So many music games, and so many adorable fake plastic instruments! Between Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution, gamers can soon expect their living rooms to become a veritable Guitar Center of gaming accessories, losing precious floor space to three separate sets of guitars, drum kits, and a maddening tangle of microphone cords. Of course, if you have a PS3, you may be able to make do with just one set of peripherals, and only lose most of your living room. Sony PR Director Michael Shorrock, who clearly knows what he’s talking about because it says “Rock” right there in his name, announced this morning that Sony has been working with the various hardware manufacturers to ensure compatibility between all manner of video game instruments.
As a music game devotee, this is some very encouraging news. When Rock Band and Guitar Hero III came out, I spent quite a while worrying about how many guitars I’d be stuck with, and which purchase not to make if it came down to one peripheral over the other. Being able to confidently know that the games would work with any hardware I bought would have been a load off of my mind, and would have allowed me to make my purchases based purely on the qualities of the hardware (instead of which game’s singer does not resemble a lungfish).
According to Shorrock, the following game/hardware compatibilities are expected for PS3:
- GH:WT drums and guitars will work with RB2 and RR
- RB2 drums and guitars will work with GH:WT and RR
- RR drums will work with GH:WT and RB2 (no mention of guitars? Hmmmmm.)
- GH:WT and RB2 can use microphones from Singstar
- RB and GH3 instruments might work with each other’s games at some point
So, all’s well in the house of rock, right? Well, maybe. Or, maybe this is something of a hollow gesture. From Shorrock himself:
Of course each of these great games have their own specific cool features that may not be compatible with the other controllers…
That’s a little vague for my tastes. Maybe someone is defining Rock Revolution’s six-drum-pad input as a “feature” that doesn’t quite work with the 4-pad Rock Band peripheral. Translation: If the game wants you to have 6 pads and you only have 5, it’s still “compatible,” but good luck playing. I could be wrong, of course, and I would be delighted to be wrong in this case. Hopefully, Shorrock is merely referring to features like Rock Band 2’s auto-calibration system, in which case this is genuinely great news for everyone.
Here’s hoping for some clarification. Rock on!
September 4th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Is there any information on whether Konami’s 5-key guitars and drumset will be backwards compatible with the original Drummania/GuitarFreaks games (when used with a Japanese PS2)?