Boston — June 8, 2010 — Music industry superstars Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews Band and Kid Rock have each entered into exclusive agreements with Seven45 Studios to provide songs for Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, the first band videogame for which the guitar peripheral is a functioning six-string electric guitar. The deals mark the first time ever that songs from each of the three artists will appear as part of a music videogame. Power Gig: Rise of the SixString will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360®videogame and entertainment system October 2010.
“We are extremely excited and proud for Power Gig: Rise of the SixString to be the first videogame to attract the interest of a iconic guitarists and performers like Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews Band and Kid Rock,” said Seven45 Studios Chairman and CEO, Bernard Chiu. “It thrills us to know artists of their caliber agree we are breaking important ground by delivering a game featuring an authentic guitar that absolutely anyone can pick up and play, and which can impart real-life guitar skills that could put anyone on the path to joining these music legends on future lists of the world’s great performers.”
“We think Power Gig is a much needed and much welcomed game because, unlike any others before it, it puts a real guitar into the hands of aspiring musicians, and we hope it inspires our fans and others to start playing even when they’re not playing the game,” said Dave Matthews Band. “We love the thought that fans of ours who’ve never picked up an instrument can now play our music on a real guitar and experience what we love to do day in and day out.”
Iconic guitarist Eric Clapton, ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top five greatest guitarists of all time, is the only person ever to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times—once as a solo performer, and also as a member of rock bands Cream and the Yardbirds. The Grammy Award-winning Dave Matthews Band, much admired for their improvisational live performances, celebrated their fifth consecutive album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 this past summer with the release of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Kid Rock rose to fame with the 1998 album, Devil Without A Cause, and his most recent album, Rock N Roll Jesus sold more than 5 million albums worldwide and was certified triple platinum in the US. In addition to the agreements with these three artists, Power Gig will feature a robust song list featuring major label artists and emerging talent from the indie scene.
“I was never interested in pressing buttons on a guitar to entertain myself or anyone else,” said Kid Rock. “The reason I signed up with Power Gig is because this game is a way to not only have fun, but also to play real notes on an actual guitar! Anyone can now rock out—even if they have never shredded before in their life.”
Power Gig: Rise of the SixString will be the true evolution of the band videogame experience when it arrives this fall with a genuine six string guitar as controller. The guitar features Seven45’s proprietary technology that can distinguish and recognize gamers’ input all along the guitar, making the guitars as easy to pick up and play as any other band game button controllers. They also include all the guts of an electric guitar so players can plug their SixString guitars into any standard amplifier. In addition to traditional beat-matching that will be familiar to fans of the band game genre, Power Gig also introduces the option to switch on chording, which presents the added challenge of playing the game using chords that require specific finger placement on the strings. As players progress through the game, becoming more comfortable with a genuine guitar and potentially choosing to play real power chords, they will find that the byproduct of playing the game is coming away from it with an understanding of some real-life guitar fundamentals.
For more information, please visit http://www.powergig.com.
About Seven45 Studios
Seven45 Studios, headquartered in Boston, MA, is an innovative video Game Developer and Publisher of music games across all platforms. Composed of game and music industry veterans, the Seven45 team blurs the line between music and gaming by focusing on truly immersive experiences and character-driven storytelling to create revolutionary new games.
