Rock Band guitar patch soon

By Tom Bramwell Published 6 December, 2007

Should support GH controllers.

Harmonix has finished work on a patch for the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band which adds compatibility with existing guitar controllers. Like the Guitar Hero ones, everyone hopes.

The patch "addresses a number of items related to guitar controller compatibility", a Harmonix bod on the official forum explained. "The update will be downloaded once the game is started."

The slightly bad news is that the patch doesn't appear to have been made available yet, despite Harmonix's confidence that it was done and ready and, indeed, deployed. The developer has now locked the relevant discussion thread while it waits to find out what's going on.

Still, when it does pitch up, it will mean that those of you in the US who have the PS3 version of Rock Band, or those who have imported it, will be able to introduce a second guitar-playing friend to the band.

Up to now that has only been possible on PS3 by acquiring a second Rock Band Fender Stratocaster controller, which meant either buying another full Rock Band bundle, including drums and microphone, or finding a friend with one.

The Xbox 360 version is already compatible with existing Guitar Hero guitars.

Rock Band is due out in Europe next spring.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • crazyhorse174 #1 5 years ago

    So if it was as easy as that to fix the problem, why not include it in the original package, rather than let the world go mental about it?

  • jaxon58 #2 5 years ago

    Well they were trying to get the game out in time for Xmas/Thanksgiving. Obviously.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 5 years ago

    I guess the wireless PS2 guitars could really be a problem to get them working. The 360 version does not have to deal with that; Maybe that is the reason why the patch takes a while to get released because as far as I know there are quite a lot of wireless guitars out there.

  • Myre #4 5 years ago

    By the way its been spread around by 'internet reports' from an EA insider that Rock Band won't be out in europe until March 8th.

    Now if one of my now many importers would just manage to sort out the apparently complex process of accepting payment and delivering the thing....

  • kangarootoo #5 5 years ago

    "So if it was as easy as that to fix the problem, why not include it in the original package, rather than let the world go mental about it?"

    Suggesting its their fault the world went mental?

  • tonynibbles #6 5 years ago

    Got it yesterday.

    Its awesome!

  • crazyhorse174 #7 5 years ago

    "So if it was as easy as that to fix the problem, why not include it in the original package, rather than let the world go mental about it?"

    Suggesting its their fault the world went mental?

    No. But if they knew about the problem and have fixed it so quickly, then why release it in the state it was in the first place?

    They would have still had it out in time for Christmas if they had waited til now.

  • Perjoss #8 5 years ago

    Its probably a good thing that its delayed in europe, I live in London and got mine delivered to me last friday. It's such a good game especially if you play with friends all in the same room but the guitar did break within hours, the strum bar just stops working. So this patch will be a god send for me. Hopefully europe will get the new round of better quality instruments. People also complaining about the drum pedal breaking, but it seems to me to be very sturdy, to be safe i always play with no shoes on, it just makes me more aware of how much pressure im putting on the pedal. Now i just need to figure out how i can buy the rock band DLC from the US playstation store :p

  • kangarootoo #9 5 years ago

    @crazyhorse174

    Maybe they didn't know it was a problem 'os they hadn't tested the game with their competitor's peripherals?

    Anyway, that is by the by. Almost certainly it was because QA cycles take a while, and you can't just make changes to a build when it is halfway through QA.

    Like so many of these sorts of issues, these are profesional companies and so whatever reason there was for the way things got done it was probably a good one. That it seems like a bad decision to a few gamers is hardly the measure of things.

  • daz_john_smith #10 5 years ago

    What about compatibility with Guitar Hero (360), I know its ultimately up to Activision to solve that, but if the Rock Band Strat isn't made compatible with GH I'm just going to have to buy myself a GH Les Paul which will work with both games and forgo some of the novelty features of the Rock Band Strat.