At The Game Awards 2015, Oculus has announced Rock Band VR, a new title in partnership with Rock Band creator Harmonix.
Taking to the stage after a comedic promo involving the band DragonForce, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey announced that Rock Band would see a virtual reality rendition in Rock Band VR, coming to the Oculus Rift in 2016.
Created by Oculus Studios, the VR company’s first part game studio, and in partnership with Rock Band creator Harmonix, Rock Band VR will make you “feel like you’re standing on stage looking out at the crowd cheering for you,” according to Luckey.
See Also: First Look at ‘Harmonix Music VR’ a Trippy Visualizer for Morpheus from the Makers of Rock Band
While Rock Band could in many ways be a natural fit for VR—a standing experience that doesn’t require much locomotion—it will be interesting to see how Oculus and Harmonix will handle both tracking of the guitar and whether or not players will be expected to be able to play ‘blind’ without seeing their fingers, or if there will be some solution to that problem.
So far the only gameplay revealed was of the guitar instrument, and there is not telling if drums or other Rock Band instruments like the keyboard will be supported, though given that this is a Rock Band game and not Guitar Hero, we can certainly hope. Another unanswered question is whether or not players already invested in Rock Band instruments will have to buy new equipment to be compatible with Rock Band VR.
