Hardware

Ion Drum Rocker, The First Peripheral That Might Result In Sex With A Woman

August 25, 2008

Ion announced their tactical nuke in the escalating rhythm game peripheral arms race, the Drum Rocker, back at E3. When Rock Band 2 hits shelves for the Xbox 360 on September 14th, gamers who take their drumming seriously can shell out the $300 for Ion’s premium drum kit, or close to $400 if you opt for the extra cymbal and double down on the kick pedal. On the plus side, this is the first game peripheral that could actually get you laid. According to Ion business development director (and former professional drummer), Adam Cohen, the Ion represents the only ticket to actually learning to play an instrument via video games. It’s not like your old Power Glove ever really contributed to your life. Get the full run down on the Ion Drum Rocker and all it has to offer from Adam Cohen after the jump.

Das Gamer: Three hundred bucks is a lot to drop on a game peripheral, what makes these things worth the cash?
Adam Cohen: There is actually precedent for having game controllers be in the kind of three hundred dollar price range. Not a lot, but there are certain things that are out there like the high-end wheel that Logitech does for racing games. The other thing, and the thing with no regard to this kit specifically, it’s not just a drum set controller for Rock Band. If you want to kind of go to that next level and start to play drums for real, you can in fact, replace that controller module with a more professional drum module, a drum brain, as some people like to call them actually convert this electronic percussion controller into an actual full blown, professional drum set which can tend to sell for several hundred dollars, and at the high end, can sell for several thousand dollars. So to get professional level pads and access to a professional level brain like that, plus a set that’s optimized to play Rock Band, which obviously several musicians and non musicians find extremely addictive, it’s actually quite an inexpensive option.

Why did Ion decide to launch with Rock Band?
Adam Cohen: Our Creative Director, Jon Hayes, had worked with Harmonix on the original hardware controllers for Rock Band, and so we had a preexisting relationship with them. Besides, when the project started, Rock Band was the only game in town that offered the experience of playing drums, and we felt then (and still do) that Harmonix did a phenomenal job of creating a great playing experience that we could enhance with our expertise in the electronic percussion world.

Will the Drum Rocker work Guitar Hero World Tour?
Adam Cohen: We created Drum Rocker adhering to the drum controller standard that Harmonix pioneered, so Drum Rocker will work with any game that adheres to that standard. Activision announced support for the Rock Band drums at E3, so Drum Rocker should work with GH in much the same way that the core Rock Band set does.

As a drummer and as a musician how long is it until people start actually becoming musicians, based off of what they’ve learned from Rock Band?
Adam Cohen: Drums is the real instrument in Rock Band, where, what you’re doing in the game, really does translate, fairly directly, to actually playing the real instrument. You know, the whole concept of having independence between, well for most players, the right foot and your left and right hands, you know, that really does start to come in to play. And developing the ability to keep one pattern with one hand, and doing other things with another hand, again is a direct corollary to really playing drums.

The Rock Band drum set has four pads set up in line (and allows for cymbals). Can gamers configure the Drum Rocker set to mimic actual drums?
Adam Cohen: We do because it’s on a drum rack that is very similar, in fact, it’s the same as what you would get if you were buying a professional set of electronic drums. And so you have the ability with our kit to place your toms, place your symbols, really kind of anywhere you want.

Is there a chance that this peripheral and rhythm games in general could create a legion of actual drummers out there?
Adam Cohen: Yeah, we think it will. In fact, in some of the meetings we’ve had in the last couple of weeks, both at E3 and shortly thereafter, we’ve had a lot of people say to us, “You know, you guys really are creating the next generation of musicians, and sooner or later, we’re going to hear about somebody who started playing drums with Rock Band. And from there, went on to playing real drums in a real band and you know, at some point get signed by a label and starts making records.” And we very much believe it.

The logical next question is do you think that your peripheral will actually be responsible for getting someone laid at a future date?
Adam Cohen: [Laughs] Uhm, you know, it’s certainly possibly. It’s not a marketing spin to put on things, but I wouldn’t put it past if you want to follow the progression of traditional musicians or at least the fantasy, that’s certainly possible.

Alright, so you’re not going to put it on, there’s not going to be a sticker on the box where it might get you laid, somewhere down the road?
Adam Cohen: Correct, correct.

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