Just recently, the folks over at IGN were lucky enough to have a long, informative chat with Harmonix Senior Designer Dan Teasdale about, you guessed it, Rock Band. Having talked about the game’s online mode and gameplay structure over the past few weeks, it was Band World Tour’s turn to take center stage. In addition, the complete licensed tracklist has been unveiled for the first time.

Band World Tour is described as the meat of Rock Band’s career mode. Players start off by choosing their hometown (17 total), be it London, Chicago, or New York City to name a few, which in turn bears upon the set lists they’ll be playing consequently. Playing said set lists will net you money, stars, and, of course, lots of fans. When not rocking out at one of 41 available venues, wanna-be rock stars will get to hire staff, such as managers, to step up their popularity, travel around the world in a variety of vehicles, and face up to challenges, like “Should we sell out?” and “Is it really worth doing a charity gig?”

In order to unlock a new song and have it added to the “playable songs” list, the player has to successfully finish the set list it’s coming from. More on set lists below:

IGN: How does the random set lists work? Will they pull any unlocked song? In other words, could you have one of the harder songs pulled into your first mystery set list if it’s already unlocked, or are there some rules for what is selected?

Teasdale: Mystery Setlists will pull any song that any player in your band has unlocked. You could have “Run to the Hills” as your first song with your new band if you’ve completed a Solo Tour and choose the first Mystery Setlist, for example. You have the option to abandon the event if you come across a song that you don’t want to play - but abandoning a song will also mean you’ll lose fans, so there’s definitely added risk in picking a Mystery Setlist over another setlist.

Moving on, the game designer then explained how fans tie in with Band World Tour. Basically, the better you perform, the more fans you’ll have following your every step. Also, should you put up a poor performance in a small club, the amount of fans lost will be far less than the number of fans lost when screwing up in a world arena.

Next, Teasdale was asked to elaborate on the items that players win throughout the mode:

IGN: You unlock a lot of things that make a band — manager, tour bus, roadies. How are these tied into BWT progression? And is there more to unlock beyond the jet that allows you to tour the world?

Teasdale: All of these items impact your progression through Band World Tour, but the general rule is that vehicles allow you to travel to more cities, and staff allow you to play bigger venue sizes.

There’s a lot beyond the jet - security staff, sound technicians and a tour manager can all help you progress beyond Europe and North America, and there are hardcore events beyond this like the Hall of Fame Marathon (8 hardest band songs in the game, back to back) and the Endless Setlist (every song on disc in one uninterrupted setlist). We award something pretty cool to people who beat the Endless Setlist that’s visible outside of the Band World Tour too!

An interesting bit of info to keep in mind is that Band World Tour features non-linear progression, and can therefore never be truly “beaten”; players can come back to it time and time again. Sadly, though, Band World Tour can’t be played online with your friends:

IGN: Why isn’t there any online play in BWT?

Teasdale: Rock Band features several local and online modes from its deep solo adventure to its expansive full band experience. We want to make sure that the online experience with Band World Tour is perfect and bug-free, and as in-depth and fun as the other modes. In order to do that we’ll be bringing online Band World Tour to you at a later date. /…/

The question whether online play would be added to the mode at a later date naturally followed, to which he answered, “Stay Tuned …” We know what that means! Speaking of DLC, the designer noted that downloaded content will appear in the Solo Tour’s “Downloaded Songs” category, all quickplay and online modes, plus Mystery Setlists and Make a Setlist events. Take note of that Activision!

On a side note, Teasdale also gave the lowdown on how band membership works:

IGN: How does band membership work? We know that you can “substitute” into a band. Does that affect anything at all? And can you have a character that’s part of multiple bands?

Teasdale: When you create a band, you’re designated as the “leader” of that band. Besides naming the band and making a logo, the leader can recruit new people into the “permanent lineup” of the band. This lineup is what shows up in leaderboads when you view information about a band, and also in some cool community features that we’ll be announcing really soon.

Substituting allows new players to play with a band without being considered part of the “official” lineup. This is really useful for when you’re recruiting new band members - they can play a few sets with the band, and then if you like them you can have them join the band as a full time member!

Each character you create can lead up to 10 bands, and also be a member of 10 more.

Last but certainly not the least is the complete list of licensed tracks found in the game:

1960s

• Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”

1970s

• Aerosmith “Train Kept a Rollin”
• The Who “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
• Boston “Foreplay/Long Time”
• Mountain “Mississippi Queen” (cover)
• The Police “Next to You”
• David Bowie “Suffragette City”
• Black Sabbath “Paranoid” (cover)
• Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
• The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”
• Deep Purple “Highway Star”
• KISS “Detroit Rock City”
• Molly Hatchet “Flirtin’ With Disaster”
• The Outlaws “Green Grass & High Tides” (cover)
• Sweet “Ballroom Blitz” (cover)

1980s

• Rush “Tom Sawyer”
• Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive”
• The Clash “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
• Faith No More “Epic”
• Pixies “Wave of Mutilation”
• R.E.M. “Orange Crush”
• Iron Maiden “Run to the Hills” (cover)

1990s

• Foo Fighters “Learn to Fly”
• Metallica “Enter Sandman”
• Nirvana “In Bloom”
• Stone Temple Pilots “Vasoline”
• Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”
• Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock”
• Radiohead “Creep”
• Beastie Boys “Sabotage”
• Hole “Celebrity Skin”
• Garbage “I Think I’m Paranoid”
• Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun”

2000s

• The Hives “Main Offender”
• Queens of the Stone Age “Go With the Flow”
• The Strokes “Reptilia”
• Jet “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
• OK Go “Here It Goes Again”
• Nine Inch Nails “The Hand That Feeds”
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Maps”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers “Dani California”
• Coheed & Cambria “Welcome Home”
• Fallout Boy “Dead on Arrival”
• The Killers “When You Were Young”
• New Pornographers “Electric Version”

Unlockable Tracks

• Bang Camaro “Pleasure (Pleasure)”
• Twelve more yet to be revealed