Music games won't be solo gigs anymore - USATODAY.com
Music games won't be solo gigs anymore
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A scene from Guitar Hero II. The popular game is teaming with MTV for Rock Band, which includes drums, two guitars and a microphone.
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A scene from Guitar Hero II. The popular game is teaming with MTV for Rock Band, which includes drums, two guitars and a microphone.
By Mike Snider, USA TODAY
Guitar Hero was just the opening act. MTV and the developers of that video game have a headliner in the works called Rock Band, which lets four music lovers gig together in person or online.
Expected in stores for the year-end holidays, the Electronic Arts game (no price set) for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 will be played with four instrument-based video game controllers: two guitars (lead and bass), a drum kit and a microphone.
In the popular game Guitar Hero, players tap color-coded fret keys and strum a guitar-shaped controller in time with scrolling on-screen notes. Rock Band "takes the core premise of Guitar Hero and expands it tenfold," says Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of Harmonix, which developed the game and the Karaoke Revolution games. "It lets you create a complete collaborative band."
MTV is supplying creative and financial support to Rock Band's development, as well as helping make deals with various music