Guitar Hero developer teams up for Rock Band

What was once a solo experience in game play is now turning out to be a collective experience. Harmonix the developers of the successful platform game Guitar Hero have reportedly teamed up with MTV and Electronic Arts to create the next generation music video game known as Rock Band with a scheduled release for later in 2007.

Reuters reports that video game giant Electronic Arts (EA), along with MTV and Guitar Hero developer Harmonix will be teaming up on Rock Band while co-founder and chief executive of Massachusetts-based Harmonix, Alex Rigopulos reveals, "'Rock Band' is Harmonix's most ambitious project to date, and it will take music game play to an entirely new level.

" As many fans already know, Harmonix are the developers behind Frequency and Amplitude and the wildly popular Karaoke Revolution series of games. To date, Guitar Hero has been the biggest title for Harmonix since s it appeals to both video game fans who are also music lovers. All three partners in the Rock Band project revealed that the new game will up the ante in musical gaming quotient by drawing on support from several major record labels.

As far as the role of Harmonix, the Guitar Hero developer mentioned that Rock Band will expand players' virtual roles beyond the lead guitarist to drummer, bass guitarist and lead singer.

According to The Motley Fool, Guitar Hero, where players simulate playing guitar to well-known songs, is in fact a game produced by Activision. However, as the report suggests, Electronic Arts (EA) will be adding additional features to Rock Band in an effort to make it stand apart from the pack, while still taking advantage of legacy left behind by Guitar Hero.

Rock Band not only involves playing guitar, it also incorporates a complete band with two guitars, a lead singer, and a drummer, making it more of a collaborative experience like a real band. Rock Band will also take advantage of online connectivity, allowing band mates from all over the world to jam together. On the music side of things, MTV is reported to be helping Electronic Arts (EA) to negotiate with several major music companies in an effort to ensure that the game will feature original songs.

The songs in Guitar Hero were either covers or songs produced by lesser-known bands.

Reports also suggest that EMI and Warner have promised to give fans unrivaled access to their music catalogs for Rock Band while Sony's BMG and Vivendi's Universal Music have also agreed to make their music library available to the former Guitar Hero developers for the new Rock Band Venture. This appears to be a winning situation for the major record labels, as Rock Band will expose the music to a different audience outside of radio play and music videos.

As well, Rock Band will also help generate music sales since CD sales have been in steady decline in recent years. Rock Band is expected to be on store shelves in time for the 2007 holiday season for Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Massachusetts-based Harmonix also revealed to The Boston Herald that gamers will find a few hidden surprises embedded in Rock Band, such as some homegrown talent from Boston.

Harmonix co-founder, Alex Rigopulos tells Boston Herald, "Most of the music is licensed, familiar music, but we have the ability to add hidden tracks and bonus tracks." Rigopulos also admitted that the former Guitar Hero developers leave room to add local musical projects of "friends of the company", hinting that the game will "sneak in some Boston bands." Rigopulos further revealed that Harmonix is hoping that Rock Band will take interactive music game play to another level the same way that Guitar Hero did in 2005.

""For years Harmonix was the only company in the U.S. making these games.