PC gamers hoping to rock out with a bunch of plastic instruments in Rock Band 4, perhaps on a living room-based Steam Machine, should know that the game remains a console exclusive partly because of music industry concerns over the security of the game's music.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Harmonix Product Manager Daniel Sussman cited those "security issues" in discussing why a PC version of the new rhythm game wasn't currently in the works. "There's something comforting about the closed network that comes along with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One," Sussman said. "That's important to our partners in the music industry."

In a follow-up statement, Harmonix further clarified that it was music rights holders, and not Harmonix itself, that were concerned about the piracy implications of a PC release. That's not that surprising considering the music industry's long-running issues with computer-based piracy and the high-quality, multi-track recordings that are distributed with Rock Band games.

The kind of security that protects those tracks from copying on modern consoles could be done on the PC, but Harmonix would be responsible for it, the statement said. While a PC release is "not off the table for the future, however we're first focusing on delivering Rock Band 4 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this holiday."

Music security isn't the only issue preventing Harmonix from working on a PC version of. Sussman noted that new players on the PC wouldn't have access to the libraries of songs made and purchased for previous console versions of the game and that the market of PC players interested in the game was unproven.

But that doesn't mean Harmonix can't change its mind in the future. As Sussman told Ars in March when Rock Band 4 was first announced, "If there’s a market for PC, a bunch of people who demand that we do this, and the market’s there, then absolutely, we wanna respond."