Rock Band Instruments Going Stand Alone In February

Starting February 12, 2008, individual instruments for Rock Band will begin shipping to stores in the United States. These instruments include the Guitar, Drum Set, and Microphone. You can view the press release below. [Thanks GT]

Harmonix and EA Confirm Plans to Ship Stand Alone Instruments for Rockband on February 12th

Harmonix, one of the world’s leading developers of music-based games, and MTV Games, part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), announced today that individual instrument peripherals for Rock Band™ will start shipping to U.S. store shelves beginning on February 12th.

“The release of standalone instruments allows Rock Band musicians to enjoy the full Rock Band experience, including drum, microphone and guitar head-to-head modes, creating a whole new level of competitive fun,” said Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder, Harmonix. “We’re also delivering a stand-alone wireless guitar solution for all versions of Rock Band as well as providing the opportunity for consumers to build their band one instrument at a time.”

With standalone instrument peripherals being made available, players have the opportunity to expand the full Rock Bandexperience by competing in challenging play modes such as Microphone vs. Microphone, Drum vs. Drum and Guitar vs. Guitar. With instrument “versus” modes, gamers can battle against each other in “Score Duel” mode for the high score or in the challenging “Tug-O-War” mode, where giving the best performance is key. These exciting “versus” modes can be played locally or online and work with all Rock Band downloaded song tracks. In order to play downloadable content for head-to-head matches all players must own the same downloadable track. In addition, gamers can buy a new wireless standalone guitar to round out their Rock Band Special Edition Bundle or choose to build their band piece by piece through the purchase of individual software and instruments.