Rock Band , the latest Harmonix project, has gotten a lot of attention, but not just because everyone is anticipating another wildly addictive music/rhythm game. It's also because would-be fans are worried about the potential price of the overall package, which includes four different peripherals.
Thankfully, though, Harmonix plans to keep it affordable. In speaking to GamesIndistry.biz , team art director Ryan Lesser tried to calm everyone's fears.
"There's no way we're going to make a game that people are not going to be happy about buying," Lesser says. "We scrutinize every little piece that goes into every peripheral to make sure that it's affordable and still really high quality."
Recently, the Internet was ablaze with a public forum posting from someone claiming to have been part of a Rock Band focus group, and saying the final product would cost between $150 and $200. Lesser responds by simply saying none of that was true.
"Seeing as one of my specific orders was, 'Don't let anyone know anything about pricing,' I can't imagine that was true," he said. "Because of a lot of reasons that I can't talk about, but we're far from releasing prices at this point. So I wouldn't take any of that stuff too seriously.
Obviously, it would be reasonable to think that everything together would cost that much, especially considering the cost of the Guitar Hero guitar. But Harmonix is wary of the situation, and will attempt to keep Rock Band as modestly priced as possible.
"I think when it's just rumour and no one has anything tangible to hold on to, people can be afraid — but the fact is we're very conscious of it, and we're doing our best to make it awesome and affordable."
Related Game(s): Rock Band