Dhani Harrison helping with RB controllers

By Robert Purchese Published 9 November, 2009

Wants them to help teach music.

Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison, has said he is helping to produce ambitious new controllers for Rock Band.

"I'm working on Rock Band and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game. Give me a couple years, it's going to happen," Harrison told the Chicago Tribune (via VG247).

Harrison also helped in bringing The Beatles: Rock Band together. The game met with rave reviews in September.

"I guess I'm accidentally responsible for Rock Band becoming the Beatles digital platform, but it was a no-brainer," he said. "It's really difficult to get the Beatles to agree on anything, but I set up demos for them and [long-time Beatles confidant] Neil Aspinall instantly saw the potential."

The Beatles: Rock Band hasn't sold as strongly as analysts predicted, despite the enormity of the licence, but MTV parent Viacom maintains that the game has "exceeded expectations".

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Pirotic #1 2 years ago

    Achievement Unlocked - Complained that it hurts your fingers and want the plastic guitar back - 15G

  • nuanimal #2 2 years ago

    I would really like to see an additional accessory for some way of strapping the guitar, mic and drums to yourself and playing the whole game as a one man band.

    Or failing that use duck tape and be charged £120 for it.

  • JahB #3 2 years ago

    what has Dhani Harrison done to qualify himself for this? he may be the son of one of the best musicians ever, but being somebody's kid is hardly a qualification

  • Toothball #4 2 years ago

    @ nuanimal:

    That's not as difficult a situation to arrange than you might think. All you need is a mic stand with a boom arm on it so it reaches over the drums, which are usually around £20. You could hang a guitar or two off yourself and sit at the drums. No idea how you'd manage to play like that, but it's very possible.

    I wonder if this'll mean that the next game's guitars are different at all. I've not upgraded my original Rock Band guitar to a wireless one, or one of those nice Beatles themed ones, but this might be a good opportunity. Probably the drums wouldn't be so different, as with a set of cymbals they're quite close to a proper drum kit. Hi hat pedal is still missing, but I don't expect they're going to fill a fake guitar's with every possible fret button either, so there's room for some imagination still.

  • cianchristopher #5 2 years ago

    What has Dhani Harrison done, you say? Why, he "put it together"! He "made it happen"! He "saw the potential"! He "tapped the market"! He "commercialised the venture"! He "spun out the project"! He "managed our expectations"!

    *He probably did nothing, really! But, he sure sounds like he's full of shit ;)

  • kangarootoo #6 2 years ago

    "I'm working on Rock Band and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game"

    The first part of that sentence seems fair, but everything after "so people..." seems a bit fluffy to me.

    Do we define "play music" as meaning the player can actually change the melody at their whim (in which case, thats not the same game and needs bigger changes than just the controller), or do we mean that they produce a prescribed melody as a result of their input (which is exactly what is happening already)?

  • LazyDan #7 2 years ago

    It's already been done with the piano and guitar. See: (The rather excellent) Garageband premium lessons.

  • kongzi #8 2 years ago

    And the 'more real' guitar controller wil of course come with a premium price tag, at least twice as expensive as the normal plastic ones. That makes it three times more expensive than a real guitar... and you've learned music lesson 1: musicians are full of shit and shouldn't make children.

  • MiniAmin #9 2 years ago

    When will they learn that most people who play GH/RB play these games because they want to have fun playing music without learning an instrument.

  • Widge #10 2 years ago

    Being son of someone called George = musician or president

  • jonsaan #11 2 years ago

    To be fair. Dhani is a pretty good musician in his own right, but I can see your point.

  • Dave52 #12 2 years ago

    Of course... we probably ought to learn to play real guitars... This is a bit like when people say - I'm sure the World Air Guitar Champion could play for real - he's that good. No he's not, he's just some bafoon rolling around on the floor while a System Of A Down song plays in the background...

  • RobotRocker #13 2 years ago

    @ JahB

    Pssst. Y'know that song from thenewno2 that you get free with Rock Band 2's download code?

    Yeah, that's his band.

    Interesting direction. I wondered why they never made a Special Edition of RB2 where you could unlock video instrument lessons for doing well in the game. But y'know, un-tapped markets and all that

  • Skurmedel #14 2 years ago

    Well, a music game where you did learn something, other than the lyrics/melodies would be a good idea. Why throw crap at him for that?