Rock Band 2 song transfer priced

Harmonix and MTV will charge 400 Microsoft Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80) to transfer 55 on-disc songs from Rock Band 1 into Rock Band 2.

This excludes covers of "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath and "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden. Master recordings "Enter Sandman" by Metallica and "Through the Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel are off-limits, too.

Downloadable songs are unaffected by this licensing fee and should work with both games.

A title update will need to be downloaded in order to transfer the tracks. Not that Europeans should worry, as Rock Band 2 remains but a distant whisper here, despite the looming September release in the US.

Rock Band 2 will offer 84 on-disc tracks to bop along to, plus, apparently, 20 free downloadable numbers post-launch; there's no word on whether these are new arrivals or discounted oldies.

Harmonix believes - and indeed promises - that the combined total of songs available for Rock Band "platforms" will be 500 by the end of 2008. In the US, obviously