"Long live rock, be it dead or alive," the man once said, and for a little more than a year now, Rocksmith 2014 has indeed been dead. But now it's alive again, and back on Steam in a slightly retuned format as Rocksmith 2014 Edition Remastered Learn and Play.
First released in 2013, Rocksmith 2014 is a bit like Guitar Hero except it uses a real guitar as a controller, and teaches you to play real songs. It's quite good, and amassed a "very positive" user rating over the years on Steam, but in October 2023—its 10th anniversary—Ubisoft removed the game from sale. A reason for the takedown wasn't provided at the time, but we suspected expiring licenses were the cause, and sure enough Ubisoft has now confirmed that was the case.
"In 2023, Rocksmith 2014 Remastered was temporarily removed due to the expiration of our music licensing deals," the Steam page states. "While we believe Rocksmith+ offers the ultimate destination for learning guitar, bass and piano with its extensive music catalog, we have also heard the Rocksmith 2014 community’s feedback. You asked for Rocksmith 2014 Remastered to return, so we did just that!"
The expired licenses are still an issue: While the re-released Rocksmith 2014 "is identical to the original" in functionality, all of the licensed songs have been replaced with "a collection of tracks and exercises from our popular downloadable content bundles," including:
That sounds possibly not great—I want to rock out with Zeppelin, not "intermediate exercises"—but a mountain of Rocksmith 2014 DLC remains: 1,226 pieces of it, including individual tracks and song packs. If you already own the original Rocksmith 2014, you won't be able to download this edition, because otherwise you'd lose access to the licensed music it contains.
I think it's very cool that Rocksmith 2014 is back, and I can't help wondering if Ubisoft's comments about Rocksmith+ offer a little more insight than intended as to the reason for the comeback. Rocksmith+ is billed as "the evolution from Rocksmith 2014 Edition, which had to be retired for music licensing requirements," but full access to the game requires a subscription that costs $20 per month. Adding insult to injury, Rocksmith+ is not compatible with Rocksmith 2014 tracks, so any music you bought for that game is useless with the new one. Predictably, Rocksmith+ currently bears an "overwhelmingly negative" rating on Steam, and hasn't had more than 100 concurrent players since the beginning of June—a small fraction of Rocksmith 2014's concurrent player count, even post-delisting.
Rocksmith 2014 isn't just back on Steam, it's also on sale for 70% off, meaning you can pick it up right now for just $3. Long live Rocksmith 2014.
