In 2007, Harmonix brought everyone a step closer to fulfilling dreams as rock stars with Rock Band. Well, not quite everyone — the game is only available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2. In a statement to GamePro, EA’s Bryce Baer delivered absolutely no new Rock Band-related information in the form of an email.
“We have no announced any plans for a Wii version at this time,” the public relations maestro wrote.
To be clear: despite the fact that many Wii owners have expressed interest in a version of Rock Band for Nintendo’s system, nothing had been officially announced … and that’s still the case. GamePro does point out that Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has suggested that a Wii version is completely plausible, stating that they would like to “bring Rock Band to every [important] platform,” and that the Wii remote “holds enormous promise.”
Back in November when I visited Harmonix’s Boston studio, the topic of a Wii version of the title had been brought up a few times. Each time we were told something very similar — they were obviously considering all possibilities, but were focusing on the current platforms. (This was prior to Rock Band‘s release.)
My take? It’s very likely we’ll see Rock Band land on the Wii at some point in the future. Given the success of Guitar Hero III, there’s clearly money to be made, and it would be foolish to ignore the platform. That said, the Wii’s current lack of storage stifles one of the things that makes Rock Band such a great “platform” itself — downloadable content. Let’s hope that Harmonix will be able to tap into that “enormous promise” to deliver an experience just as compelling as it is on other consoles.
Published: Jan 2, 2008 06:07 pm