EA, Harmonix, and MTV set out to form a "Rock Band"

Guitar Hero creators plan a new music game for the PS3 and Xbox 360, which will feature guitar, drum, and microphone peripherals.

By Frederick Cannon

Harmonix Music Systems, the company behind the renowned Guitar Hero series, is a developer with a bouncy history behind it. Having developed the original Guitar Hero with Red Octane, Harmonix would see itself being bought up by MTV Networks, whilst Red Octane, owners of the Guitar Hero license, would eventually be bought out by Activision.

While Activision-owned Neversoft has been left in charge of future installments of Guitar Hero, Harmonix has been busy at work on a new music-based game of their own, and the details have finally been made available.

The game, entitled Rock Band, is setting itself up to be the most expansive peripheral-based music game on the market by featuring guitars, drums, and a microphone in the aim of creating a complete band experience. Rock Band is scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for this holiday season, and publishing duties will be handled by Electronic Arts.

Much like its predecessors, Rock Band will include fully licensed music by major mainstream bands and artists. And thanks to its business relationship with MTV, it will have access to two major publishers: EMI Music Publishing and Warner/Chappell Music. Furthermore, several labels have already given Harmonix the green light to include their master recordings, including EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Enterprises, Hollywood Records, and Rhino Entertainment.

Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix, recently told GameSpot that, in addition to the cooperation of major industry labels, online content will be one of the game's key features.

"In addition to the music that ships with the game, we have very big plans for building out a huge library of online expansion content." he stated, further adding that some of the game's content is "very likely" to be available free of charge.

Although the guitar and microphone peripherals will be familiar to any fans of Guitar Hero and SingStar respectively, the drum will be a completely new accessory to be made especially for the game.

"[The drum] is a really impressive piece of hardware," said Rigopulos. "I'm a drummer myself, so we weren't going to settle for anything less than something that felt like a real instrument."

Harmonix seems excited about the game's long term prospects, and strongly believes that it will change the genre in big ways that won't be quickly forgotten.

"I really believe that four or five years from now, this kind of active participation in music making is going to be how people expect to experience the music that they love," Rigopulos finally adds. "Rock Band is a huge first step in that direction, but the sky's the limit in terms of the span of genres we eventually intend to reach with this."

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