Mad Catz to co-publish Rock Band 4

Gaming peripheral maker Mad Catz Interactive and Harmonix today announced an agreement to co-publish Rock Band 4.

According to the details of the press release, Mad Catz will handle global retail sales, promotion, and distribution of the Rock Band 4 game and hardware bundles, while Harmonix will handle all digital sales and content.

In addition to co-publishing the game, Mad Catz is working on developing "a new generation" of Rock Band 4 wireless music game controllers "that will give players the chance to rock as the biggest guitarists, bassists, drummers, and singers of all time."

Of course, if you prefer not to spend extra money, Harmonix has already confirmed that past hardware will be compatible with the new game. Speaking to Rock Band 4 project director Daniel Sussman said that Harmonix is “planning to support everything that we can: That includes all of the old Rock Band controllers, and all the old Guitar Hero controllers.” Additionally, any previously purchased songs from past Rock Band games will be downloadable and compatible with Rock Band 4, giving you access to potentially over 2,000 tracks.

On the subject of reception to a new Rock Band, Harmonix Product Manager Daniel Sussman said, "We’ve been thrilled by the positive response to our announcement earlier this past March. Its proof of what we’ve known all along: music games are alive and well and there’s a huge appetite for a game that can deliver a great experience on guitar, bass, drums and vocals, either solo or as a band. We couldn’t be happier to be working closely with Mad Catz to deliver Rock Band 4 on Xbox One and PlayStation®4 to a worldwide audience this year.”

Rock Band 4 will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but doesn't yet have a release date. More details regarding the highly anticipated music game are said to be coming in May.