14 DAY TRIAL // Your trusted war correspondent again brings news from the scorched battleground of music games. As the Guitar Hero: World Tour offensive is nearing, with the twin columns of all instrument play and music creation ready to strike at enemy lines and sales numbers, the Harmonix generals that are preparing the defense of camp Rock Band are getting ready to unveil their new secret weapon: a game that is completely devoted to music creation.
John Drake, who is part of the public relations department of Harmonix, has talked to MTV's Multiplayer Blog and said that the company he represents considers a music creation game "a full-on project" while also taking a shot at rivals by stating that they do not plan putting out a rushed and incomplete effort just so that they are able to claim a new feature.
Guitar Hero: World Tour is set to offer players the possibility to create their own music tracks, which they can play and then share with their network of friends. The game is also going to offer support for a complete array of instruments, in an effort to undermine the biggest strength of Rock Band.
Rock Band 2 is set to be more of an update to the first game in the series, with some minor improvements but no support for song creation. It's pretty clear that Harmonix fears that some of its player base will migrate to Guitar Hero and this latest announcement is designed to show that the company is ready to offer the same experience as that given by rival products.
The public relations representative tried to point out how dedicated Harmonix is to making music games by saying that there are over 40 bands formed by employees of the company and that 85% of them play at least an instrument. I think we would have preferred to hear more about this new music creation title, but these are some interesting statistics (sarcasm off).