Marking the much-anticipated return of online play to Rock Band, Rivals mode also represents the most dramatic shift to the Rock Band meta game since the franchise’s introduction in 2007. In Rivals Mode, players band together to form crews of up to ten people to take on other crews around the world in a structured and ongoing series of uniquely themed gameplay challenges. At the beginning of each challenge, crews will be assigned to one of six tiers. When a challenge ends, the best crews will ascend to a new tier, while under-performing crews will face demotion. As crews get promoted they’ll earn badges and face stiffer competition in their quest to earn their place amongst the elite in the highest tier - Bloodstone.

Rock Band Rivals challenges are made up of two distinct gameplay elements - Weekly Challenge Songs and Spotlight Songs. Crews looking to climb the leaderboard will need to focus on both if they want to succeed. Performance in weekly challenges is determined by the overall score earned by all crew members while playing qualifying songs. For example, in the challenge “I Want to Know What Love Is,” playing songs and artists with the word “love” in them will contribute to your crew’s Rivals score for the week. Spotlight Songs are an opportunity for Rock Band’s best players to show their stuff. Here, a crew’s Rivals score is determined by the single best performance achieved by the crew as a whole for each instrument. Balanced crews featuring elite singers, guitarists, bassists and drummers will have an advantage.

With Online Quickplay, one of the Rock Band community’s most requested features, the promised feature set for Rock Band Rivals is now complete. The popular expansion has also added a dozen free songs, an all-new campaign mode and the weekly-challenge-based Rivals Mode to Rock Band 4 since it was released for $30 in October. Online Quickplay will be available to all owners of the Rock Band Rivals expansion on both Xbox One and PS4 via a free update.

Online Quickplay can be accessed via the new “Play Online” option on the Rock Band Rivals home screen. A counter has also been added to the home screen that shows how many friends are currently playing Rock Band 4.

Once players elect to play online they’ll be given the option of accepting an existing invitation or starting their own game session. From there, the player is taken to the Green Room, where the band selects instruments and gameplay options before continuing.

Once everyone’s selected an instrument and declared they’re ready to go, the band is taken to the song selection screen where each player gets to pick one song for a setlist. Only songs that every player owns are displayed in the music library, a feature new to online Rock Band play designed to speed up song selection.

Also coming this week to Rock Band Rivals owners is the free song “S.O.M.P”. What better way to celebrate the release of synchronous online multiplayer than with a brand new rock song recorded by Harmonix developers. And, since songs played in online quickplay count towards Rivals Mode challenges, you can expect to see it appear in a weekly challenge soon.

The latest track coming to Rock Band Rivals owners for free is “S.O.M.P.” by Skratch ‘N Snyf. The tune tells a tale of a devious mastermind bent on controlling players through arcade machines – truly, a story that passes the test of time. Rock Band players will have a blast with this one; there’s plenty of shredding guitar solos throughout the tune, with a rippin’ solo towards the end which also takes place in double-time. Vocals feature a series of high notes and an incredibly long held note leading into the bridge of the song.