A few years ago, plastic instrument-based games were nearly as popular with casual gamers as their motion-based counterparts available on the Nintendo Wii. Despite some early criticisms that the genre was nothing more than a gimmick, derived from the first few to become popular, a few very successful franchises were born out of the craze

It may have seemed like the Rock Band era was over when DLC packs stopped being released two years ago, but apparently developer Harmonix isn’t quite done with the party game yet…

Between 2007 and 2013, Harmonix released DLC packs for the Rock Band games for 280 consecutive weeks. Needless to say, the active Rock Band community was fairly heartbroken when the weekly releases went on an extended hiatus two years back after Don McClean’s “American Pie“ was added to the store. Twenty-one months later, Harmonix has reemerged from the woodwork and announced three new tracks that will be available for purchase on January 13, 2015.

Harmonix posted the following details on its blog:

Available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 system (January 13th, 2015):

Arctic Monkeys – “R U Mine?”
Avenged Sevenfold – “Shepherd Of Fire”
Foo Fighters – “Something From Nothing”
Price: $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU per song

(These tracks will be available in Europe on PlayStation3 system January 21)

Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change.

The DLC pack will mark the first appearance of Arctic Monkeys in the game, while Foo Fighters and Avenged Sevenfold will be returning to the Rock Band world as veterans. It’s a shame that new-gen gamers can’t get in on the fun at this point, but at a very affordable $1.99 per track, the new songs may have a lot of gamers busting out the previous-gen consoles and shaking the dust off of their guitars and drums.

Many fans are already speculating about the timing of the Rock Band resurrection, but Harmonix hasn’t offered any explanation, offering a simple sentiment:

“We’ve missed rocking with all of you. ”

The most popular theory in the community is that the studio is gauging player interest in the game, while it works on a current-gen follow up to Rock Band 3. A current-gen Rock Band hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Harmonix definitely likes to tease fans by Retweeting or Favoriting online pleas for a fourth game. Fans have yet to see an instrument-based game take off on the PS4, Xbox One, or Wii U; but we’d definitely be interested in checking out a track list if Rock Band 4 became a reality.

Do you plan to purchase any of the new tracks, or have you packed away the plastic instruments for good? Let us know in the comments.

The new Rock Band 3 tracks will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 on January 13, 2015.