Rock Band VR Coming To Oculus Rift
By John Jacques 26 January 2016
Oculus and Harmonix announce that a new VR headset-based game called Rock Band VR will launch alongside the Rift in early 2016.
It’s been less than two months since Rock Band 4 came out and let gamers continue the fantasy of living the life of a rockstar, but it looks like Harmonix has had more up their sleeves for quite some time – or at least, the last year or so.
During the Game Awards 2015 in Los Angeles, several members of the Oculus and Harmonix staff revealed that Rock Band VR would be coming to the Oculus Rift, bringing the popular music rhythm series to the world of VR headsets for the first time.
Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey took to the stage with his Rock Band guitar in tow to make the announcement in person, and confirmed that the game would be available in the first quarter of 2016, to launch alongside the Oculus Rift itself.
Prior to Luckey’s appearance on stage, Harmonix and Oculus teamed up with the real-life celebrity band Dragonforce to create a video introducing Rock Band VR. Dragonforce are well-known in the gaming community for being the band behind “Through The Fire And Flames,” one of the most popular tracks among any rhythm based musical title. The video shows the band trying to teach several game developers how to perform like rockstars with arguably mixed results. Interested gamers can check out the video below:
Harmonix had actually dabbled in the VR world before, having made an application for the Samsung Gear VR that allowed music listeners to enter a virtual world that changed based upon the music they listened to. The CEO of Harmonix, Steve Janiak, had also said months ago that bringing Rock Band into the world of virtual reality could be incredible, so perhaps it shouldn’t be such a surprise that a game all about immersing gamers into the world of a touring musician would be a natural fit for the Oculus Rift.
Evidently, the main appeal of Rock Band VR will be that gamers can move around on-stage and see the band from a fresh first-person perspective, although this will bring its own challenges for both Harmonix and players alike. It hasn’t been shown how gamers will be able to look at notes ahead of time, as the video only shows frets on the guitar lighting up as they are pressed by the player. With the game expected to launch in only a few short months, more news for Rock Band VR is sure to pour out ahead of its launch, and questions like that will hopefully have satisfying answers.
What do you think about Rock Band VR, Ranters?
