Tags: Rock Band

Mad Catz has a larger role in Rock Band than they ever did before

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Mad Catz is co-publishing Rock Band 4 with Harmonix. They’re not just manufacturing the new plastic instruments you’ll be jamming on, they’ll be in charge of global retail sales, promotions, and distribution for the game itself. Harmonix will still be responsible for digital sales of the game as well as track DLC. When Rock Band 4 was announced in early March, Harmonix said they were working closely with the platform manufacturers to make the old instruments work with Rock Band 4, but that the new instruments would offer many improvements. Mad Catz reiterated that sentiment.

As a hard-core Rock Band fan, I can honestly say this is shaping up to be one of the biggest games of the year, and music fans are just going to go nuts for what Harmonix is creating! Not only that, but I truly believe that we’ll be delivering the very best music game controllers you’ve ever played with. We’re working so hard to improve all the controllers in so many ways, we think you’ll notice the difference immediately and love what we deliver!

Rock Band 4 will face competition from the recently announced Guitar Hero Live. They are both scheduled to launch later this year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but Guitar Hero Live will also be available for mobile platforms.

We’re getting the Rock Band back together

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Harmonix has announced Rock Band 4. According to the developers, they want the next Rock Band to be a platform rather than an annual release. In keeping with that strategy, their goal is to keep all your previously purchased song DLC licenses valid within the same console line. That’s good news as some dedicated fans have bought hundreds of dollars worth of tracks for their Rock Band games on the older consoles. (It’s not such great news if you switched from Xbox 360 to PlayStation 4, but there was zero chance of them cooperating to share licenses.) Speaking of old hardware, Harmonix intends to work with Sony and Microsoft to make your old plastic guitars and drum sets compatible with the new consoles. If you want a new faux Fender, don’t worry. They’ll be creating new instruments as well.

Rock Band 4 will launch later this year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.