Can Fortnite make plastic instruments cool again?

polygon.com:

Let’s say you’re feeling nostalgic. You remember the good old days, when Rock Band’s plastic accouterments lined the living rooms of millions of highly coordinated video game fans. Sure, you could boot up Fortnite Festival and pay a few dollars for the privilege of keeping up with Selena Gomez’ ‘Single Soon.’ But you already own hundreds of songs in Rock Band, and somehow, watching Peter Griffin lip sync something out of the current top 40 doesn’t hit the same. Plus, you still have the old consoles that can play Rock Band 4, Harmonix’s last big rhythm game foray before the developer was gobbled up by Epic Games. Except, whoops, you got rid of all those fake instruments years ago.

You now have a few choices. Probably, you’re going to skip out on purchasing a brand new controller — they’ve become so rare that they are now more expensive than a PS5. You could spend hundreds of dollars on a used-but-tested Rock Band guitar via eBay, secure with the knowledge that the item still works. You could take a gamble and spend less on an untested guitar — but even here, you’re likely looking at over a hundred dollars to play a game you already own. Both options mean buying something old, so the chances of you needing to repair the equipment are more than zero. And while the parts that keep these controllers running smoothly aren’t that expensive, they’re not mass produced. The few DIY shops that sell Rock Band guitar parts and mods are likely already sold out. Never mind the hassle of opening up your controller, or the possibility that you might need to learn how to solder.

All of this work, mind you, would be to play either the base game or expansions that you already own. The closure of online storefronts like the Xbox 360 marketplace alongside the delisting of digital-only expansions means that options are somewhat limited for new Rock Band players. Still, between an active modding community that maps its own custom songs and the game’s availability on modern platforms like