It was reported earlier in the week that Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, was set to make a special announcement at The Game Awards in Los Angeles, as announced by event host Geoff Keighley through Twitter.
It was expected that Luckey will finally be disclosing details regarding the price, release date and features of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
The announcement by Luckey, however, turned out to be something entirely different, as the Oculus founder revealed that the company has struck a partnership with Harmonix to create Rock Band VR.
Made for virtual reality, Rock Band VR will be released in early 2016, according to Luckey, which would coincide with the timeframe of the release of the Oculus Rift within the first quarter of 2016.
Gamers that are familiar with the Rock Band series could be able to imagine what the game would be like, as Oculus and Harmonix work together to bring the franchise to virtual reality.
For the uninitiated, the Rock Band franchise is a series of music video games that allow gamers to simulate the performance of rock songs by playing with controllers that are modelled after musical instruments. Players can choose to play the lead guitar, the bass guitar, the keyboard and the drums, as well as sing into a microphone, with the score of the band to be determined based on how well they match the inputs on their musical instruments according to the scrolling musical notes and the voice of the singer to the pitch of the song that they are playing.
"Looking out at the crowd and feeling like you really are a rock star is an incredible experience," said Luckey, which would be made possible by the fact that in the game, players take on first-person views to watch the crowd and other band members as they perform.
Luckey revealed that Oculus and Harmonix has worked on Rock Band VR for some time, with the title along with several other ones to be available when the Oculus Rift finally launches.
Some epic Rock Band VR for ya! #WorldPremiere #TheGameAwards https://t.co/kh0BJC1Av3
— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 4, 2015
