Mar 27, 4:16 am
Last week I was in Austin for South by Southwest, a huge festival for interactive, film and most famous for music. That’s why SXSW was the perfect outlet to unveil our new game, Rocksmith! After spending a week in its presence, I am thoroughly convinced it is the game to breathe new life into the music genre; recently deemed deadened by gaming news sources.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes, guys- this one’s different. It’s really a real guitar. It plugs straight from your Xbox’s USB port into a standard ¼ inch guitar jack. What kind of guitars can you use? Any! That’s right, you can use ANY real guitar; as long as it has a pickup you can use it! So finally, there are no plastic peripherals or any of that tried and tired nonsense – just a genuine guitar experience.
The gameplay is adaptive, so whether you’re a beginning guitar player or an expert one, you can enjoy and benefit from this game. It’s going to include a buttload of pedals and will serve as an amp in your TV setup. The game will also provide a revolutionary form of tablature, allowing players to learn new songs straight from the game rather than by printed page.
As I’ve said before, I’ve always wanted to learn to play the guitar. Once I got my hands on Rocksmith, I knew it could be a fun new way to learn. There was a long line outside the tour bus we had four setups each outfitted with a guitar, Rocksmith, a pair of ASTRO headsets and a professional guitarist.. I watched a mix of musicians, gamers & average Jacks put their concert and barhopping on hold to wait in our Rocksmith bus line. The faces of the people waiting to play conveyed a mix of eagerness and skepticism. It was a heartening experience to watch them go from that to picking up a guitar, play the game and immediately having fantastic things to say about Rocksmith.
I helped hype the game & catch the eye of artists we wanted to get on the game. Among others I got Gary Clark Jr to play, a guitarist I’d previously never heard of before but got to and wow can he wail! He was really great. We also got a few artists from Beast Make Bomb, Surfer Blood, The Tenants and several other bands to try out & speak on the game – all were honestly impressed and had wonderful things to say about it. An FAQ for the game can be found here on Rocksmith’s facebook; read on for more information on the game!
Here’s some of the fun I had with Rocksmith in Austin at SXSW:
[The Rocksmith tour bus | Glitch getting ready to set up the guitars on the bus]
[Gary Clark Jr trying out Rocksmith | Queens of the Stone Age performing]
[The girls of Beast Make Bomb test out the game | We interviewed the musicians for their opinion on the gameplay]
[Chromeo performing at La Zona Rosa on SXSW’s last night | Rolling Stone interviews going on nearby; the artists loved Rocksmith]
[You can use any of these guitars in Rocksmith | The guys of Surfer Blood really dug that about the game, here they are performing]
[The Rocksmith bus at night | The line for getting hands on the game]
[Inside the bus; everyone from the guitarist to the geek was enjoying the game!]
[We had a photobooth set up for rad Rocksmith Rolling Stone covers]
Besides my photos, I have some video I’m probably going to compile & share, as well as a desire to draw a cartoon detailing more of my SXSW exploits~ so stay tuned!
<3 Glitch out!
