When looking at EA's upcoming product slate for fiscal 2011 earlier this week, we were somewhat surprised by the fact that no new Rock Band games were listed. Then we realized that EA's contract with Viacom is up this year, and EA noted that it's also planning on paring down its EA Partners distribution business.
"...we continued to have talks with them and hope that maybe there’s an opportunity to continue the relationship beyond that,” EA COO John Schappert said recently of the Rock Band partnership.
This would all seem to point to a strong possibility that EA could be getting out of the Rock Band business. Even if they do, they'll have one last hurrah. Harmonix contacted us today to remind us about the Green Day title, which EA strangely omitted from its product list. "The previously announced Green Day: Rock Band will be published by MTV Games and distributed by EA," a spokesperson reminded IndustryGamers. "Stay tuned for news of MTV Games' other titles soon."
Similar to Beatles: Rock Band, the upcoming Green Day game will feature the likenesses of the band members and focus on the important historical moments since Green Day got started back in 1987. The game will ship this year and the tracklist will be fully exportable to play on regular Rock Band for PS3 or Xbox 360.
