BYOG: Konami not making Rock Revolution guitar, bring your own

by Christopher Grant { Sep 16th 2008 at 11:57PM }

Forced with making up for lost time in the battle for rhythm game supremacy, Konami is evidently taking the curious path of removing bullet points from the back of Rock Revolution's future box art. First, despite a corporate lineage that includes Karaoke Revolution, Konami axed the expected vocal portion, leaving just guitar and drum tracks. (Wouldn't want to cannibalize those Karaoke Revolution sales, would we?)

Now, Konami has axed the axe, telling MTV that they'll only be offering the unwieldy drum kit in mid-November, about a month after the standalone game launches October 14th. The full peripheral lineup from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games should work just fine with Rock Revolution but, something tells us Konami's going to have a tough time leading this revolution. Well, there's always a chance of a legal payday!

Tags: Konami, Rock-Revolution, Zoe-Mode

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Beatz @ Sep 17th 2008 12:07AM

Wow. Why does this game exist again?

eNrique @ Sep 17th 2008 1:02AM

I don't know why people keep complainig about this game. Just because a bitch fucked up its presentation?,
I would not mind paying 50 bucks for 40+ songs that i could play with my current instruments.
Well; Somebody Told Me

Tiptup300 @ Sep 17th 2008 1:03AM

Money for a ton of covers!? No Way, the only money this game will make will be all the grandparents at walmart knowing their child wants this new "band" game, this looks like it, might as well buy it!

Beatz @ Sep 17th 2008 1:14AM

enrique, besides the fact that all the songs are covers, and there's only 41 of them, there's also the fact that almost ALL of the songs have been in another rhythm game. And what of the songs that haven't been in another game before? Pain by Three Days Grace? The Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin? Dance, Dance by Fallout Boy? Yeah, those sound awesome. I'm off to preorder right now.

Charlie_Six @ Sep 17th 2008 12:08AM

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Why should they release a new guitar if the ones out do everything you need.

linkman26 @ Sep 17th 2008 12:17AM

WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR!!!!

Slayer @ Sep 17th 2008 12:46AM

Yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth
La la la la la la la la la la!!!

Martin @ Sep 17th 2008 11:04AM

I hate you both for that. *sighs and listens to the song*

MrSpaceCowboy @ Sep 17th 2008 12:20AM

If the guitar was going to be as mediocre as the game looks right now, I wouldn't have wanted it anyway.

Rollins @ Sep 17th 2008 12:28AM

I just wish they didn't get the licensing for as many good songs as they did. Holy Wars...The Punishment Due, Pull Me Under, Am I Evil?, all songs we'll probably never see in Rock Band because of them. :(

mietha CAG @ Sep 17th 2008 12:49AM

I SERIOUSLY doubt they paid for exclusivity. Hell, it is even known whether they are masters or not? 41 on disc songs... Yeah, I'm starting to agree with the first poster there. 10 of so of the songs are already in Rock Band anyway.

zuburi @ Sep 17th 2008 12:54AM

Pretty sure they're covers.

Trulz @ Sep 17th 2008 12:43AM

So on the off chance that anyone decided that GH/RB were utter balls, and that Rock Revolution was the game for them, Konami is forcing them to go out and buy a guitar from one of the other companies.

Absolutely.

Brilliant.

BPMOmega [gamertag] @ Sep 17th 2008 12:56AM

Dear Konami,

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!

Didn't you guys, ya know, kinda PIONEER the whole music/rhythm/instrument genre? Granted you kinda ignored America many of these years, giving us just the odd DDR home release here and there... But why make such a half-assed attempt to win us over NOW?

Instead of this half-hearted "Rock Revolution", how about a superior GuitarFreaks and DrumMania? Since you're not going to have vocals anyways, you might as well.

Better yet, forget the whole thing. You missed the boat to America, so don't even bother doggy-paddling here.

Charlie_Six @ Sep 17th 2008 3:39AM

Yeah... I hope they make a Japanese Rock Revolution for the PS3, then I can import it. I like a buncha Japanese rock songs.

mcchicken2003 @ Sep 17th 2008 1:08AM

So wait...they're suing Harmonix over Rock Band...and then telling you to play their game with a Rock Band guitar?

turkeybaster @ Sep 17th 2008 11:25AM

It's becoming more and more evident that the only reason Konami is making this half-hearted attempt (by any measure) of a rhythm-game is so that they have a legitimate platform to sue Activision and EA for some form of copyright infringement.

Konami is basically taking the next step to protect their copyright (and get their money) that most patent-troll companies don't (ie, actually making the product they're suing over, rather than just sitting on a concept of it.)

MasterCKO @ Sep 17th 2008 7:28AM

very insightful comment.

Egon Pax @ Sep 17th 2008 10:07AM

Very good point, indeed.

With 40 cover songs and no vocals... definitely will rather pay for DLC than this.

MasterCKO @ Sep 17th 2008 1:15PM

Also, IANAL, but will Konami's half-assedness play a factor in their litigation? I would think that a judge who knew anything about video games (probably rare, I know) would look at this and see it for what it is (Konami trying too late to cash in on the idea that it should have executed long ago, but instead watched Harmonix get rich off of).

Plus I think that Harmonix merely needs to show that they had the idea to simulate guitar playing or whatever before Konami actually patented the idea in the US. There has to be an email like this somewhere. Amplitude and Frequency showed a clear indication that they were moving in that direction.

DCBlack @ Sep 17th 2008 3:12PM

10 years from now, I'll probably buy it as a laugh, and then promptly put it away to collect dust. At least they release their game isn't good enough to have its own peripherals.