Rock Band

The Rock Band Network is no more.

The licenses for some old Rock Band DLC songs are starting to expire. Some will be renewed but some won't, Harmonix explained, and the latter kind will disappear.

It all started in 2005 when Harmonix and RedOctane released Guitar Hero, and the world went nuts for the game with the plastic guitar. Harmonix rode that music game tidal wave into EA's arms and the pair dreamt up Rock Band.

Rock Band and Rock Band Reloaded will be removed from the iOS App Store next week, EA has announced.

EA's (now withdrawn) decision to cancel support for Rock Band iOS has highlighted the cover-all nature of its mobile gaming EULA policy, which is largely inaccessible until a player has already paid for the game.

UPDATE: Rock Band iOS will remain playable, a new statement from EA has announced, despite last night confirming the opposite.

A court ruling has demanded Viacom pay shareholders in former subsidiary Harmonix $383 million in withheld bonus payments.

Harmonix doc details "rough, scary" development.

MTV has announced that Bob Marley's Legend compilation will arrive in the Rock Band Store on 22nd September, confirming hints dropped earlier this week.

You can get the whole set for £9.99 on PSN or 1600 Microsoft Points (£13.60 / €19.20) on Xbox 360. Individual tracks cost 99p on PSN, 160 Microsoft Points (£1.36 / €1.92) on Xbox 360 or 200 Points (£1.80) on Wii.

"My father was interested in bringing reggae music to the entire world," Bob's son Ziggy Marley told the MTV Multiplayer Blog, "and now that his music is coming to Rock Band, as the first reggae artist in the game, we are excited to open the doors to reggae music to a whole new group of young people."

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Bob Marley's greatest hits compilation, Legend, will hit the Rock Band Store on 21st September according to VH1.

MTV has reportedly denied that a Jimi Hendrix version of Rock Band is in the works.

MTV owner Viacom is going is asking Harmonix for a refund on some of the $150 million it has paid the Rock Band developer in bonuses, reports Gamasutra.

Corbomite Games CEO Oded Sharon has told Eurogamer that the majority of bands will struggle to fulfil requirements for getting a song published on the Rock Band Network.

Harmonix has confirmed today's opening of the Rock Band Network beta - the service that will allow anyone to create, share and even sell their own songs for the game.

This will only be available on Xbox 360 to begin with as Microsoft has been a key partner in realising the service. However, PS3 support is part of the larger plan.

The announcement comes by way of a Wall Street Journal report, a date in which was later confirmed by a Harmonix member of staff.

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There are now over 1000 songs to download for Rock Band, thanks to the updates offered weekly since the series launched in late 2006.

Music trio EA, Harmonix and MTV have launched the iPhone version of Rock Band on the App Store.

The members of popular beat combo U2 have said they would quite like to appear in a music game after all, actually.

The Rock Band series is set to make its debut on iPhone.

Echo & the Bunnymen lead singer Ian McCulloch has dismissed music games as "crap" - and wished instant death on everyone who plays them.

Sub Pop Records has confirmed three Flight of the Conchords songs for Rock Band, just like comedy duo Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie promised.

There will be one song from upcoming album "I Told You I Was Freaky", and two from the eponymous "Flight of the Conchords" collection. Sub Pop won't say what the songs are.

Eurogamer's resident FOTC expert Chris Ward expects the songs to be "It's Business Time" and "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)". He hopes "Robots" will replace one of those, but he can't be sure.

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Songs from musical comedy Flight of the Conchords may be heading to Rock Band, assuming what comedy duo Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement said on The Emmys' red carpet wasn't a joke. Frankly, we can't tell.

The PS3 Store refresher boasts new games, demos and DLC aplenty, while PlayStation Home opens a new Events Space for Buzz!

Get questions right and a tomato will be lobbed at a rotating Buzz statue. Get 10 questions right in a row and you will unlock a tomato head to put on your Home avatar.

Smash Cars and Battle Tanks are the low-key PSN additions, although their price - £12 and £8 respectively - is steep. Conversely, Crash Commando has had a price-cut to promote new content added today.

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Extra songs for Guitar Hero and Rock Band are all the PlayStation Store has to offer this week.

Harmonix has signed exclusive rights to reproduce Green Day songs in Rock Band.

Rock Band and Rock Band 2 are to be graced with an Iron Maiden track pack the week after next (from 9th June), according to the Rock Band community 'zine and Kotaku.

There are demos aplenty on the PS3 Store this weekend, including tasters for inFamous, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

There's plenty more content for existing PS3 games as well. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena gets a map pack as does F.E.A.R. 2. There are some monster-themed costumes and level-making tools for LittleBigPlanet, plus some special Live recordings by Alice Cooper for Rock Band. Alice, remember, is a man. It's so confusing.

Also, note the excellent puzzler Fading Shadows for download on PSP. This costs 12 quid but is well worth the money. Pop over to our Fading Shadows review to find out more.

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Sony has restocked the PSN cupboards ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest weekend.

Scratchy Marvel superhero Wolverine is the growl of the town this week; the film launched on Wednesday and the game arrives tomorrow. There's a demo here to try out, and our review is poised, ready to strike. Hint: brutal but banal.

The other eye-catcher is the Steel & Titanium map pack for Killzone 2, adding an extra pair of multiplayer maps. The Cops and Robbers mode - does what it says on the tin - for Burnout Paradise might be worth a look, too. Expensive, though.

The rest is fairly run-of-the-mill. Incidentally, the Brain Challenge Bundle is a brain-teaser game plus add-on packs.

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There's lots to buy on the PlayStation Store this week, plus free samples of Red Faction Guerrilla UFC 2009 Undisputed to try.

Episode two of Penny Arcade Adventures finally shows up but, being non-essential, will need careful consideration before purchase. I've heard that one before. The excellent Exit turns digital-download for PSP, which also receives a Chessmaster game and a couple of PSone oldies.

Saints Row 2 leads the additional content charge with Ultor Exposed (we've just published our review), but there's DLC offered for Godfather II, HAWX, Midnight Club: LA, SmackDown 2009 and Mahjong Tales as well. Plus, LittleBigPlanet gets another dose of the planned April content.

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Following Friday's announcement of new pricing for Rock Band instruments in Europe, EA has confirmed to Eurogamer that the prices apply to the original Rock Band 1 instruments only.

Guitar Hero developer Neversoft has announced that the World Tour drum kit is to get a standalone release.

Psyonix Studios' Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars heads the PlayStation Store update this week.

Sony has stuffed the PlayStation Store with a F.E.A.R. 2 demo and plenty of other bits and bobs.

It's about time Rock Band made it to the Wii. After all, Nintendo's little white box is the ultimate social gaming machine, and Harmonix's big expensive box is the most fun you can have with friends you don't want to sleep with. The perfect match, in theory. In practice, the core gameplay is present and correct, making for a highly enjoyable experience. But if you've played Rock Band on the PS3 or 360, you can't help noticing that something's missing. Quite a few things, in fact.

At least the instruments are up to scratch. The full kit retails for GBP 129.99 (though it's easy enough to find if for under a hundred quid online). For that you get a USB hub, wired microphone and wired drum kit, plus a wireless guitar and receiver. The game must be purchased separately, as with Rock Band for other consoles.

Side-by-side, the Wii peripherals look almost identical to the Xbox 360 ones - the most obvious exception being the drum kit is white instead of black. The pads are identical and make just as much noise. The spring on the Wii kit's foot pedal feels like it has slightly more recoil, meaning a little more effort is required but less accidental presses are likely.

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Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic has paid tribute to Rock Band for encouraging people to buy music again, but admitted he's rubbish at it himself.

Sony has stuffed the PlayStation Store with new content but there is still no sign of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

Harmonix boss Alex Rigopolous has confirmed we won't see a third Rock Band game this side of 2010.

Investment analyst Ben Schachter of UBS has been poring over the sales figures of Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the US, and has found that the Activision Blizzard series outsold the EA games by over a million copies in November.

The picture isn't quite as clear-cut as it seems, though. Schachter - as quoted by GameSpot - found that Guitar Hero sales are in decline compared to last year, while Rock Band's are increasing sharply. Overall, the huge US market for music games created by the original Guitar Hero seems to be in decline.

Over 1.7 million Guitar Hero games of all versions and formats were sold in the US in November, of which 978,000 were copies of the latest version, Guitar Hero World Tour. This compares with 628,452 copies of Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

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Harmonix has confirmed that this week's Rock Band pack rustles up five country music numbers - and that Pearl Jam's debut album ten is on the way.

Sony has restocked the PlayStation Store cupboards to include a free Santa outfit for LittleBigPlanet. Ho ho ho.

The same game also hails the arrival of four Street Fighter-themed costumes, featuring togs worn by Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile and Zangief. These are GBP 1.59 a pop, or all four for GBP 4.79.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord is up for grabs at GBP 15.99. And full games NBA Live '09 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 can be downloaded for GBP 29.99 and GBP 31.99, respectively.

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Rouge-lipped vixen Gwen Stefani and No Doubt are the downloadable extras for Rock Band on Xbox 360 today.

December's first Rock Band downloadable content is a pick-and-mix of single tracks from a broad selection of groups and a couple of efforts from Naked Brothers Band, Harmonix has said in its regular DLC update.

Sony and Harmonix have kick-started the UK's National Videogame Archive by donating cherished early prototypes of their work.

Harmonix and MTV have bolstered the Rock Band library of music on Xbox Live.

The Dead Kennedys are the latest popular beat combo to get their sparkling pop songs in the 360 version of Rock Band.

Sony has crammed plenty of content onto the PlayStation Store this week.

The most of expensive bits are full downloadable versions of PSP games FIFA 09 (GBP 29.99) and puzzler The Cube (GBP 15.99), which we had no idea were turning up.

However, the most interesting - for us at least - are the new costumes for LittleBigPlanet. Yes, we do like dressing up. There's a free Sack-eating-plant outfit, and four more costumes at GBP 0.79 each: Lily Pad, Hugo (a gorilla), Great Blue and Frost-e. These are bundled together in an Animal Costumes pack for GBP 2.39.

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MTV parent company Viacom plans to dish out enormous USD 300 million (GBP 193 million) in bonuses to Rock Band creators Harmonix for exceeding performance targets.

Harmonix has detailed the second batch of downloadable Rock Band songs to be stuffed onto a disc and sold in shops.

Harmonix has announced that Foo Fighters album "The Colour and the Shape" will be released as downloadable content for the Rock Band games next week.

Harmonix, developer of new guitar, drums and microphone-compatible music game Rock Band 2, has said it's not in direct competition with Guitar Hero: World Tour.

MTV and Harmonix have added Fall Out Boy song "I Don't Care" and Hinder track "Use Me" to Rock Band.

MTV, Apple Corps and Harmonix have announced that they are collaborating on "a brand new videogame featuring the music of the iconic Beatles" due out next Christmas.

Harmonix and MTV may be on the verge of landing The Beatles for Rock Band.

Harmonix has announced that this week's Rock Band content consists of a Siouxsie and the Banshees pack and individual tracks from Blink-182, The Psychedelic Furs and Silversun Pickups.

Punk-lovers can check out the Siouxsie and the Banshees pack for 440 Microsoft Points (GBP 3.74 / EUR 5.28) or USD 5.49 on PS3, which gets them "Hong Kong Garden", "The Killing Jar" and "Kiss Them For Me". The tracks are also available individually for 160 MSP (GBP 1.36 / EUR 1.92) or USD 1.99 for PlayStation players.

And if that isn't to your liking, you could go for Blink-182's "Dammit", The Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty In Pink", or Silversun Pickups' "Melatonin" or "Well Thought Out Twinkies". All the individual songs go for the usual rate, and all the songs are master recordings.

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The Rage Wireless Guitar Controller for Wii is being recalled because of faulty circuitry causing batteries to leak on and burn human beings that might have families.

Topically, Harmonix and MTV will add a trio of songs by The Presidents of the United States of America to Rock Band on 4th November.

Harmonix has said that Rock Band will have country music "sooner or later" after Country Music Television reported that "select country tracks" would be released in December.

Harmonix has announced that a seven-song Nirvana track pack will be released for Rock Band 1 and 2 this week.

Sony has updated the PlayStation Store with PS3 demos of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, neither of which ask you for a penny.

Harmonix has revealed that Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood album will be released for Rock Band this week.

Harmonix and MTV have added more downloadable songs for Rock Band, lead by spiky-haired Californian punk rock group The Offspring.

MTV and Harmonix have signed an exclusive collection of live AC/DC tracks for Rock Band.

MTV Games has confirmed the Wii version of Rock Band 2 will offer downloadable songs in the future.

MTV and Harmonix will be adding the Red Hot Chili Pepper's 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik to Rock Band 2.

Sony has stuffed Fracture and Soulcalibur IV demos on the PlayStation Store this week.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick has declared Guitar Hero is winning the battle of the band-based games.

MTV has decided to make a telly show about people playing Rock Band 2, and call it - brilliantly - Rock Band 2: The Show.

MTV and Harmonix have chucked three songs by US metal band All That Remains online for Rock Band.

EA has snipped the price of all versions of Rock Band to GBP 109.99 / EUR 139.99, ahead of the PS3, PS2 and Wii launch this Friday. Which is all rather sudden.

Harmonix has said Nirvana album "Nevermind" was never confirmed as DLC for Rock Band, but only ever used as an example of what could be offered.

However, that's not to say the acclaimed collection of songs will never appear, according to community manager Sean Baptiste on Co-Optimus (spotted by Kotaku).

"Nevermind" was mentioned back in July 2007 as one of the albums to be added to Rock Band after launch.

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More full albums for Rock Band 2

MTV and Harmonix have added more tracks to Rock Band, lead by the British pop rock band with funny haircuts, Duran Duran. Sorry, "a" British pop rock band with funny haircuts.

It's been a while since we last did this - just over four months in fact - so it seems like a good time to dip back into Microsoft's Game Store to see if anything of interest has been added. This won't be a complete list of every new bit of downloadable content released since April, but rather a closer look at the bits and pieces that caught our eye - whether it's for all the right, or all the wrong, reasons.

As always, we'll be breaking down the cost of each item in real money so you can gauge the relative value of your precious Microsoft Points, and also giving you the lowdown on what you get for your outlay and whether it's worth the effort.

Ninja Gaiden 2

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MTV and EA have cobbled together another pack of songs for Rock Band, culled from the catalogue of Heavy Metal indie stalwarts Roadrunner Records, all of which should be out now.

MTV has updated Rock Band with three Nine Inch Nails tracks and a pair of Shinedown songs.

The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has grumpily admitted that Rock Band "bored" him, and laments how technology has changed the way we interact with music.

Electronic Arts is planning to release two new drum kits for Rock Band 2.

Konami has filed a lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV and Viacom, claiming music game Rock Band infringes on its patents.

Five new tunes have hit the ground strumming on Rock Band's roster this week, pushing the rockometer right up to eleven. Or ten and a half, maybe.

Famous rockers such as Guns 'N Roses and Van Halen are said to be fleshing out deals to capitalise on the popularity of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

MTV and Harmonix will be releasing a trio of cheap Rock Band songs tomorrow to celebrate the upcoming CrueFest event in Hollywood.

In case you weren't paying attention last week, today marks the release of The Pixies' "Doolittle" album for Rock Band on Xbox 360.

According to a Financial Times report, representatives for the Beatles are talking to both Activision and MTV, the owners of Guitar Hero and Rock Band respectively, about creating a "Beatles-themed game".

MTV has lined-up "Doolittle" by The Pixies as the third downloadable album for Rock Band.

Numerous reports suggest MTV and Harmonix are hard at work on a sequel to Rock Band, with some retailer databases suggesting it could be out as early as November this year.

Lounge stars busy rocking out with the new PAL version of Rock Band can look forward to downloadable songs from Jimmy Buffett and Disturbed this week and a song from Maximo Park next Tuesday.

Harmonix and MTV Games are teaming up with Q Entertainment to launch Rock Band in Japan.

First things first, we should all thank whatever combination of MTV, Harmonix and EA employees kept us from Rock Band for six months. European gamers crave misery, and we've been deprived of it recently: Halo 3, GTA IV and Meta Gear Solid 4 have all been given simultaneous worldwide release dates, and Nintendo has even released a few things here first, like Mario Kart Wii. That was unimaginable a few years ago, so being forced to wait six months for the most anticipated music game ever, pay twice what the Americans have to and only get it on one format is much more like it. We can properly despise that and moan about it forever. Thanks guys.

Rock Band is worth getting hot and bothered over, too. It's SingStar and Guitar Hero rolled into one with a "Drum Hero" sat in the corner hammering four pads and a foot-pedal. Since Europe's is an Xbox 360 exclusive for the time being, there are none of the irritating compatibility issues with old Guitar Hero peripherals that US PS3 owners had to complain about, either, so you can dust off your GH3 Les Paul and GH2 X-plorer and put them to work again. The idea, as you know, is to form a band with three of your friends and tour the virtual world playing classic songs like Nirvana's "In Bloom" and The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation".

Individually, the guitar, drums and vocal games could stand alone. Developer Harmonix didn't have to reinvent guitar gameplay, but it did have to change it a bit to differentiate it from Guitar Hero (despite having made that game in the first place - hurrah for big business). You still play the game by holding down one of five fret buttons on the plastic guitar neck and using the strum-bar to play notes as corresponding icons reach the bottom of a fretboard-shaped gameplay area on-screen, and you still build up star power (now called Overdrive) by completing highlighted sequences without error, activating the points-multiplying payoff by holding the neck aloft.

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It's a scenario that will be familiar to many Eurogamer readers. Normal videogames are small enough to conceal in a jacket, but when you arrive home with a new console or peripheral, let alone a box the size of Rock Band's instrument pack, there's no escaping the interrogation.

Motley Crue has revealed that its new single "Saints of Los Angeles" sold five times more as a Rock Band downloadable track than it did on services such as iTunes or Amazon.

Retailer GAME has revealed that it may struggle to meet demand for Rock Band when the game is released for Xbox 360 this Friday.

Harmonix and MTV games will be unleashing the second full-length downloadable album for Rock Band next week, in time for the European launch of the game.

EA has plans to release a bundle of extra songs on disc for the Wii version of Rock Band.

Harmonix has said the first downloadable album for Rock Band will finally be available next week, after months and months of promises.

Motley Crue have decided to release their upcoming single as a downloadable track for Rock Band.

Harmonix has told the Internet there's no point going bonkers over the European price of Rock Band, saying the game is "not magically going to get cheaper because you wish it to be so".

Yesterday, EA announced Rock Band will make its debut in Europe on 23rd May. Big news. It was also revealed the game will be exclusive to Xbox 360, at least for a few months. Again, big news. But these announcements were almost entirely forgotten as the Internet was too busy going, "WHAT? One HUNDRED and EIGHTY POUNDS?" Or, "Zut ALORS! DEUX-cent QUARANTE EURO?" etc.

Play.com is the first online retailer to reduce the hefty asking price for Rock Band and all three instruments.

Harmonix has explained that the Euro-exclusive songs in Rock Band will not be a part of the main set list, easing any worries of suddenly trying to master a foreign track.

Harmonix's Rob Kay has responded to criticisms over the European price point for Rock Band, telling Eurogamer: "We're not trying to rip anybody off."

EA has confirmed the price for Rock Band, following the European date announcement this morning.

Electronic Arts will be releasing the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band in Europe on 23rd May.

Harmonix, MTV Games and Electronic Arts have confirmed a Wii version of Rock Band is on the way - as promised by silver-haired fox John Riccitiello at the beginning of February.

It will be available in the US in June, with the bundle - game, drums, microphone, wireless guitar - suggested to retail for USD 169.99.

However, the Wii version will not support online multiplayer nor allow you to download additional songs. The PS3 and 360 have enjoyed fresh tracks every week since the American launch last November.

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MTV has announced that more than 6 million Rock Band songs have been sold as downloadable content.

What's more, Harmonix is this week rolling out the Rock Band Music Store for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which lets you go through the troublesome downloading rituals without leaving the game.

That's not all it does, either - you can sort downloadable songs by Artist, Song Title, Genre, Album, Pack "and more!"

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The European versions of Rock Band may feature exclusive regional songs.

Word comes from the Play.com Live event at the weekend, where keen-eyed attendees spotted a track list wielded by EA staff demonstrating the game.

According to ButtonBandits, UK rockers will get Beetlebum by Blur, Rock 'n' Roll Star by Oasis, Through the Monsoon by Tokyo Hotel and Hysteria by Muse.

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Harmonix's Greg LoPiccolo has said the studio is keen to give Rock Band players the chance to create their own music tracks for the game.

Harmonix had to learn the hard way that people will only play amazing games like FreQuency and Amplitude if you give them big stupid plastic musical instruments to hold.

Viacom will be paying Harmonix an additional USD 208.7 million under terms of the company's acquisition, based upon the success of Rock Band, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Harmonix will be treating Xbox Live owners to the long-awaited Grateful Dead downloadable content this week.

Portal end-credits song "Still Alive" (oh come on, you must know that by now) is set to join the ranks of downloadable tracks in Rock Band.

NanaOn-Sha's Masaya Matsuura would like to see Rock Band developer Harmonix open up its game so that people can use their own music.

Shooters and sports games. RPGs and racers. Strategy and simulation, action and adventure. The lines may blur but for the most part you know where you are with these. If a game's got guns, cars, football or wizards, it's easy to see where it fits.

Silver-haired fox John Riccitiello has confirmed Rock Band is coming to the Wii.

Speaking during a conference call, he also revealed the game will be released in Europe across all platforms (with the possible exception of Gizmondo) some time after 1st April.

"One of the things I'm very proud of is the partnership between Electronic Arts and MTV," he said.

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EA has remembered what the 'a' in its name stands for and announced a trio of downloadable prog-rock songs for Rock Band, celebrating the boundary-breaking work of the likes of Rush, Coheed and Cambria and Smashing Pumpkins.

Microsoft is definitely and not maybe sure Oasis songs will be downloadable for Rock Band.

MTV has said more than 2.5 million Rock Band songs have been downloaded from Live and PSN.

Microsoft has accidentally leaked the January downloadable content schedule for Rock Band.

Those of you who have imported the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band will be interested to learn that the US Official Xbox Magazine is cover-mounting a trio of exclusive add-on songs later this month.

Activision has made it clear that the reason it is blocking the release of a patch to let PS3 owners play Harmonix/MTV's Rock Band with the Guitar Hero III controller it created is because it wants compensation.

First, SingStar transformed home entertainment for starry-eyed pop tarts, allowing us to realise our wildest Pop Idol fantasies. Then along came Guitar Hero, turning a generation of fret-wank wannabes into living room rock gods.

Activision has struck back at claims made by Rock Band developer Harmonix that it is holding up the release of a patch that would allow its Guitar Hero III peripheral to work with the PS3 version of the competing title, arguing that Harmonix and its owner MTV would not be in this position if they had accepted "Activision's offer to reach an agreement" about compatibility. Presumably by "reach an agreement", they mean "hand over the money all of it chop chop".

Rock Band developer Harmonix is claiming that a patch designed to allow the use of PS3 Guitar Hero controllers with its new game is being blocked by Activision, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

When Harmonix announced the development of Rock Band, it said it would work to allow the game to support the guitar peripheral released for Guitar Hero - the Activision-published series that Harmonix originally developed for RedOctane.

However, when Rock Band was released, PS3 owners were unable to use the Les Paul guitar controller included with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Harmonix said that it had created a software patch to solve the problem, but now that patch is being blocked.

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Are you ready to rock? Again? With more peripherals? Of course you are. But is it as good as it obviously should be?

Rock Band is the most ambitious music game ever. You can sing, you can play guitar and you can drum, but most importantly you can get some friends round and do all three at once - with a fourth role for a bass player if you decide to buy a second guitar peripheral.

The initial reaction is that each discipline could stand up as its own game. Guitar-playing is a natural evolution of Guitar Hero: you still hold the fret button specified and strum as it passes through a bar at the bottom of the screen, and you can build up star power (sorry, "Overdrive") by playing certain sequences of highlighted notes flawlessly and then holding the neck aloft. But now you can also drop your left hand to a quintet of smaller frets closer to the body of the guitar to dance your fingers through complicated solos, and occasionally songs end with an unscripted finale that encourages you to cram in as much thrashing as possible before ending on a particular chord.

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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.

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Ageing rock lords Metallica will consider airing their new single as a downloadable track for Rock Band.

Harmonix may be facing complaints about problems with the quality of Rock Band's initial guitar peripherals and the PS3 version not working with Guitar Hero accessories, but they can't really be blamed for this one: one lucky Rock Band forumite claims he's being playing the game so much he's actually getting evicted.

Harmonix says it's working hard to resolve problems with the PS3 version of Rock Band - including, by the sound of it, the lack of compatibility with Guitar Hero guitars.

As made famous earlier this month, EA has slung up yet more downloadable content for Rock Band.

MTV big cheese Jeff Yap has hinted that his next game project will be something completely different to Rock Band.

A clever Internet man has discovered how to get his new Xbox 360 Rock Band drum-kit working with Windows.

Harmonix says that it's not its fault if Guitar Hero controllers don't work with the PS3 version of Rock Band, which they don't.

Harmonix, EA and MTV have finally told us how much it will cost to download extra music for Rock Band, and isn't an arm and a leg.

The final 13 bonus songs we were missing to make up the full Rock Band track list have now been aired.

MTV has confirmed that you will be able to buy individual downloadable songs from Artist Packs rather than buy the whole lot.

Speaking to investors during a conference call, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that he was "highly confident" in Rock Band and didn't expect to be able to meet demand for the game, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band creator Harmonix is hard at work designing a new game not based around matching pre-recorded music using plastic peripherals.

EA and MTV have finally unravelled the track list for Rock Band.

Rock Band's US release will be supported by a community minded relaunch for the game's official website - www.rockband.com - to help encourage the game's early buyers to play together.

EA UK has distanced itself from comments suggesting that Rock Band peripherals will not be sold separately until early 2008.

PS3 guitar peripherals for Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 will not use Bluetooth technology at launch.

Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos has revealed that the Xbox 360 retail bundles of Rock Band will all come with wired guitars, while PS3 packs will be wireless.

EA has tried to sign us up for its Rock Band this afternoon by releasing a fresh list of tracks for the game.

Rock Band has been delayed in Europe until the first quarter of 2008, but will be fully localised for each territory, on both disc and downloadable content. It's also coming to PS2, home of original Guitar Hero success.

Music maestro MTV has said it will invest around USD 500 million in games over the next two years, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

EA has poured cold water on rumours that Rock Band will slip to 2008 outside of the US.

Activision believes that Rock Band will struggle to take its crown in the upcoming battle of the games about bands.

Of all PlayStation 3's forthcoming releases, the most interesting and significant is neither a game nor for sale. Home, Sony's more structured, sanitised and solid attempt at a Second Life world might seem innocuous enough but with the screenshots of its cinema space and the implied possibility of fully downloadable movies, there's the chance it might eventually outgrow even its host platform in significance.

Nirvana's "Nevermind" will be one of the albums made available for download as part of Rock Band's Xbox Live and PSN offerings.

A Most Wanted list you say? Cripes, whatever next: a Tips and Cheats pamphlet to go with Eurogamer's promotional Pacman Beach Ball cover mount? Still, it's the summer, there are precious few games around and, with an awful lot of new titles coming up towards the end of the year you might quite reasonably want to know which ones to keep an eye on.

EA has turned its back on recent retailer listings for Rock Band, dismissing the USD 199.99 price to Eurogamer as "pure speculation".

Harmonix and MTV will be offering entire albums worth of downloadable content for the forthcoming Rock Band, with new material promised every week following launch.

I don't listen to a lot of rock music any more, my audio diet consists of 95 per cent hip-hop and a little bit of Girls Aloud. They only time I hear guitars is when MOP has sampled them and are bawling out really offensive lyrics over the top. But you know, if DJ Shadow can sample Metallica, I can sample a little bit of metal.

EA and MTV have let fly a few new details for their upcoming rhythm-action game Rock Band, including a handful of fresh songs.

Joining the four previously confirmed tracks will be Mississippi from Mountain, Suffragette City by David Bowie, Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult and Main Offender by The Hives.

The full list is expected to be vast, with developer Harmonix being given access to the vaults of the biggest record labels in the world.

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New details for EA's ambitious Rock Band have been revealed, highlighting how each peripheral will work and what you can expect from the game.

The information arose from the most recent edition of Game Informer magazine. EA was unavailable for comment at time of writing.

There's four separate campaigns, one for each of the instruments: guitar, bass, drum and vocal. You can play through each alone, or in one big holding-hands co-operative mode. You'll also be able to go online with your full band, and apparently each member can choose a different difficulty setting.

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Harmonix is offering you the chance to get four of your favourite songs into the upcoming rhythm action game Rock Band.

Harmonix art director Ryan Lesser has said the developer is doing all it can to keep Rock Band affordable, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.

If Electronic Arts had a band, then Fender, BOSS, and Roland would be in it - as they've all agreed to be in the upcoming Rock Band Game, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.

Electronic Arts was unable to confirm to Eurogamer this afternoon that Rock Band and a full set of peripherals would set us back a whopping USD 300 when the game launches later this year.

Rock Band - the Harmonix rhythm-action game that brings together guitars, drums and vocals, announced on Monday - will be compatible with "Guitar Hero guitars", according to the developer.

Harmonix will apply the skills it acquired developing Guitar Hero to a new series created in conjunction with owner MTV and Electronic Arts called "Rock Band".