Japanese rock in Rock Band
Why Rock Band? Get ready for a little tl;dr. Since Rock Band came out in 2007, it has been a pioneer of the music video game genre. Other titles have come and gone with varying degrees of popularity. What made Rock Band great was its ability to license great songs by great artists for inclusion in the game. They also listened to fans on who else they could ask to be included in the game. In 2008, Harmonix announced a Rock Band: Japan game. In association with Q Entertainment, a developer in Japan, the game would feature Japan venues and include Japanese artists and their songs. Ultimately, issues with licensing prevented the game from being produced. What this means is that the rights holders for those songs would not, or perhaps were leery of, licensing their songs internationally, which is the license required with Rock Band. Thus, those songs would be able to be played or downloaded anywhere in the world. Back in 2008, this was a very major concern. Not everyone knows that not …
