Representatives from both companies said that they didn't want to compromise on ensuring compatibility with previous purchases of songs or instruments.ĭelivering backward compatibility for controllers would prove to be a much more complicated process on Xbox One than on PS4. Mad Catz also worked with Harmonix to build the eventual solution for Xbox instrument compatibility.

Harmonix co-published Rock Band 4 with Mad Catz, and the latter company handled the development of new controllers for the game - guitar, drum set and microphone. But Xbox 360 controllers aren't compatible with an Xbox One, which presented Harmonix with a problem.

PS3 instruments work seamlessly with Rock Band 4 on PlayStation 4 (as long as you still have those USB doohickeys lying around). Wireless Rock Band and Guitar Hero controllers required USB dongles on PlayStation 3, but they communicated directly with the Xbox 360 - no extra equipment necessary.

'People have spent good money on their controllers and it seemed crazy to force folks who already have good working controllers to buy new ones,' said Daniel Sussman, project manager on Rock Band 4 at Harmonix, in an email interview with Polygon.Īmong the challenges that Harmonix faced on the instrument front, perhaps none loomed larger than the connectivity conundrum. The studio conceived Rock Band 4 as a platform, designed to support as much of the music that players had previously purchased, and as many of the plastic instruments gathering dust in their closets, as possible. Harmonix achieved two unprecedented goals with Rock Band 4, and both required a lot of elbow grease.

Free download rock band legacy adaptor