So it’s pretty apparent that Harmonix’s game, Rockband, has been overwhelmingly successful in that millions of gamers bought the game, bought the instruments and fulfilled their dreams as rockstars. What really distinguished Rockband from their immediate competitor in the Guitar Hero franchise was the drum set. I must say that most of the charm in the Rockband game was playing the drums since it’s mentioned that your skills from playing the drums can be transferred into real drums (regarding timing and coodrination). Now, it looks like Activision will be following Rockband’s lead by releasing their own drumset for their upcoming Guitar Hero IV.

In the latest issue of the Game Informer magazine, it can be seen that the new set will have 3 drum pads, 2 cymbal pad and a pedal (for a total of 6 inputs versus 5 inputs for the Rockband drumset). Here is a picture:

Though the Guitar Hero Drumset does resemble an actual drumset, I’m not sure if it will be well received in the gaming community. First off, because there have been issues regarding instrument compatability between the two games, it is possible that the new instruments cannot be used interchangably for future incarnations. With millions of people owning the Rockband set, it is highly unlikely that gamers will go out a buy more plastic instruments specifically for one game. As well, it may also mislead buyers of Guitar Hero IV when they see a drumset because many will assume it’s like the old game with just guitars (hence the name GUITAR Hero). I believe that people will take a “wait and see” approach with the new Guitar Hero Drums because we’ll assume that Harmonix won’t sell idly by while Activision tries to take up some of their market share.

-Stephen