Rock Band 4 lets the roadie Mad Catz join the tour

The company behind Rock Band’s controllers will also help publish the game.

Harmonix’s Rock Band 4 has a co-publisher: Gaming peripheral maker Mad Catz, the company announced today. Under the deal, MadCatz handles global retail sales, promotion, and distribution of the upcoming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game, while Harmonix covers digital sales and downloadable content. This agreement should help Harmonix go up against rival franchise, Activison’s Guitar Hero, which is also expected to relaunch this year.

This is a continuation of an existing relationship — Mad Catz handled some publishing duties for Rock Band 3. But this is its first copublishing agreement, and it has the company playing a bigger role, using its distribution channels and retail expertise to place hardware and game bundles in stores later this year.

Harmonix previously announced that the reboot of the guitar game franchise would have Mad Catz creating new plastic instrument controllers. The peripheral maker reveals today that it is developing a new range of wireless controllers for the game, for “guitarists, bassists, drummers, and singers.”