Back in January, Activision announced that Guitar Hero developer Harmonix had been dropped as developer of Guitar Hero III in favor of Tony Hawk developer Neversoft. While fans were left wondering what was happening with Harmonix and what its next project is, EA announced in March that they have signed a deal with Harmonix for an upcoming rhythm-based music game. Today, EA and Harmonix announced Rock Band, where players can control an entire band using guitar and bass/drum/microphone accessories to play along with various music acts. Rock Band is slated for release on the PS3 and Xbox 360 this coming fall.
Music publishers EMI Music Publishing and Warner/Chappell Music have signed an agreement to feature their record labels, including EMI Music, Sony BMG and Universal Music and their associated acts in Rock Band. In a follow-up conference call, online multiplayer has been confirmed for the game where people from around the world can form a rock band. Even though the planned platforms are PS3 and 360, Harmonix didn’t rule out that the game would appear for other platforms later on. The designs for the three controllers are not finalized and haven’t yet been revealed, but Harmonix is working with various companies on their development. Lastly, Harmonix confirmed that there would be support for downloading new songs.
In an interview on GameSpot, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos shared some more details about the game itself. "It’s essentially taking the core play premise of Guitar Hero but just expanding it hugely along every axis. We’re building it out into a complete band experience, with guitar and bass and drums and singing, including very deep and expansive online game play. Huge recording artists are going to be in the game, including original multitrack master recordings in a lot of cases, which has been amazing." As for downloadable content, Rigopulos stated that most of it will be or very likely is going to be free.
