Activision Clashes With Harmonix Over Guitar Compatibility
- Scribbled on December 12th, 2007 by Devin Grimes
- Filed in Music/Rhythm, Sony PlayStation 3, WTF
Several news stories regarding compatibility between Guitar Hero III’s Les Paul peripheral and former developer Harmonix’s Rock Band have popped up all over the internet lately, including this one, and now the smoke is turning into fire as Activision has now officially unveiled its latest marketing tactic: child-like stubbornness.
The skinny is that Harmonix has been working on a patch to get Guitar Hero III wireless guitar peripherals working on the PS3 version of Rock Band. It’s certainly not rocket science by game developer standards…right? Right? No, but Activision is making this more than of an obstacle than it needs to be, according to this statement issued to 1Up by a Harmonix representative that claims Activision is preventing such a patch’s release:
As is the case with the Microsoft Xbox 360, we believe that Sony PLAYSTATION 3 users should be able to use the peripheral of their choice with Rock Band. We sincerely hope that Activision will reverse its decision and allow release of the compatibility patch and further, that Activision will allow Guitar Hero III to support Rock Band guitar controllers as well. We welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.
We believe that when consumers have choice, everyone wins. Harmonix and MTV Games hope that Activision and others in the industry will also adopt this philosophy.
I’m not really seeing what the hold up here even is. Users are have the GH guitar, so it’s not like Activision is losing a sale. Besides, it’s not like “Activision Blizzard” couldn’t afford to lose a sale or two…
December 14th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
[...] 3 starts to become heated, as Activision blames Harmonix for the incompatibility, in response to Harmonix’s statement earlier. Activision claims: “In fact, Harmonix and its parent company MTV Games/Viacom recently [...]
January 8th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
[...] broken peripherals and just plain incompatible instruments have plagued Rock Band’s release on the PS3 and Xbox 360 (more so on the former), the road to [...]
January 21st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] intriguing idea, to say the least. Question is – will work with Rock Band controllers too? Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 1:00 am
[...] news is big because Activision and Harmonix have been duking it out for control of the fake rock star market with their customers picking up the tab. As until this [...]