Shortly afterEpicreleased Fortnite Festival, andpromised instrument controller compatibility is in the works, peripheral expertsPDP teased it was already working on somethingfor the occasion. Sharing a silhouette of something that looked suspiciously like the guitar controllers that have become a thing of the past, PDP has now confirmed that’s exactly what it was working on.
The new guitar controller is called the Riffmaster, it launches this Spring, and you’ll be able to use it to jam onRock Band 4and Fortnite Festival. Well, just Rock Band 4 for now as a release date for Fortnite Festival’s promised peripheral compatibility hasn’t yet been revealed. Once that update is rolled out, PDP’s Riffmaster can be used to play all of the songs Epic has added to its rhythm-basedFortnitespinoff so far.
At first glance, the Riffmaster looks almost exactly the same as the old guitars we used to play Rock Band andGuitar Hero. That’s great, but there are some significant improvements designed to make the user experience far better than it used to be. Best of all, there’s an analog stick on the back, allowing you to scroll through menus, and move your character around the lobby in Fortnite Festival, without having to rely on the strum bar.
As reported byIGN, the Riffmaster’s design is ambidextrous, meaning both left and right-handed players can use it, and it has a foldable design making it easy to store and transport. You can also remove the faceplate, suggesting there will be other designs included or available to buy either at launch or in the future. There will be two versions of the Riffmaster releasing this Spring. One for theXbox OneandSeries X|S, and another for thePS4andPS5.
The arrival of the Riffmaster comes after the announcement from Harmonix thatthe latest batch of DLC for what is likely the final game in the Rock Band series will be its last. That’s due to the fact the team has now shifted its focus to Fortnite Festival. The mode is somewhat bare bones at the moment, but hopefully with the full attention of the Harmonix team now on it, and the release of new instrument controllers having officially begun, that will quickly change.
