Nyko's Xbox 360 wireless guitar -- an alternative?
Nyko is still not sure if they'll go to market with this concept for a wireless Xbox 360 guitar, and until we saw the Red Octane wireless guitars it was an option which made sense. The guitar is still viable, anything for a buck, but it just seems strange now given the relatively close future option. The reason for this guitar and its awkward set-up goes back to the whole mess with Microsoft's proprietary wireless. Nyko came up with a wireless guitar (seen above left) which uses a wired Xbox 360 controller and the white box (center) as a receiver for the signal. The box acts as a bridge for the wireless. The catch is the fact you need a wired controller which retails at $39.99. The guitar could either be -- they're floating prices -- $59 or $69 dollars, raising the question of whether people would pay $10 or $20 less for a wireless guitar which avoids the possibility of the Microsoft licensing fee being passed on to consumers. Once again, the licensing fee is pure speculation at this point, but nobody is saying anything at Red Octane, Harmonix, or Microsoft about it -- send up the red flags.
But here's the key to this guitar -- it works really well. Really, really, well! While testing it we walked out of the room, across the hall, hid behind a stand and the only reason we started missing notes was because it was hard to see the screen from 60+ feet. Is the guitar worth filling the wireless gap for the few months that Red Octane waits to release their guitars with Guitar Hero III? That's up to the consumer, if Nyko decides to release the guitar. The hidden cost in this product is the wired controller, which raises the question of how big will they have to put those words on the box for the average consumer to see and register the information? The whole thing is still a toss-up about what they'll do, but as for the quality and functionality of the guitar -- it's definitely working.
