Out of everything that’s happened in the past year, the one thing I don’t think anyone had on their bingo cards was the original manufacturer of Rock Band 4’s peripherals, PDP, announcing the return of the guitar controller – let alone the added detail that it’s because of and made for Fortnite.
Here we are though, with Epic having just launched Fortnite’s incredibly Rock Band-esque Fortnite Festival mode, which allows players to “squad up” and perform a selection of music as a virtual band just like the good ol’ days of busting out the plastic instruments at parties. The one thing that’s notably missing from the experience right now is, of course, the instruments themselves. Presently, everything is done through regular controller inputs which is fine and still makes for a fun co-operative rhythm game but definitely doesn’t have the same spark.
That’s why this tease from PDP is so exciting, with the peripheral manufacturer sharing an image of a guitar controller on social media with the words “Rock On this January” accompanied by a series of emojis that very plainly reference Fortnite guitar controllers:
Rock On this January ?????? pic.twitter.com/IsjlmZyuGF
— PDP (@PDPgaming) December 12, 2023
Epic and Fortnite Festival/former Rock Band developer Harmonix have already stated that instrument support is coming to Fortnite Festival in the future, so there’s every reason for PDP to get back on board with producing at least the guitar once again. It remains to be seen whether we’ll see other instruments, or if this is potentially just a hint at the fabled Legacy Game Adapter making a return to allow folks to use existing instruments.
If you haven’t checked out Fornite Festival yet, it’s free to download and play as part of the base Fortnite game, along with two other new modes in LEGO Fortnite and Rocket Racing, which are both fantastic in their own ways.
