Arcade Stick Maker Mad Catz Is Co-Publishing Rock Band 4

Developer Harmonix have announced that Rock Band 4 is being co-published by Mad Catz Interactive, the company that develops a number of arcade sticks for fighting games and sponsors professional players like Daigo Umehara and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi.

In accordance with the publishing arrangement, Mad Catz will “handle global retail sales, promotion and distribution of the Rock Band 4 game and hardware bundles, while Harmonix will handle all digital sales and content”.

In addition to co-publishing the game, Mad Catz are also developing a new line of wireless music game controllers that will be compatible with Rock Band 4. Whether or not existing Rock Band instruments will be compatible with the new game has not been confirmed just yet.

Rock Band 4 is in development for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and will be released later this year. Songs that have been downloaded on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 will be compatible with the new game, provided you’re playing the game on their respective console successors.

Meanwhile, Activision are bringing back the Guitar Hero franchise this Fall as well, under the title Guitar Hero Live. That game is in development for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Wii U.