Ubisoft Did Not Get The Memo That Guitar Hero Was Dead

Rock Band is on hiatus. Guitar Hero is taking a long sleep. In short, the “expensive plastic instrument” music game bubble has finally burst. Which isn’t stopping Ubisoft from releasing one!

Amazingly/inexplicably, the publisher tonight revealed Rocksmith, a Guitar Hero clone which uses a real electric guitar instead of a replica.

“Guitar Hero is a party game. Rocksmith is a music experience,” Ubisoft tells The Hollywood Reporter, pointing towards the fact that the game comes not with bundled plastic instruments but a jack that allows users to plug a real electric guitar into an Xbox 360 or PS3.

With an angle that Rocksmith can help people actually learn how to play a real guitar, Ubisoft says, “We will create a new generation of guitar players” and also reckons it will be easier to get songs for the game because bands will appreciate the fact players are being taught how to play an actual guitar.

It’ll feature songs by bands and artists like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Nirvana and the Animals.

If you don’t have, you know, an electric guitar just lying around, Ubisoft is also looking at releasing a $US200 bundle that includes a real one.

So the answer to reviving a genre that died because people got bored of large, expensive peripherals is to release a product which uses something only a fraction of consumers will already own? And if they don’t own it, then they can get… an even larger, more expensive peripheral?

Best of luck with that!

Ubisoft Announces New Guitar Video Game ‘Rocksmith’ [THR]

Republished from Kotaku