Skip to main content

Harmonix ditches Mad Catz, signs on with new Rock Band 4 co-publisher PDP

harmonix signs on with pdp as new rock band 4 co publisher rb4pdp header
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Rock Band series developer Harmonix is scaling back its relationship with longtime development partner and co-publisher Mad Catz, announcing that peripheral manufacturer PDP is now “a partner for the ongoing development of Rock Band 4.”

Harmonix announced that new PDP-branded instrument peripherals for Rock Band 4 will be available starting this fall, though the game will continue to support existing Mad Catz controllers across all platforms.

Recommended Videos

Harmonix’s newly established relationship with PDP follows up on a recently announced corporate restructuring at Mad Catz, which saw the departure of several key executives and the culling of 37 percent of its workforce. Mad Catz bet heavily on the success of last year’s Rock Band 4, and while the game’s release led to a spike in specialty controller sales, full-band accessory bundles didn’t meet sales expectations.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Rock Band [4] sell-through was lower than originally forecast, resulting in higher inventory balances as well as lower margins due to increased promotional activity with retailers,” Mad Catz CEO Karen McGinnis stated as part of the company’s most recent quarterly financial results.

Harmonix notes that Mad Catz will continue to sell its remaining stock of Rock Band 4 games, bundles, and controllers, and will offer customer support via its website. The company will also continue to develop firmware updates for Rock Band 4 instruments.

According to Harmonix, details regarding PDP’s upcoming Rock Band 4 controllers will be announced “later this year at PAX East and E3.” While redesigned guitar and drum peripherals are likely in the works, Harmonix flatly denies that its new partnership with PDP will see the return of Rock Band 3‘s keyboard and Pro Guitar accessories.

Harmonix recently kicked off a crowdfunding campaign for a PC version of Rock Band 4 via revenue-sharing platform Fig. Given the timing of this week’s partnership announcement, PDP will likely manufacture all-new peripherals for the PC version of Rock Band 4, provided that Harmonix’s in-progress funding campaign is successful.

Danny Cowan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
PlayStation Network is still down after more than 12 hours
A soldier fighting a bile spewer in Helldivers 2.

Last night, PlayStation Network went down across the globe — and it's still not back online. The number of complaints about the outage peaked around 7 PM, with more than 14,000 users reporting issues at DownDetector. When the service first went offline, many players assumed it was temporary — perhaps overloaded servers on a Friday night — but you still can't log on, and the outage has revealed more cracks in Sony's network.

Sony posted on X that the company was aware of the outage and suggested players check status.playstation.com for more information. Unfortunately, every single indicator from Account Management to PlayStation Direct is currently offline, and there isn't an estimated resolution time in sight.

Read more
WWE 2K25’s bloody new match type is its ‘Final Destination, no items’ mode
Carmelo Hayes beats up a wrestler in WWE 2K25.

As a professional wrestling simulator, the WWE 2K series is already a complete package. It doesn’t just offer a massive roster of wrestlers and arenas, but a long list of match types too. Ladder matches, TLC, backstage brawls -- you name it, and it’s there. What more is there to add in a game that already has it all?

WWE 2K25 has a few answers this year, including a new kind of battle: underground matches. During a recent hands-on preview, I gave the option for a spin in a series of hard-hitting matches. While it certainly isn’t a game-changer, it might just be the best new mode for casual players who want to make a complex battle system just a bit easier to pick up and play.

Read more
Civilization 7 is perfect for strategy newcomers. I would know
An army faces the ocean in Civilization 7.

Having grown up almost exclusively playing games on consoles, PC games have always had this air of complexity surrounding them that kept me from engaging with them. I would see games like Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and Sim City in magazines or online and instantly feel overwhelmed by the density of what I was seeing. Compared to the games I was playing at the time, they appeared so sophisticated and intimidating to a newcomer that I inadvertently developed something of an aversion to playing on the platform as a whole.

I would later embrace PC as a platform alongside consoles, but a few genres remained locked away in my mind as being too intensive and unwelcoming for someone who didn't cut their teeth on them as a kid. 4X strategy games were at the top of that pile, which made me very uncertain how my time with Civilization VII would go. After my first weekend with the game flew by in what felt like an hour or two, it has cured my phobia towards the genre.
Learning to be a leader
From the outside, 4X games looked like all the most complex elements of a large-scale simulation, resource management sim, and turn-based tactics game wrapped into one. Admittedly, having never given one a proper chance before Civilization VII, I just assumed the only way to learn the game was to read a massive tome of instructions and be willing to spend hours of trial and error to understand how everything worked.

Read more