Harmonix is looking for a cool $1.5 million in bank cards, crinkled bills and wallet link to fund a PC version of Rock Band 4.
Maybe Guitar Hero and Frets On Fire didn't fit some of the PC player's fancy, maybe Rocksmith was too technical for some keyboard and mouse warriors or maybe some just want play a Rock Band game on their rigs.
Whatever the reason, Harmonix has heard the calls to bring Rock Band to PC, and will bring the latest version of the game to the platform if gamers put their money where their mouths are.
Harmonix is looking for a kickstart from the crowd in order to fund the PC version of Rock Band 4 because it went indie a few years ago. Without the backing of Viacom and EA, it's looking for a financial commitment from gamers before putting its might behind the port.
"We've been planning, scheduling, scoping and preparing this PC version since the day after we launched on console back in October, and we're now ready to launch this Fig campaign to ask for your help to make this happen; and also provide you an opportunity to invest and get something back in the process," Harmonix says.
One of the major draws to building out a version of the popular music game for PC is the community. Leaning on Valve's Steam digital distribution platform, the PC version of the game would have an in-place pipeline and toolkit to enable PC players to upload their own songs into Rock Band 4.
After using Steam Workshop to tackle the grunt work, Harmonix says PC players "can" submit their work to the company to ensure the content plays properly. The word "can" is wrapped in quotation marks because it's unclear if the word that should really be there is "must."
Having Harmonix review all content before sharing it on Steam Workshop would keep the copyright claim issues away. On a related note, Harmonix is aware of the cunning and crafting of the industrious PC crowd.
"We're currently evaluating a number of third-party encryption solutions to ensure that the music in Rock Band 4 on the PC will be as secure as possible," said Alex Rigopulos, Harmonix's chief creative officer.
The Fig crowdfunding campaign for the PC version of Rockband 4 is live now.
