Harmoni revealed a number of interesting details about their upcoming multi-instrumental music-game, Rock Band recently; smattering of gameplay details, and the unveiling of the stratocaster as the game's official guitar! Calm yourselves!

Thanks to an advertising deal with guitar manufacturers Fender Musical Instruments, players will see their line of legendary guitars appearing in the upcoming Rock Band. What will have guitar fans on the floor in tears of joy though is the fact that what is quite possibly the most legendary guitars in history, the Stratocaster, will be converted into a mock guitar peripheral for the title.

Why?

"Our approach to the design of the Rock Band peripherals has been driven by a desire to give players as authentic a musical experience as possible," Harmonix president Alex Rigopulos explained. "The Stratocaster is arguably the most recognizable and iconic model of guitar in all of rock and roll, so it seemed like the natural choice. It's also just a gorgeous instrument. Additionally, the folks at Fender immediately understood what we're trying to accomplish with this game and were enthusiastic about partnering with us in the service of that vision."

Although these items will have features not seen in similar titles in the past, the guitar-based segment of the game will be compatible with another famous peripheral, the Guitar Hero guitar. Rigopulos explained why.

"The team at Harmonix feels that interoperability between various music games and peripherals is in the best interest of the gamers, so yes, we do intend to support the existing Guitar Hero guitar controllers, as well as other third-party guitar controllers, to the greatest degree possible in Rock Band.”

Rigopulos was uncertain if this would be the case the other way around (The Rock Band guitar being usable in the Guitar Hero games), but hopes so.

"We hope so, because as I said before, we think this kind of interoperability is what gamers really want," he said. "We're designing the Rock Band controller to conform to each console's open standards, so from a technical standpoint, it should work fine with Guitar Hero or other music games that may appear. However, this is ultimately a question that only Activision can answer, because it's entirely up to them which hardware they choose to support. Certainly, if Activision wishes to support the Rock Band guitar controller in Guitar Hero, we'd be happy to work with them to make it easy for them to do so."

Harmonix have also revealed that the game will feature synthesizers and guitar effects pedals peripherals endorsed by Roland Corporation and BOSS brands, well known producers of both respectively.

In a recent internet on GameSpot, Rogopulos revealed some vague details about Rock Band. Although the title is being presently mainly as a multiplayer title,thanks to three different forms of interaction; guitar, drums, and vocals, Rigopulos points out that Rock Band will still feature a "deep, complete solo experience" for each instruments. Good news for those of us without any friends then.

Online gameplay is also a big factor in Rock Band, and Rigopulos hinted at a new approach for online play that will help alleviate common issues involving lag…” […] we have a unique solution...and it's a heck of a lot of fun in action."

One can only guess what this will be, but we'll have to wait for more official details before we can find out.

Rock Band will see release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this holiday season.

Tags : guitar hero : harmonix : mtv : rock band

Comments

By: Dragonsoul

On: 07:46 May 11th, 2007
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I can see why some would get excited on this particularly if they are music buffs. I don't quite get it myself but then I'm not musically inclined. Though it dosen't take someone who is such to realize how a person who is will like this. :P

By: Dragonfly

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On: 07:54 May 11th, 2007
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Dragonsoul;20210

I can see why some would get excited on this particularly if they are music buffs. I don't quite get it myself but then I'm not musically inclined. Though it dosen't take someone who is such to realize how a person who is will like this.