Mad Catz partners with Harmonix to make Rock Band peripherals
Rock Band 2 clearly commands a great deal of attention at E3 2008, but the unsung heroes of the game are its peripherals. Of course, being a hardware guy, I feel that way about all doodads. But in this case, the guitars, mics, and drums really do contribute to the feel of the game. So when we found...
Rock Band 2 clearly commands a great deal of attention at E3 2008, but the unsung heroes of the game are its peripherals. Of course, being a hardware guy, I feel that way about all doodads. But in this case, the guitars, mics, and drums really do contribute to the feel of the game. So when we found out that Harmonix partnered with Mad Catz for peripherals, we were totally thrown for a loop.
Most of us know Mad Catz for their budget oriented controllers. However, both companies stated in no uncertain terms that all products related to Rock Band will be made with the utmost quality in mind. We were told that around eighty percent of Mad Catz's resources were thrown at perfecting Rock Band related products. The folks at Harmonix also said that there had been lots of back and forth between the companies. Mad Catz plans to release an entire line of premium Rock Band peripherals, and even some totally new designs that are exclusive to them.
Mad Catz decided to utterly blanket the Rock Band franchise with products. You'll find bass guitars, guitars, portable drum kits, premium guitars, and premium mics in their stable of products. We got to see a few of the products, but we couldn't play with them.
The company partnered with Fender to make full size replicas of the guitar and the bass. Both will be made from actual Fender bodies, and will have the full heft of a real guitar. The bass guitar will also feature dual strum bars to replicate the manner in which bass guitarists actually play. The over engineering of these guitars became readily apparent when we were told that these guitars were meant to handle up to 2.5 million presses before failure; standard Rock Band controllers fail after 1.5 million presses. Expect these full size replicas to cost a few hundred dollars.
We got to take a peek at the wired Portable Drum Kit. The kit doesn't have a stand, but that's what makes it portable. The four drum pads have suction cups on their backs to keep them stable on table tops and level surfaces. Mad Catz states that the drums should be good for up to one million hits. The accompanying kick pedal also folds up flat for easy transport. The company even thought to include two collapsible drum sticks.
The Premium M.I.C. adds a much needed control interface to the microphone. The wired microphone has a full set of Xbox 360 related buttons that run vertically along the side of it. Playing any other game with the microphone would be ludicrous but it's perfect for navigating the menus in Rock Band. There's even a switch that locks the buttons to prevent accidental presses during play.
Mad Catz will also be the only producer of cymbals for the Rock Band drum kits. You'll be able purchase a single cymbal for $15, or a set of three for $30. The cymbal kits will come with extension poles, clamps and colored wingnuts to match the color of the drum kit.
With any luck these products live up to our hopes. We're pretty sure they will after the level of trust and commitment we witnessed from both Harmonix and Mad Catz.
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