RedOctane won't react to Rock Band provocation

RedOctane is still considering whether to extend its music games business to include other instruments, despite recent announcements from Electronic Arts.

"We're definitely looking and evaluating and have been evaluating all types of different instrument-based games, and drum is certainly one of the ones that we've been looking at," president and co-founder Kai Huang told our sister site Eurogamer.net in an interview published today.

"We haven't made any announcements yet about what we're going to do and when we're going to release a game, but fans can rest assured we're definitely looking at all of those types of games."

Huang was speaking in light of EA's recent announcement of "Rock Band", a unique music game that brings together lead and bass guitar peripherals, a drum kit and microphone, and promises to allow gamers on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to form bands over the Internet.

However it doesn't sound like RedOctane, bought by Activision last year, is planning to react directly to EA's move, with Huang admitting that he felt it would go against Guitar Hero's principles.

"I would say that the beauty of Guitar Hero is its simplicity and its elegance, and when we think about adding other musical instruments in there, that's going to make the experience a lot of fun, but it can also make the game a little bit more complex," Huang told Eurogamer.

"So what we want to focus on is all the great features of Guitar Hero, what makes it really fun and simple for everybody to pick up, and we think we've got some great things that we're working on in that respect."

New features in Guitar Hero III - due out on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PS2 later this year - are known to include online co-operative and competitive multiplayer modes, and Huang also promised a wider range of guitars, and even the possibility of a higher-end wooden version to help improve the experience for die-hard fans.

EA's competing Rock Band product is due to launch in a similar time-frame.