Oh $#!+... At the time of this comment post, Toronto Stock Exchange has their stock price as the new 52 week low, while NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange are just shy of meeting their 52 week low. I know these numbers are on a 20-minute delay, but damn... Even when set to a 5 year chart, they don't normally plummet that suddenly. I'm seeing a few updates that show there are those buying into the low price, hoping to sell it when it rises again, but generally speaking it hasn't fallen that low in a very long time.

For Rock Band 4, I felt like they repeated a Rock Band 2. Improve on the general mechanics of the game, but offer nothing new that would stand out from its predecessor. Like seriously, I get the same enjoyment out of playing its predecessors.

I understand getting licensed music is expensive and time-consuming to obtain (need to convince artists and labels on a contract that doesn't completely screw players over), but I wished Harmonix would stop making Rock Band games, and instead produce a band game for multiple genres of music. There's Industrial, Electrorock, J-Pop, K-Pop, Eurodance, etc. Even if it's in a foreign language, the vocals can be skipped and left on auto-pilot while everyone plays the other instruments. It's a missed opportunity where it seems only Konami noticed the other genres, but chose to limit them to Japanese arcades (with online DRM to make sure nobody else gets to enjoy it). Well, back when Konami cared about Bemani Games anyways... It's a missed opportunity, and now I can only turn to homemade simulators like Osu!, Phase Shift, and a modded PC version of Guitar Hero World Tour. Believe me, it's not the same, nor is it all that fun, because it's not mainstream enough to gather people together online or in-person and enjoy sharing the interest in playing other genres of music.

So with all that in mind, Mad Catz banking on Rock Band 4 was... Unfortunate, because I'm guessing they didn't get to see that Harmonix had very little to surprise Rock Band fans. Don't get me wrong, Rock is a mainstream genre recognized worldwide and is one of the safest bets for a band game involving guitars, but I would've like including that with other genres, instead of focusing on that one genre for multiple games. They already have the instruments they need. Even the keyboard would've had a better use with the other genres, and therefore have a strong reason to come back, instead of being tossed away into obscurity.

It's a shame. I would've liked to see Mad Catz produce some golf trackball peripheral for Dangerous Golf.