This one sounds a little weird, mainly because you'd thing that releasing a game on PC would be a lot easier than doing so for console. Well that may be the case with most genres, but when it comes to using plastic toy instruments as controllers, things aren't so easy. Or maybe they are. Harmonix are asking for $1.5 million US to help bring Rock Band 4 to PC, with an expected release date of later this year.

The crowdfunding campaign for Rock Band 4 PC is being run via Fig, a platform that also allows those interested to invest in projects. Rock Band 4 was released last year on consoles after a long hiatus for the series that saw developer Harmonix go from being owned by a large corporation with publisher backing, to becoming an independent studio.

You might know us here at Harmonix as the creators of the blockbuster rock simulation game, Rock Band, one of the biggest franchises of the last generation of consoles. Back in the Rock Band heyday, we were owned by media giant Viacom, and distributed by game publishing giant Electronic Arts. What you might not know is that a few years ago, we spun back out of Viacom and went completely independent. This past October, we released Rock Band 4 for the consoles—the first new Rock Band release in 5 years. This was a massive undertaking for us as an indie studio, but we somehow pulled it off. We’re thrilled at the reception to the game so far, but we’re not done yet—the Rock Band 4 team is still hard at work, and they’ll be spending all of 2016 expanding and updating the game!

The past eight years have been all about building a community of music and game lovers who are as passionate about Rock Band as we are. But since the very first Rock Band release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in November 2007, there is something we keep getting requests for, something we've never had in the series' eight year history... a version of Rock Band for PC!

Announcing Rock Band 4 for PC