The latest mode to come to Fortnite is Festival! This is a rhythm game mode with quite a few fun songs already expanding the world of Fortnite. We’ve just started the first season and Epic has confirmed something a bit unexpected, they’re working on Fortnite Rock Band controller support.

Why is Epic trying to add support for an unrelated franchise’s peripherals from a decade ago? The story behind Fortnite Festival clears that up a little bit, with the game actually being developed by a pretty familiar name in the world of Rhythm games. Players might even have a few of the Fortnite instruments kicking around their house already.

Fortnite Festival is a new rhythm game in Fortnite. You can use all of your Fortnite skins and play along to a decent variety of songs. The core gameplay is pretty familiar to past rhythm games though. It’s basically Rock band and Guitar Hero, but with Fortnite skins.

There’s a reason the gameplay is so familiar. This whole game is the outcome of Epic purchasing Harmonix back in 2021, the studio that originated Guitar Hero then made the Rock Band series of games. Epic hasn’t just aped an old style of game, they’ve acquired its developer and integrated them fully into Fortnite.

Source: Epic Games

Rock Band Controller Support Coming to Fortnite Festival

An interesting part of that heritage for the mode is coming up now, Fortnite Rock Band controller support. One thing a lot of players found who are enjoying the mode have wanted is physical instrument controllers like we got for old Rock Band games. Epic has announced their working on this.

The old Rock Band controllers that players used for older games will apparently be made to work within Fortnite. The details of this aren’t entirely clear though. The last full Rock Band game was released in 2014 and a good number of the controllers aren’t compatible with modern hardware. How will this be fixed? We might see PC get wider support, and Epic could be working on new controllers too.

It’s possible Epic is working on letting you use your old controllers plus giving you the option of buying a new one. Since they’re already selling cosmetics for instrument skins, this could be an interesting way to tie into physical controllers. Future Fortnite Rock Band controllers might come with a code for a similar-looking device in-game. This would let fans use the physical Fortnite instruments, but include the potential for rare Fortnite cosmetics that always get the community so excited!

Fortnite has expanded loads in recent weeks, with three whole new games released. New features like physical Fortnite Rock Band controllers can take these modes even further. The current chapter is a lot of fun, but the platform approach is leading to tons of impressive games being all in Fortnite right now.