You may want to know that Ubisoft’s Rocksmith® 2014 Edition will be de-listed from Steam after October 23rd, 2023 which is one week from this post date. This is a game that makes learning to play the guitar like Guitar Hero/Rockband, which can score you or let you slowly practice a part with scrolling fret indicators.

Now, it’s not on sale or anything (hasn’t been for a couple years), there might be W11 issues (I’m using Win 10 and Linux computers), and you’ll need a real guitar and either a mic or special USB cable to properly play the game. However, after this date you won’t be able to purchase this game anymore unless you buy from a key-seller or a retail CD copy.

Of course, Ubisoft is going to replace this 40 CAD game with a subscription service model called Rocksmith+ which is 20 CAD per month and not available on Steam. On the other hand, RS2014 works without the need of a Uplay account and can be played offline (Just press Esc twice at the signin screen).

Now there are 1555 DLCs available but they will eventually be delisted as well at some point in the future but you won’t be able to get them without the base game. The only DLC you will “need” is the Cherub Rock DLC because of…

Custom DLC is a community created mod lets you play user-created and converted maps. By default it uses the DLC ID of Cherub Rock which is why you need it, but this is configurable if you really don’t want to spend 4 CAD. There are tens of thousands of Custom DLC songs available online so you will be hard pressed to run out of new ones to try.

  • slazer2au
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    582 years ago

    Of course, Ubisoft is going to replace this 40 CAD game with a subscription service model called Rocksmith+ which is 20 CAD per month and not available on Steam. On the other hand, RS2014 works without the need of a Uplay account and can be played offline (Just press Esc twice at the signin screen).

    More likely the music license expires and they can’t distribute the game without one.

    • RentlarOP
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      92 years ago

      You’re probably correct, they’ve already delisted some DLC songs due to license expiry…

      But if they are or will be relicensing many of the songs for their subscription service Rocksmith+, why couldn’t they use those same licenses to keep distributing Rocksmith 2014 and its DLC in stores? Unfortunately I’m not too thorough with music licensing.

      • @hobovision@lemm.ee
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        52 years ago

        My guess is the record companies refused to renew the perpetual license for a cost that Ubi could justify in order to keep the one time purchase model. Everyone wants subscription model from the top to the bottom.

    • @dvoraqs@lemmy.world
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      62 years ago

      Even with open source software, there would still need to be license to use the music and that is expiring

      • Dudewitbow
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        72 years ago

        3rd party rhythm games are usually dont ask dont tell about how they source their songs.

        Osu is a taiko no tatsujin, Beatmania, Elite Beat Agents, O2Jam, DDR, DJMax clone. Clone Hero is a rock band/Guitar hero clone, and the list goes on.

        They will generally pack a few songs that were given to them for use, but the rest is on the users

          • Dudewitbow
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            52 years ago

            osus source code i think is public, clone heros not that im aware of. different games will have varying levels of openess. all will share that adding official songs into the game is the least of their efforts, as thats more on the community to build.

    • @beefcat@lemmy.world
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      22 years ago

      the software being open source would do nothing to solve the underlying issue, which is expiring music rights

  • Phanatik
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    92 years ago

    sigh Time to add Rocksmith to my growing collection of physical copies of abandonware.

    • 520
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      2 years ago

      You can use the same cables. The Rocksmith cable is simply a standard guitar to USB, it isn’t doing anything Linux doesn’t know how to handle.

  • Chris
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    62 years ago

    Any idea if the scarlett usb audio interface works with rocksmith on linux? was looking in to rocksmith at some point but never bought it

    • @JulyTheMonth@lemmy.ml
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      52 years ago

      Yes. There is a mod that allows audiointerfaces to be connected directly to RS via asio drivers.

      https://github.com/mdias/rs_asio

      Tho it is stated that you also need wineasio for linux.

      You need some fiddeling to get it working even under windows but once it works its almost perfect.

    • RentlarOP
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      42 years ago

      Generally it will work. If it’s recognized as an audio input or microphone then it will work just fine under Microphone mode, if you want to use it like a RealTone Cable or whatever it was called, you will have to rename that audio input interface and make sure the bitrate and number of channels matches that cable.

    • @daddybutter@lemmy.world
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      12 years ago

      Focusrite interfaces have been known to have issues with RS ASIO in general. I never got it to work properly with my Solo 3rd gen but I also haven’t tried recently. YMMV.

      • Chris
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        22 years ago

        thanks friend. gonna buy it before it leaves!
        You had success with the song manager plugin?

        • @farcaster@lemmy.world
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          12 years ago

          No, I’ve never tried that plugin, or any modding really. I just play vanilla Rocksmith 2014 with the ASIO plugin.

  • kingthrillgore
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    2 years ago

    Aw bocce balls I guess i’ll go back to learning guitar from someone else or Yousician.

    • RentlarOP
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      42 years ago

      If you have purchased RS2014 you will still be able to use it, and with the DLC installed you will still be able to play custom maps though I presume the amount of submissions will continue to dwindle.