Amplitude (2016 video game)

The new game would keep the same style of gameplay from the original title, but would feature new songs, modern graphics, and integration of the modern hardware features of the PlayStation consoles.

In addition to the original's features, the game includes team play mode, allowing for cooperative-competitive gameplay.^[1] This mode, suggested by Harmonix' Pete Maguire and added late in the development period, allows two teams, either 2-on-2 or 3-on-1, to play through a song without failing, accounting for player difficulty levels between all players.^[2] The game also includes a FreQuency mode, where the nearly-flat track layout can be switched to the tunnel approach that was used in the original FreQuency.^[3] Harmonix developed a new game engine, Forge, which was also used for the development of Rock Band 4,^[4] for the reboot.

Harmonix launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise US$775,000 to fund a successor for Amplitude, which would be released digitally and physically for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in May 2014.^[5] The campaign reached its target on May 22, within 24 hours of the funding period's deadline.^[6] The Kickstarter completed with over $844,000 in funds from over 14,000 users.^[7] Major funding backers included Insomniac Games' CEO Ted Price.^[8]

Harmonix's Ryan Lesser stated the choice for using Kickstarter was based on knowing that demand was high for a sequel to Amplitude, and opted to use the crowd-funding mechanism to see if it was a viable vehicle for future projects for the company.^[9] The company later said that they have also tried to obtain funding for this reboot by other means prior to using Kickstarter, and noted that the funds they seek were less than half of the amount needed, having planned to provide the other half from internal funding if the response was good.^[10] Harmonix noted that the game would be exclusive to PlayStation platforms, as the Amplitude concepts and trademark remain property of Sony.^[11]

Originally the game was planned to be released with music provided by in-house musicians from Harmonix with the possibility of licensed music by reaching various stretch goals. During the Kickstarter period they were able to secure offerings by groups like Freezepop and Kasson Crooker who have provided music before for the original Amplitude as well as other popular video game music groups including Anamanaguchi, Danny Baranowsky, and Jim Guthrie.^[12] A total of 30 songs were expected to ship with the title on release.

Though originally slated to be released in March 2015, Harmonix said that due to their inexperience on working on the PlayStation 4 platform, they were aiming for an early 2016 release to assure the quality of the reboot.^[13] The reboot was released in January 2016 for the PlayStation 4 with the PlayStation 3 version releasing on April 5.^[14]

The game shipped with more than 30 songs, including 15 songs composed by Harmonix in the game's "concept album", used for the game's campaign mode.^[15]

† Kickstarter bonus tier exclusive