| Dance Central | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) | Rhythm |
| Developer(s) | Harmonix Backbone Entertainment (2012) |
| Publisher(s) | MTV Games (2010) Microsoft Studios (2011–2014) Oculus Studios (2019) |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360, Xbox One, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest |
| First release | Dance Central November 4, 2010 |
| Latest release | Dance Central April 30, 2019 |
Dance Central is a series of rhythm games developed by Harmonix, creators of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video game series.
Dance Central was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 and was a launch title for its Kinect peripheral. The game was officially announced at E3 2010 and later released in October of that year.
A direct sequel to the previous game, Dance Central 2 was officially announced at E3 2011 during Microsoft's press conference and was released in October of that year.
Dance Central 3 was co-developed by Harmonix and Backbone Entertainment. It was announced at E3 2012 during Microsoft's press conference. The game was released on October 16, 2012 in the Americas, and on October 19, 2012 in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Japan.
Dance Central Spotlight was announced at E3 2014 for Xbox One, and was released on September 2, 2014. Unlike previous installments, it is distributed digitally via the Xbox Games Store; the initial purchase includes 10 songs, with additional songs available as downloadable content on a near-monthly basis. For Spotlight, Harmonix emphasized quicker production of DLC, with a goal of having new DLC songs released while they are still on the music charts. [1] [2]
Dance Central (originally titled Dance Central: Unplugged) was published by Oculus Studios. Announced at PAX East 2019 for the Oculus Rift, it was released on April 30, 2019, as a launch title for the Quest and Rift S. Unlike previous instalments, it's a virtual reality title that allows head and hand movement, using the headset and Oculus Touch controllers. The tracklist contains 32 songs as well as avatar customization and online multiplayer lounges.
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as being the developer of music video games series Dance Central and Rock Band, as well as being the original developer and creator of the Guitar Hero series before development moved to Neversoft and Vicarious Visions.
Rock Band is a 2007 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first installment in the Rock Band series. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were released in North America on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was released on December 18, 2007 and the Wii version on June 22, 2008. Harmonix previously developed the first two games in the Guitar Hero series, which popularized gameplay of rock music with guitar-shaped controllers. After development of the series was shifted to Neversoft, Harmonix conceived Rock Band as a new title that would offer multi-instrument gameplay.
Rock Band 2 is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to Rock Band (2007) and the second installment in the Rock Band series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments. Players can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums parts to songs with "instrument controllers", as well as sing through a USB microphone. Players are scored on their ability to match scrolling musical "notes" while playing instruments, or by their ability to match the singer's pitch on vocals.
Rock Band is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero series, the main Rock Band games has players use game controllers modeled after musical instruments and microphones to perform the lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums and vocal parts of numerous licensed songs across a wide range of genres though mostly focusing on rock music by matching scrolling musical notes patterns shown on screen. Certain games support the use of "Pro" instruments that require special controllers that more closely mimic the playing of real instruments, providing a higher challenge to players. Players score points for hitting notes successfully, but may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both local and online multiplayer modes where up to four players in most modes can perform together.
Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flight calculations, which can in turn be used to perform real-time gesture recognition and body skeletal detection, among other capabilities. They also contain microphones that can be used for speech recognition and voice control.
The Rock Band Network was a downloadable content service designed by Harmonix with the help of Microsoft to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the Rock Band series of rhythm video games, starting with Rock Band 2 (2008). It was designed to allow more music to be incorporated into Rock Band than Harmonix themselves could produce for the games, and it was seen as a way to further expand the games' music catalog into a wide variety of genres. The Network started closed beta testing in July 2009. The Rock Band Network Store was publicly available on March 4, 2010 for all Xbox 360 players in selected countries. Rock Band Network songs were exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days on each song's release, after which a selection of songs would be made available on the PlayStation 3.
Dance Central 2 is a 2011 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 Kinect. It is the sequel to Dance Central (2010) and the second installment in the Dance Central series. It was released on October 21, 2011, in PAL regions and on October 25 in North America.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 was the 18th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 5, 2012, and ended on June 7, 2012, with 45,700 total attendees. It was televised on Spike and streamed online to computers, mobile devices, PlayStation Home and on Xbox Live via IGN's application. This was the last event to be broadcast by G4 along with being the last one to feature a physical press conference by Nintendo which mainly focused on games that were coming to the then upcoming Wii U video game console that launched later that year and was later considered to be a commercial failure.
Dance Central 3 is a 2012 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and Backbone Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 Kinect. It is the sequel to Dance Central 2 (2011) and the third installment in the Dance Central series. It was released on October 16, 2012, in the Americas, and October 19 everywhere else.
Just Dance 4 is a 2012 music rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft as the fourth main installment of the Just Dance series. Announced at E3 2012 by Flo Rida and Aisha Tyler, it was released on the Wii, the Wii U, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. The Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect versions were released on October 2, 2012 in Europe and Australia and on October 9, 2012 in North America, The Wii U version was released on November 18, 2012 in North America and on November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia, as a launch title for the console.
Just Dance is a rhythm game series developed and published by Ubisoft. The original Just Dance game was released on the Wii in 2009 in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Just Dance 2014 is a 2013 dance rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft. The fifth main installment of the Just Dance series, it was announced at Ubisoft's E3 2013 press event, and released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Wii U on 9 October 2013, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as a launch title on 15 November and 22 November 2013 respectively.
Dance Central Spotlight is a 2014 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox One Kinect. It is the sequel to Dance Central 3 (2012) and the fourth installment in the Dance Central series. The game provides a stripped-down experience in comparison to previous Dance Central titles, maintaining the core gameplay of the series, but with a focus on providing more routines per-song, the regular release of recent songs as downloadable content, and leverage of improvements to the motion detection capabilities of the Kinect for Xbox One. It was released on September 2, 2014.
The Rock Band series of music video games supports downloadable songs for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions through the consoles' respective online services. Users can download songs on a track-by-track basis, with many of the tracks also offered as part of a "song pack" or complete album at a discounted rate. All songs that are available to Rock Band 3 are playable in Rock Band Blitz.
Rock Band 4 is a 2015 rhythm game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published by Mad Catz, who also developed new instrument controllers for the game, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 6, 2015. Performance Designed Products (PDP) took over manufacturing of instrument controllers and publishing of the game by 2016. It is the fourth main installment and the nineth console release in the Rock Band series.