MTV and Harmonix optimistic about Rock Band’s success
Tuesday marked the launch of Rock Band, the very first game to be published by MTV to specifically target gaming’s newly established genre: music video games. Days of performing air guitar gradually gives way as more and more music video games surge into the gaming scene.
MTV and Harmonix expressed optimism at the title’s success – and hints at future projects.
MTV has poised itself once again to step in and conquer a brand new facet of society: the gaming industry. And what better way to do so than with the Tuesday launch of Rock Band, the very first actual video game ever to be published by MTV.
Developed by Harmonix Music Systems and distributed by Electronic Arts Partners, Rock Band (PS2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360) is MTV’s debut offering to the gaming world which caters to music video gaming. With this leap into a whole industry, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said:
For most of our history, it’s been hard to get the music industry to pay attention to games, but at this point in time we’ve really broken down a lot of those barriers. With Rock Band, we have almost 90% original masters in the game and a lot of artist participation.
MTV couldn’t have picked a better time to establish a foot hold in the music video game genre with the release of Rock Band since the genre, although still in its infancy stage, has already garnered much prestige with the success of past music video games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PC).
Will Rock Band be able to follow in the foot steps of its successful predecessors? MTV Network’s Jeff Yapp, executive VP program enterprises, seems to think so. He expressed that “Rock Band is not just a game” and hinted at their next project. Yapp said, “We’re pretty optimistic about what this game is going to do. But our next big announcement, which is coming up fairly quickly, is a move to a whole another realm.”
Rock Band”s Xbox 360 and PS3 versions was released in the US on November 20 while the North American PS2 version will be available 18th of next month. On the other hand, the game’s Canadian version will be released on the 17th of December while the European version will be available by next year. Stay tuned for more news and updates.