Rez, Lumines Dev To Localize Rock Band For Japan

Harmonix has announced it will partner with Lumines and Every Extend Extra developer Q Entertainment to localize its Rock Band for Japan, with both a revised soundtrack featuring Japanese musical acts and other localized assets. Harmonix says the partnership will mark "the first US-originated rock music game to be heavily localized for the Japanese market." The company also says partnering with Q Entertainment will benefit from the developer's "experience designing progressive and engaging games many of which have a heavy focus on integrating music elements into gameplay." Those games have included multiplatform musical block puzzler Lumines, which most recently was brought to Valve's Steam platform, Every Extend Extra for the PSP and a later re-imagined Xbox Live Arcade sequel, and a reworked version of studio head Tetsuya Mizuguchi's musical shooter Rez, also for Xbox Live Arcade. No further details on which of Japan's acts will be included on the localized version, or what other changes will be made to make the game more accessible to its local audience have yet been released.