A day after Activision released a live band trailer for its upcoming "Guitar Hero Live" game, rival firm Harmonix provided a statement about the new "Rock Band 4" that is set to hit consoles later this year. Word is out that while the new game is not trying to outdo Activision's title, it is determined to "set the bar" for all the music games that would come out.
The game developers announced the return of "Rock Band 4" last month, said Yahoo. To help players enjoy the game in current generation consoles, Harmonix is making the title "backward compatible," so players who purchased the previous titles could still use their old controllers and songs.
While that is an obvious advantage over competitor, "Guitar Hero Live," some fans of the music game expressed concern how the new "Rock Band 4" would fare against Activision's title.
Harmonix Project Manager Daniel Sussman released a statement on the company's official site to clear the air about the so-called rivalry between the two titles.
Sussman noted, "The transition from 'Guitar Hero' to 'Rock Band' is worth a discussion in and of itself. I've read articles that peg 'Rock Band' as a project that was created explicitly to compete with 'Guitar Hero.' In fact, that's categorically false."
He explained that the Harmonix title was the next logical step for music games. Sussman continued, "We viewed 'Rock Band' as an obvious and natural evolution from 'Guitar Hero.' Moving from a guitar only experience to a full band was 'the future.' In fact, it opened up so many great possibilities for musical interactivity - both in terms of people's relationships to the music and also (maybe more importantly) in terms of people's relationships with each other."
The project manager also shared his belief that it was not an accident that Harmonix and Activision decided to revive the music games at almost the same time. Sussman is of the notion that the time has finally come for more "guitar-centric music game experiences," reported Game Spot.
The former "Guitar Hero" producer lauded his team's work with "Rock Band 4" and thinks that the new title could be very successful once it returns to shelves.
"I love what we're doing with 'Rock Band 4' and think we're creating the best game we've ever made, a product that will set the bar for what a music game can and should be," he added.
"Rock Band 4" would be officially unveiled at the E3 event in June 2015 with a fall release date.
