Rocksmith+ was announced and intended for release last year, only to be delayed after beta feedback. It has now resurfaced, and the new subscription service for Ubisoft’s guitar-teaching series will instead launch next week on September 6th.
Here’s the “launch” trailer from June 2021, which I guess in retrospect was a bad name for the trailer:
At a glance, Rocksmith looks like Guitar Hero, with the screen showing a guitar neck stretching towards the horizon while coloured notes zoom towards the bottom of the screen. The difference is that you use a real guitar to play – acoustic, electric or bass – and the software detects whether you played the correct note or chord. You can therefore use it to learn how to play a real guitar with a library of real songs and tutorials to help you along.
The launch version will have 5000 songs across many genres, with subscriptions costing £13 for a month, £35 for three months or 12 months for £85. New songs will apparently be added regularly. If you previously owned Rocksmith 2014 or participated in the Rocksmith+ closed beta, you can get one month free when signing up for three months, or three months free when signing up for a year.
Since it’s a subscription service, Rocksmith+ is also excusive to the Ubisoft+ store.
As I slouch further towards middle age, I’ve discovered that it’s fun to buy dumb things as weekend projects, and that as far as “dumb things” go, musical instruments are relatively inexpensive. In the past year I have bought a keyboard, a harmonica, a ukelele and a melodica. I can’t play any of these instruments, but who can say no to a £15 melodica, an instrument which crosses the elegance of a piano with the anxious honking of an accordian? A more restrained dad than I, obviously.