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Any band might be able to get their songs into Rock Band in the future, according to its developer.
So far only well known bands and the odd indie hit has made it into the game, scheduled for release in Europe on Xbox 360 on May 23, but developer Harmonix believes “it would be awesome if one day any band were able to get their music into the game.”
In the second part of our interview with Harmonix, design director Rob Kay, himself a drummer, described such a move as “super user generated content” and revealed that while the developer hasn’t thought about the “hurdles in the way of that vision”, it would “love to get there one day”.
He said: “There’s a whole new world of user generated games that are in and you can see that making sense for the future. We want to create a platform of Rock Band and it would be awesome if one day any band were able to get their music into the game.”
He added: “We’ve not really thought about hurdles in the way of that vision, but we’d love to get there one day. Looking at that is another one of the things that we’re thinking about. It’s kind of user generated content but it’s more like super user generated content. We’re looking at all of that and that whole landscape and trying to figure out what’s the best way to apply that to music games that always keeps it true to what we’re trying to achieve.”
Rock Band has caused outrage at its UK pricing – a whopping £180 if you want to play the game the way it’s meant to be played, with a guitar, a drum kit and a microphone. Online anger has been exacerbated by the fact that in the US the equivalent package is almost £100 cheaper.
Earlier in the week Kay told VideoGamer.com that the developer “wasn’t trying to screw people” and understood the reaction, pointing towards “a myriad of little differences that all add up” as explanation of the higher cost.
For more on Rock Band, including Harmonix’s dispute with Activision and why Guitar Hero guitars won’t work on the game, be sure to check out the first part of our in-depth interview with Rob Kay, published yesterday.
Rock Band is scheduled for release on May 23 exclusively for Xbox 360, with other platforms set to follow later in the summer.
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