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The DJ rhythm sport Fuser made a fairly good impression on us when it launched in late 2020: It melted James’ EDM-hating coronary heart (opens in new tab), and satisfied Tyler that Smash Mouth’s “All-Star” belongs, effectively, in just about each different tune you possibly can identify (opens in new tab). “Fuser appears like a pure evolution for Harmonix and, scoring system apart, lets gamers take management of the music greater than ever earlier than,” we wrote in our 77% evaluate (opens in new tab). Very strong value determinations throughout!
Sadly, simply two years after it launched, Fuser goes away for good. “On December 19, we shall be disabling Fuser’s reside providers and all gross sales of the sport, in addition to its DLC,” Harmonix introduced at this time. “Gamers who already personal Fuser will nonetheless be capable to play the Marketing campaign and Fast Play with any DLC they’ve already acquired. Thanks once more to your help and for all of the superb mixes over time.”
An replace on FUSER reside providers https://t.co/7xLZtIHjcLDecember 2, 2022
Harmonix did not present a purpose for the closure, however the numbers on Steam inform the story. Fuser managed a peak concurrent participant depend of simply 837 in November 2020, based on Steam Charts (opens in new tab), and it has been mired in double-digit concurrent participant counts since Could 2021; its peak concurrent participant depend over the previous 30 days is simply 34. That is not the full participant base—Fuser can be out there on the Epic Video games Retailer and consoles, and concurrents imply much less for a singleplayer sport than a multiplayer one—but it surely does not paint a really promising image for the general participant base.
It is also a far cry from the impression of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games developed by Harmonix and launched within the early 2000s. Vice paid tribute to Harmonix’ most influential sequence in a 2021 Oral Historical past of Guitar Hero (opens in new tab), saying {that a} tune featured within the sport might see its particular person downloads boosted by as much as 843%; writer Activision mentioned in 2008 that Aerosmith earned extra royalties (opens in new tab) by the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith sport than it did from any of its albums.
“Since its debut in 2005, the Guitar Hero sequence has bought greater than 25 million items, making greater than $2 billion, and cementing itself as one of many best-selling online game sequence of all time,” Vice wrote. “It was additionally a watershed second culturally, with a few of the largest bands on the planet looking for out their very own offers with Activision, hoping to money in on the Guitar Hero growth.”
The bloom finally got here off the rose: An try and resurrect the Guitar Hero sequence in 2015 was met with indifference, and a crowdfunding marketing campaign (opens in new tab) to deliver Rock Band 4 to PC barely managed to attain half its aim. Fuser appeared like an intriguing change in course (opens in new tab) when it was introduced in early 2020, but additionally did not reignite curiosity within the rhythm sport style; Harmonix itself was really acquired by Epic Video games (opens in new tab) in November 2021, which the studio mentioned would allow it to “deliver our distinctive model of musical gaming experiences to the Metaverse,” and extra particularly Fortnite.
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