No frills Rock Band (finally) arrives on Wii June 22
A Wii version of Rock Band was all but certain given the success of the console and now it’s official: the popular band emulator from Harmonix arrives on Nintendo’s console June 22 for $169 — DLC and online still in doubt, however.
Better late than never, eh Rock Band Wii?
Harmonix confirmed today that Rock Band is coming to the Wii on June 22 for $169.
The announcement was seen by many as a formality given the success of Nintendo’s console among non-traditional gamers, but it wasn’t until today that EA and Harmonix apparently decided the Wii’s audience had reached sufficient mass to warrant a port to that system.
And this version of Rock Band is indeed a port, with no Wii-specific extras of any kind promised in Harmonix’s short press release.
Also missing was any information about downloadable content or a music store like the one recently announced for PS3 and Xbox 360 — but such omissions have undeniably been par for the course with any third party online effort on the Wii thus far.
“The Wii’s success among casual and core gamers of all ages makes it an ideal match for the cross-generational appeal of the music featured in Rock Band,” says Bob Picunko, Vice President of Electronic Games and Interactive Products, MTV Games.
The Harmonix release said Rock Band for Wii will be released as a Special Edition bundle including the software, drums, microphone and a wireless guitar. Stand alone instruments will also be available at launch on June 22nd for people who want to build their band one instrument at a time or want to play the drum versus drum game mode. The game will feature 63 songs including five exclusive bonus songs.
UPDATE: Harmonix has responded with the following statement: “The feature-set is a lot closer to the PS2 version of Rock Band which was also developed by Pi Studios… Because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they’ve come to expect.”
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