As you might imagine, Rock Band 4 is being developed and produced by Harmonix, and they have a number of interesting design choices. But what’s got us most interested in Rock Band 4 for the moment is that peripheral wunderkinds Mad Catz are co-publishing the game. “We’re excited to extend our agreement with Harmonix, and are confident that Mad Catz’ global sales force, distribution channels and retail marketing expertise will deliver the retail success we believe Rock Band 4 will achieve in 2015 and beyond,” said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz.
That means that Mad Catz will be handling the marketing, promotion and distribution of Rock Band 4 for retail – which includes the instruments and the bundles they’re included in. To that end, Mad Catz are designing a new generation of wireless instruments, instruments that coincide with Harmonix’s desire to give Rock Band 4’s players the opportunity for creative expression during songs.
It’s no surprise then that Daniel Sussman, Product Manager for Harmonix, reflected Richardson’s optimism by saying:
We’ve been thrilled by the positive response to our announcement earlier this past March. Its proof of what we’ve known all along: music games are alive and well and there’s a huge appetite for a game that can deliver a great experience on guitar, bass, drums and vocals, either solo or as a band. We couldn’t be happier to be working closely with Mad Catz to deliver Rock Band 4 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to a worldwide audience this year.
With new instruments, a new, more social and creative approach to the game and a massive library of songs already in place, and more to come, Rock Band 4 should be quite the eargasm.
