Way back in December 2015, Oculus announced that Harmonix was working on a virtual reality (VR) version of Rock Band. Supporting the Oculus Touch motion controllers, news on Rock Band VR has been quiet for several months but today that’s all changed. Harmonix has now confirmed a release date, launched pre-orders and unveiled a new mixed reality (MR) trailer showcasing gameplay footage.
Rock Band VR will officially launch on 23rd March 2017. Currently only Amazon US is running pre-orders for the title costing $69.99 USD. While exclusive to Oculus Rift customers choose either a PlayStation or Xbox version as the guitar controller is compatible with Rock Band 4.
The videogame will feature 60 songs from legendary artists as well as new ones. The studio’s revealed the first three, all of which can be heard in the new trailer. These are: Aerosmith – Walk This Way, The Killers – When You Were Young and Paramore – Ain’t It Fun.
Harmonix has mixed traditional Rock Band with VR in new ways building a classic mode and performance mode. Classic mode is about the pursuit of a note-perfect studio recording, while performance mode aims to create a live concert experience where players experiment with different chords, notes and strum speeds to develop their own unique sound.
For the purists, scoring and leaderboards still remain central to the Rock Band experience. Mastering Rock Band VR’s new gameplay mechanics by chaining chords and notes together into musical phrases and combos will build up points, while use of overdrive and signature rock moves will trigger multipliers to increase scores even higher.
For any further updates on Rock Band VR, keep reading VRFocus.