club, "Pleasure (Pleasure)" by Bang Camaro, "Can't Let Go" by Death of the Cool, "Brainpower" by Freezepop, "I Get By" by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives, "Day Late, Dollar Short" by the Acro-brats, "Outside" by Tribe, "Seven" by Vagiant, "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath," and "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.
All of those songs, aside from "Run to the Hills," "Paranoid," and "Enter Sandman" will be made available at a later date. Those three tracks were never exportable from Rock Band 1, but it is worth noting that a master track version of Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" is currently available for separate purchase as regular downloadable content through the Rock Band 4 Music Store.
In order to export the songs, players need to navigate to "Get More Songs" on the main menu, scroll down to "Exports," and download the "RB1 Export Pack." The storefront will run a verification to see if your account has previously exported the tracks, and if you have, your download should begin free of charge. However, if you haven't previously exported the Rock Band 1 setlist, you are unfortunately out of luck as the offer to export the tracks from Rock Band 1 has expired. Harmonix has previously confirmed that it presently has no plans to make this offer available for those who didn't previously export the setlist due to music licensing complexities.
Last year, Harmonix announced that Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Green Day: Rock Band (which is already available to Xbox One players), and Lego Rock Band would become exportable in short order, so this is the first step in that process. The studio is promising more details on the remaining exports soon. Harmonix is also saying that this same export offer will be available to Xbox One owners in coming days due to the team still "wrapping up submissions and testing" for that platform. We will update this story when the Rock Band 1 export offer becomes available on Xbox One.
[Source: Harmonix, Rock Band on Twitter (1), (2),(3)]
Our Take
It's been a bit of a slow burn as Harmonix continues to push forward through uncharted territory when it comes to forward compatible downloadable content and disc exports. Though this is just the start of bringing over the legacy exports (outside of Rock Band 3), it's great to see Harmonix delivering on these promises in the time frame given last year.
The original story was published on January 14 at 2:17 p.m. central time.
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