If you’ve wanted to be even further immersed in the idea of being a rock star than Harmonix’s Rock Band series already allows, then it looks like you’re in luck! At The Game Awards tonight, a new Oculus Rift game was revealed for the franchise, that being Rock Band VR, which will fully place you in a venue to rock out with Oculus’ upcoming VR headset!
This is no doubt the project that came from Oculus confirming a partnership with Harmonix several months beforehand, at the same time that they also confirmed partnerships with developers like Insomniac Games. Rock Band VR seems to mostly operate like any other Rock Band game for now, except for the obvious boon of being able to play it in virtual reality with the Oculus Rift headset.
The game is also being developed in collaboration with DragonForce, best known for their hit song, “Through the Fire and Flames”, which became an infamously difficult song to master for both Guitar Hero and Rock Band players, with perfect scores on the highest difficulty setting in that particular song being seen as the ultimate accomplishment of guitar playing for those franchises. This was illustrated through an amusing skit of the Harmonix staff attempting to learn how to rock out from the DragonForce crew, and eventually becoming even bigger rock stars in disposition.
Rock Band VR is set for release in 2016, with Oculus Rift set to start hitting stores early next year. Rock Band VR is also not to be confused with the series’ most recent release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Rock Band 4, and is an entirely separate game, with a presumably separate tracklist and play style.
Keep rocking Eggplante for all news and updates on Rock Band, and other big game properties headed to Oculus Rift.