Ubisoft Announces Music Game For Real Guitars

Despite recent troubles in the music game market, Ubisoft thinks the genre still has room for innovation. They have announced Rocksmith, a rhythm game designed for use with real electric guitars. The guitars will connect to a console or PC through the standard output jack. "... the 'note highway' is actually a virtual guitar fretboard, complete with numbers which correspond to the different frets, and the 'target zone' consists of six horizontal strings. Wherever each note appears on the virtual fret board, that’s where your finger(s) go on the physical fretboard. Once the note reaches the target area you strum the string it comes into contact with. Simple. The camera zooms dynamically to highlight where on the fret board you should be looking at, in much the same way that a musician’s eyes would scan up and down the neck of the instrument during a performance."

Comments

rock band 3 already has this

[Anonymous Coward]

You can already play with a real guitar using rock band 3. You can't use any guitar though, you have to buy the Fender Rock Band Pro Squier Strat. I have it and it is awesome.

Ubisoft's game is not the first announced game that lets you use any electric guitar. That honor goes to Guitar Rising, which was never released.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[Confused]

If a game makes practice easier or more enjoyable, why not use it? In the end, it's the acquired skill that counts, not the way you got it. And if the game teaches you a usable skill, it definitively isn't stupid.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[andrea.sartori]

Not everyone has the time/commitment/money for lessons (which would certainly be a better option for learning to play).

Still, they somehow have the time/commitment/money for playing the game? Or are they just casual players and thus not really interested in playing an instrument? This is the point: you want to play guitar, you just buy one. You want to learn to play, you might choose self-learning if you don't want to throw money at lessons. (Of course, you just want to have a nice time with friends, you go and play with them and be happy.)

when's the last time you passed a guitar to a non guitar playing friend and had them start playing?

It was some years ago. I taught him his first chords. I had him "start playing". Alas, no computers were involved. These games were not out yet.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[j0nb0y]

The game is a good option for self learning. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[slim]

This is the point: you want to play guitar, you just buy one. You want to learn to play, you might choose self-learning if you don't want to throw money at lessons. (Of course, you just want to have a nice time with friends, you go and play with them and be happy.)

I've played real guitar for 20 years.

I've watched videos of the Rock Band 3 "pro guitar" being used, and it looks like it would be a productive way of teaching yourself to play the guitar parts in those songs. It really is like following a tab, with a machine to tell you when you screw up. I assume there are practice options as in other Rock Band games, where you can isolate the part, slow it down, practice with a metronome etc.

Once you'd learned it, you'd need to plug into a real amp and practice some more to coax any kind of expression out of it, since Rock Band 3 doesn't concern itself with niceties such as muting and vibrato.

I'm not personally the kind of player who likes to replicate other people's solos -- but plenty of people are, and plenty of people enjoy listening to that. There's still value in doing this if you're an improviser, since it may reveal to you fingerings that you can incorporate into your improvisations.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[somersault]

I can already play real guitar and drums, and have played in a band in the past, but I find the game a hell of a lot of fun, without any of the hassles of being in a band. Quit whining.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[Mike Mentalist]

Yeah, all that sex must have worn you out and that is why you are here on Slashdot.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[Seumas]

I play piano and sax. Doesn't have the same effect on chicks. :P

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[slim]

I agree, but why not make a device that just takes input from an actual guitar, and interprets whether you are hitting the right notes, without a need to have a special guitar.

Er, that's exactly what TFA is about. Rocksmith will do frequency analysis of the signal from an ordinary electric guitar.

The risk is that it won't work as well as a special guitar controller. The poshest Rock Band Pro guitar is a real guitar, but has electronics in the neck to detect when a string is pressed against the each fret, presumably because Harmonix felt they couldn't do polyphonic frequency analysis accurately enough for the job.

From what I can see, the biggest downside to this is that they couldn't make a strong enough neck, while keeping within budget and fitting in the electronics -- so the Rock Band guitar has warnings against stringing it with any strings heavier than a set of 9s.

I like the idea of Rock Band 3, as a practice tool, but the money spent on that guitar could go towards a *nice* guitar.

Re:rock band 3 already has this

[andrea.sartori]

You don't sound like you've actually played the games then?

Of course I didn't play the game. Neither did I RTFA. Why this question?

Welcome to the next level - invented 500 years ago

[Confused]

The Wii and the various dance games started this trend by making players move and exercise. Now Ubisoft wants to introduce formal music teaching and practise via a game. Well it seems that simple games are getting too shallow and the game industry is poaching time honored ways to waste time from other domains, which have proven to offer more or less unlimited levelling capacity.

I just can't wait to hear people talk about how easy it was to beat the Bon Jovi level but that they're stuck on that evil Habanera Flameco boss before they can get to the Mariachi level.

Re:Welcome to the next level - invented 500 years

[Anonymous Coward]

It is all the ultimate plan. Make games increasingly realistic by weening you off of the games and systems themselves.

A generation from now we'll be paying a $15 a month World of LIfecraft fee to be hooked up to the most realistic game ever. MPAA and RIAA will declare eyes and ears recording devices and seeing unlicensed events for free copyright theft.

seems like an awesome idea

[bl8n8r]

it's really frustrating trying to learn guitar. Following finger positions is almost impossible at first because as you face the person everything is backwards and your brain wants your hand to move left, for instance, when you see the other person move left.

what's more is trying to learn guitar with guitar-hero and the like is like trying to learn sex through masturbation. You are kind of doing it, but there is way more going on with the real thing.

i 'll be checking this one out when it hits the shops!

Looking at the frets?

[dreamchaser]

I've played guitar for 30 years, and the following quote is disturbing to me:
"in much the same way that a musician’s eyes would scan up and down the neck of the instrument during a performance"

You're not really supposed to be looking at the frets while you're playing. Your fingers are supposed to know where to go without looking, much like when one learns to properly touch type. Looking at your fingers while you're playing is a bad habit that sadly a lot of new guitarists fall into. Yes, in the initial learning stages one needs to do so, but any good teacher will break that habit in their students as soon as possible.

That being said this might still be a useful learning aid for aspiring guitarists. I'm not interested.

Re:Looking at the frets?

[somersault]

What musicians may want is the ability to play songs with a backing track, without paying for a practice room.. not everyone has a garage they can play in, and friends who are ready to jam at a moment's notice, 24/7!

I think there are already apps for that.. though I haven't looked.

Re:Well

[RichardDeVries]

You sound like Prince, who turned down a Guitar Hero deal saying:

Well, I ain't mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that," explained Prince. "But I just think it's more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It's a tough instrument--it's not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it's cool for people who don't have time to learn the chords or ain't interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things.

Source

The Long History of Real Guitar Games

[Yogijalla]

Guitar Rising was first to announce a real guitar game back in 2008 but never released, presumably because of problems with the polyphonic pitch detection.

The first real guitar game released was LittleBigStar, back in 2009. LittleBigStar supported a wide range of instruments, including guitar and bass, and loaded mp3s and standard tablatures in different open formats. It had a good momentum and indie developers made different kinds of musicgames, which they called MusicWare, but it was closed down two years ago. By those measures RockSmith is hardly new...

The LittleBigStar team decided to go commercial, presumably because they had success cracking the polyphonic pitch detection nut. They released Offbeat guitarist which is freeware, support open formats and works great.

In 2009 Disney claimed to have found the holy grail of music gaming: Disney Star Guitarist but it was never released.

In 2010 Rise of the SixString was released with a guitar-controller hybrid.

Holiday 2010, Harmonix showed RockBand 3 pro-mode with the Squier Strat Controller. It went for sale in BestBuy stores in March 2011.

Holiday 2011, UbiSoft claim to have found the big new thing...

Re:Guitar Rising

[somersault]

There are different types of Rock Band 3 pro guitar. One has buttons and sucks. However, one is a guitar that you can plug into an amp and play as you would with any electric guitar. How is that not "real"? :p

Re:Really?

[skaet]

They criticise plastic controllers, now they criticise real guitars. Where's the happy in-between?

Those opposed to the music game genre generally believe the lack of realism is holding it back. It doesn't take any sort of musical skill aside from a good sense of beat to push 5 coloured buttons. Yet the instant it requires a real instrument, and real playing ability, it's not about the controller at all - you're still playing a game which immediately destroys any sort of credibility the activity of playing an instrument may have associated with it.

How is this any different to playing along with a CD, the radio, or youtube? It's not. It's arguably better as it will provide feedback on your progress while giving you a genuinely entertaining way to learn (by experiencing true rock and roll culture) rather than the stale "these are chord charts; now play these scales" you get from your local guitar school/tutor. I also hope Ubisoft will include an advanced tutorial for improving your playing technique instead of simply repeating a section of the song until you can perform the require button mashing from muscle memory.