Guitar game Rocksmith announced by Ubisoft

Just as Activision's getting out of the guitar game racket, Ubisoft is entering it with Rocksmith, using real guitars as controllers.

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The music game genre was recently deemed too risky by Guitar Hero and DJ Hero owner Activision, who scrapped its music games business and laid off large numbers of people at its musical studios. Ubisoft, however, is looking to get into the genre with something slightly different from the standard toy guitar game.

The developer publisher has announced Rocksmith, which will use your own real guitar as a controller, plugged into your PC, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 through an adaptor. It'll teach how to play the instrument and roughly 45 songs, which Rolling Stone reports will include the Animals, the Black Keys, David Bowie, Interpol, Nirvana and the Rolling Stones.

Songs will naturally be played with actual notes, rather than the usual colour blocks. Difficulty will scale dynamically, throwing more or fewer notes at you depending on how well you keep up. While there are scores, the song won't end abruptly if you muck it all up, simply getting easier instead. There's also a practice mode which lets players loop individual sections and adjust the speed, right down until it waits for you to play each note.

For Rocksmiths who can already play guitar, Ubisoft points out that it'll still teach you new songs.

Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring also aimed to teach guitar, using a custom axe which also had the standard toy guitar buttons.

Rocksmith is due in September, headed to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. According to The Hollywood Reporter's shadowy sources, Ubisoft is also looking to put together a $200 bundle with a real guitar.

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  • reply
    March 15, 2011 6:15 AM

    Comment on Guitar game Rocksmith announced by Ubisoft, by Alice O'Connor.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 6:43 AM

      hich will use your own real guitar as a controller, plugged into your PC, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 through an adaptor.

      Now, if they included a way to make your own songs, that would be perfect.

      • reply
        March 15, 2011 6:45 AM

        It's called a guitar. They make music with that. Not xboxes or PS3s.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 6:51 AM

      welp, all the reason i need to buy a new xbox! awesome!

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 7:21 AM

      Sweet....maybe this will get me off my butt and help me learn to play finally. :p

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 7:34 AM

      Sounds better than the Rock Band version of guitar learning!

      • reply
        March 15, 2011 7:47 AM

        How is the Rock Band version? I don't know how to play the guitar but I wanted to get the guitar for Rock Band in hopes that it would help me learn.

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          March 15, 2011 8:01 AM

          It has this weird scrolling chord system. I'm not sure how well it works, but the Rocksmith game's adaptive learning system which scales based on how well you are doing mixed with the use of real notes sounds like a no-brainer if you're trying to decide between the two.

          • reply
            March 15, 2011 8:38 AM

            Way to judge something you've never used and know little about! As someone who learned to play guitar in the 90's and didn't keep up with it, I feel like RB3 + the special Fender Strat is an excellent way to learn guitar. Not only is their visual system very easy to understand when you get used to the notation (it's basically scrolling tab, and the chords can be displayed by name if you already know how to play guitar chords), but the game is super patient with you when you're learning. I'm working my way through their tutorial system right now, which is helping me get my callouses built back up. I usually complete a few sections, then go play some songs with the new skills I learned. I can honestly say it's getting me back into playing guitar in a way that nothing else has been able to motivate me to do.

            • reply
              March 15, 2011 8:40 AM

              I've looked at the videos, punk!! I know what I'm talkin' about. It's still different than looking at the actual notes.

              • reply
                March 15, 2011 8:41 AM

                videos!

                • reply
                  March 15, 2011 8:46 AM

                  Yup, I've viewed the developer walkthrough videos where it shows the dude on the guitar and the corresponding "notes" on screen. It also explains exactly how it works. Wh0a, imagine that?

                  • reply
                    March 15, 2011 8:48 AM

                    Wh0a! : RikiTiki2

                    • reply
                      March 15, 2011 8:52 AM

                      if you're going to fake a post of mine, at least don't use the 0 thing

                  • reply
                    March 15, 2011 9:10 AM

                    Yeah I watched videos on the Japan nuclear plant issues too, including scientists talking about the problems with it, so I feel qualified to tell others how bad the problem really is.

                    • reply
                      March 15, 2011 9:15 AM

                      You're trying way too hard to defend the RB3 pro guitar including using a terrible analogy.

                      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

                      • reply
                        March 15, 2011 9:29 AM

                        And you're being a butthurt guitar fag... fair is fair? =P

                        In all seriousness, I don't care what you think about RB3's pro guitar setup. It would be nice if you quit telling people it was worthless when you've never done shit with it, though.

                        • reply
                          March 15, 2011 9:35 AM

                          I'm not saying that, dawg!! I'm just saying that the Rocksmith one sounds superior in terms of features and from what I've seen of the Rock Band one.

                          • reply
                            March 15, 2011 9:42 AM

                            I thought Pro Guitar looked retarded and a waste of money when all I saw was videos as well. Then I played on my little bro's plastic Pro Guitar he got for Christmas. The system works INCREDIBLY well, and the tutorials were getting me back into real guitar playing form faster than I ever did with even a paid instructor. The second they opened the pre-orders for the Fender Strats, I got in on it and haven't regretted it a bit.

                            • reply
                              March 15, 2011 9:45 AM

                              I was actually going to go that route as well, but the Rocksmith sounds awesome, so now I don't know what I'll do.

                              • reply
                                March 15, 2011 9:47 AM

                                I will just say that I bought the previous Ubisoft game that sounded too good to be true, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_Sessions I played it for maybe 3-4 hours total and got bored with it. This sounds to me like it will be very much the same, their marketing people convince you that it's WAY better than it is but it just isn't.

                                • reply
                                  March 15, 2011 9:51 AM

                                  I'll just hold off for the reviews, I guess. I've got too much other stuff going on anyway.

                                  • reply
                                    March 15, 2011 9:55 AM

                                    I can't check profiles anymore to find out, but where do you live? If we ever get together at a Shackmeet (I can't make Shackcon sadly), I'd be glad to let you try out RB3 Pro Guitar on my Strat. I really don't think you can appreciate how revolutionary it is until you've played with it. For example, it is breaking my worst habit of when I used to play - staring at the fretboard the whole time. I can almost always keep my eyes on the screen, which in return leads to your fingers developing the muscle memory of the frets even faster than normal. Again, I am actually shocked by how well it works 99% of the time.

                                    • reply
                                      March 15, 2011 10:10 AM

                                      I'm over in Austin. I've actually got the pro keyboard, and it's pretty fun as well.

                                      • reply
                                        March 15, 2011 10:15 AM

                                        I do enjoy pro keys from time to time, but I have the same problem with I had when I learned Piano as a kid -- it just doesn't really engage me. Guitar, though, even when I'm playing poorly, feels awesome!

                                        • reply
                                          March 15, 2011 10:45 AM

                                          The pro keys get ULTRA hardcore on the harder difficulty levels.

                                          • reply
                                            March 15, 2011 10:54 AM

                                            I am playing on Hard now, and have done some on Expert... my hands are capable of doing it, I was a pretty solid Piano player when I was like 10 years old, but it's just not fun to me to play.

                              • reply
                                March 15, 2011 2:05 PM

                                if what mobab quoted is true, the rock band 3 strat will work since it's still a real guitar

                        • reply
                          March 15, 2011 3:27 PM

                          From the post timeline to this point, he hasn't said it was worthless.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 7:58 AM

      Rock Smith, Private Eye.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 8:00 AM

      PC? Fuck yeah. Totally buying this if it's any good. Would be cool to have the parts for real keys and v-drums, and vocals too though.

      I wonder if it uses some guitar synth mic that you install on the guitar or do you simply plug into a usb-thingy.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 8:35 AM

      I don't think they understand the logistics of this. How is the game going to handle strings going out of tune? It's not a problem with my RB3 edition Fender Strat because the fretboard has sensors that detect when I press the string down, and the pickup only cares what string I'm playing and not what it sounds like. I think you'll have to spend way more time tuning and getting the adapter to work properly, not to mention that Ubi's only other music game, Jam Sessions, was just a fun toy with no gameplay to speak of.

      • reply
        March 15, 2011 8:45 AM

        Surely the game must have a tuner. You can probably access it from the pause menu too in case a string goes badly out of tune mid-song.

        • reply
          March 15, 2011 9:08 AM

          My point is, it can't possibly work right if your strings aren't in tune, and that seems like one extra layer of annoyance that I don't have to deal with in RB3.

          • reply
            March 15, 2011 9:24 AM

            If you are actually learning to play guitar, keeping it in tune is like pretty important.

            • reply
              March 15, 2011 9:32 AM

              Agreed, but it's unnecessary on the RB3 Fender Start since you engage a string mute and the guitar doesn't even make noise. Granted, I still tune it before I play, but that's just a habit from my old guitar playing days. Mostly I know how finicky this kind of thing can be, and am envisioning all the issues this adapter could have. I hope it's good, and will gladly play it and use it if it is. I've just got low expectations based on Ubi's track record with music games (which aren't really games, and this sounds no different).

          • reply
            March 15, 2011 10:02 AM

            Tuning will not really be that big of a deal as long as you are not a total guitar noob and have a decent guitar that stays in tune. I much rather use my own guitars than the RB3 Squier which probably plays and sounds terrible.

            • reply
              March 15, 2011 10:08 AM

              The only thing an experienced guitar player can get out of the RB3 Squier is domination of the leaderboards, since most Pro Guitar players, like me, are playing on Medium difficulty at the highest right now. The few people that can play on Hard or Expert are always in the top 1% of the scoreboard.

              Harmonix isn't interested in converting guitar players into rhythm gamers. They are interested in turning rhythm gamers into real life musicians, however.

              • reply
                March 15, 2011 1:38 PM

                Been a real, professional guitarist for 36 years and the only thing these plastic push button guitars teach me is how much I can flare up carpel tunnel syndrome. There is simply no comparison to real guitar and anyone who thinks so is delusional.

                This game however has the potential to teach. How they incorporate a fine tuning method is the question because if you can't teach someone how to tune you can't teach them how to play properly. Great idea and concept though and I would support this far more than a GH or RB game as a practicing musician.

                • reply
                  March 15, 2011 2:28 PM

                  You have seen the squier for pro mode in rock band 3, right?

          • reply
            March 15, 2011 3:30 PM

            When the strings are out of tune, you TUNE it. Tuning your guitar is part of learning to play it. Bypassing the whole tuning process is detrimental if you ask me.

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      March 15, 2011 8:46 AM

      Beating off the tunes!

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 9:12 AM

      Whoa what? That might be exactly what I was waiting for, and for PC too? I hope this turns out good, can't wait for something like this that delivers on its promises.

      • reply
        March 15, 2011 9:13 AM

        I want it to be good, but I bought and tried to enjoy Jam Sessions. It was little more than a digital toy, it could in no way be called a game. It sounds like they are doing the same thing here.

        • reply
          March 15, 2011 9:14 AM

          I hope not. Its time for something like this that actually works.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 9:51 AM

      aslong as the game is solid and the tracks are good, i will grab this!

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 9:55 AM

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      • reply
        March 15, 2011 10:36 AM

        So we let spammers run free now too? That's cool...

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 12:32 PM

      If this does come out for PC (Shacknews seems to be the only place saying that...) I might check it out. I'm loving the Squier with Rock Band, but a 1/4"-to-USB cord being the only thing you need sounds really good to me.

      • reply
        March 16, 2011 5:25 AM

        definately excited for this for PC. especially the bundle.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 1:46 PM

      I would love to be able to use my guitar with a game so for me this is one to keep an eye on. There were a couple things holding me back on the RB3 Squier, price and the fact that I already own a black Squier.

    • reply
      March 15, 2011 4:45 PM

      Black finger nails! That was so me in 1991.

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