While I’m sure many of you will just take this news to mean that Rock Band 3 exists in some form, there’s a lot more news here than you’d think. While I assumed Rock Band 3 would just be an expansion of the previous games with a couple of new features, Dhani Harrison tells the Chicago Tribune that that’s not the case. Read more…

Music game and/or U2 fans Rejoice! According to USA Today, Bono and Co. want in on this Magnificent music game business, and they want to do it the Harmonix way.

“We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren’t what we wanted,” bassist Adam Clayton tells USA TODAY’s Edna Gundersen. “That could change. I love the idea that that’s where people are getting music, and we’d love to be in that world. We’ll figure something out. What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we’re interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation. We didn’t want to be caricatured.”

I’ve been rather pleased with Harmonix’s track record, but I have no Desire for a U2: Rock Band. That would get Out Of Control quickly. I have no doubt that Harmonix could do it, but it’s a question of whether or not that’s a Bad idea. It would surely start an Unforgettable Fire in the heart of every music fan, but it’s clear this isn’t coming Tomorrow, or even this October, so we still have to hear from Harmonix on the matter. If we’re lucky, HMX will have too much Pride to take this on, but with them at the helm, Rock Band: U2 could be Even Better Than The Real Thing.

I think I went a bit crazy with the puns here. But I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.

September 9th is approaching quickly, and my rush to gather $250 for The Beatles: Rock Band is becoming a lot more difficult, but I’m starting to realize that it’s going to be worth the work.

Today, Harmonix added another trailer to the pre-order club site that is only accessible for people that pre-ordered the game, and the trailer reveals a bunch of new tracks from the Fab Four, including (but not limited to) Revolution, Paperback Writer, and Twist & Shout. But there are a lot more songs than the ones featured in the trailer being revealed soon.

Tomorrow, when all of the previews for the game go online, many new tracks will be revealed, and you can see the list of songs being revealed after the jump. Above is the trailer, so leave your thoughts on it in the comments!

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Big thanks to Pepsi and Harmonix for sending us this 1 of 30 limited edition Rock Band guitars designed by artist Matt Moore. Ripten’s guitar is the Xbox 360 version and numbered 22 of 30. You can enter to win it below by leaving a comment (one per reader) and telling us why you think you should win. Our editors and myself will review the submissions and pick a winner by midnight next Saturday.

In addition to the guitar you can win right here, Pepsi and Harmonix are teaming up for a Drink Up, Rock Out summer promotion. Submit a Rock Band music video of yourself and enter to win an MTV Video Music Award Moonman for “Best Performance in a Pepsi Rock Band Music Video”. If you want a little more immediate gratification, check under the caps of Pepsi bottles for a chance to win one of 5,000 Rock Band downloadable tracks and other cool prizes between now and September 13, 2009.

Drink Pepsi and rock out with your coc…err web cam out.

As of this point, we’ve seen almost everything The Beatles Rock Band has to offer. The beautiful trailers, the astounding opening cinematic, the gameplay, the screenshots- everything except for the setlist itself. We only know of the ten confirmed songs that played over the opening cinematic for the game, but if the information we just received is correct, then the game’s full setlist is out there- and it’s great.

The rumored setlist features all of the songs that were in the cinematic, from “I Saw Her Standing There” to “Here Comes The Sun”, but features some new Beatles classics such as “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Help!”, and “Revolution”. There are some songs that were obviously not going to be in the game- piano heavy songs like “Hey Jude” aren’t present, but I’m still ready to plunk down $250 for the full game bundle. (Especially with my current absence of any Rock Band gear.) I’m not going to try and influence you, though- you can make your own decision after viewing the “leaked” setlist after the jump.

[Thanks tazar!]
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Straight out of E3 today is yet another video for The Beatles: Rock Band, but this time with gameplay. The trailer for the game gives us a good look at some of the visual changes added to The Beatles: Rock Band, namely the psychedelic background visuals, addition of 3-part harmonies, and slight changes to the note boards.

One of the things that kind of irks me about the trailer is the game’s rendition of “Get Back”. It’s a lot different than the one I’m used to, but it still takes place atop the headquarters of Apple Corps. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but I’d much prefer the version with McCartney’s higher-pitched vocals. Oh, and the trailer’s gorgeous too!

If you care, hit the jump for a list of the songs featured in the trailer, in the order you hear them in. I might be wrong, but this is what I got, and I’m pretty sure it’s right. Read more…

There’s really no other way to describe this cinematic, other than to say it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s beautiful. From the style, to the animation, to the music, to the surreal ending, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and it hurts my brain to even think of how much work went into making this on Harmonix’s part. I challenge you all to find a better cinematic than this, because I simply can’t find one.

But enough of me singing it’s praises. Although I knock on Activision for their use of the Guitar Hero franchise, I can’t wait until September 9th, when The Beatles: Rock Band comes out. Although it’s only 45 Beatles songs, as one of the greatest bands ever, I’m sure I’ll have an insane amount of fun with the game. You can look forward to it too, when it hits the PS3, Wii, PS2, and Xbox 360 this September.

If you go to the official website for The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll be treated with two new suprises. One is a entrance section to the preorder club, for those who preordered the game, and the other is a brand new site backdrop, with the sounds of a million screaming fans in the background. But what is that background? Why, it’s the set for the Ed Sullivan Show, of course!

Beatles fans out there surely know just how popular and frequent the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan’s show, so it only makes sense that this stage would appear in the game in some form. Though we don’t have a surefire confirmation, it’s pretty safe to say that the Ed Sullivan Show set will indeed be a stage/arena for you to play in in The Beatles: Rock Band. Click the image above to see the full image.

LEGO Rock Band has been officially announced today, after plenty of internet rumours and speculation. The game will ship in “Holiday 2009″ for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. Harmonix and TT Games will be working together for all versions of the game, and Rock Band Unplugged developer Backbone Entertainment will join in the fun for the DS version. Hit the jump for a little more info and a few confirmed tracks (The Final Countdown is in there).
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I’m sure some people will be upset by this week’s Rock Band offerings, but it’s not as if this is the first time that Harmonix has released Nickelodeon songs. And for those of you that are upset (for reasons unknown) about the Spongebob songs, you can always just skip it and download Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing or even Pat Benetar’s Heartbreaker, which was previously a GHWT exclusive.

As always, songs are 160 MS Points or $1.99, while the Spongebob bundle is up for 440 MS Points or $5.50. Though, I should note that the song in the video isn’t in the game. Even if it were, it’s a David Glen Eisley song. Hit the jump for the full list of this week’s song releases.

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EA, Harmonix and MTV Games have announced a new expansion for Rock Band in the form of Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2. Filled with 20 songs previously offered as DLC, this disc will be offered up for Wii, 360, PS3, and PS2. The disc can be played as a standalone game, or 360 and PS3 users can import the content into their hard drive similar to the process of bringing original Rock Band songs into Rock Band 2.

Hit the jump for pricing and full song list.

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Wow. The (remaining, R.I.P.), Beatles have just licensed a number of their songs to Rock Band. This would just be the most popular DLC to date. On top of that, it’s revolutionary (especially for Harmonix & EA) because The Beatles never license their songs to anyone. You can’t even buy their music on iTunes, and Apple’s been trying for years.

The following is a quote from the Wall Street Journal which broke the news:

The Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks’ Rock Band videogame series, according to several people familiar with the matter, a coup for the Viacom Inc. unit in its battle with rival Activision Inc. for supremacy in the world of rock and roll video games.

How Harmonix & MTV Music managed to swing this (rumor has it that all they needed was love.), I’ll never know, but somewhere, Steve Jobs is sitting in his eggshell white iFortress crying. I’m sure the Guitar Hero: World Tour development team will soon join him, cymbals in tow, for this is also a huge blow to GHWT, whose launch has produced relatively unfavorable results. I, on the other hand, spent the past 30 minutes trying to seep Beatles puns into this post, and failed miserably. Help! Hit the jump for the press release. Read more…

For those of you that hope to observe rocking out to Billy Idol’s White Wedding with a plastic remote as a hobby by the end of this year, you should probably just tape your Wiimote to the Xbox 360 Fender- rumour has it that Harmonix & EA are delaying Rock Band 2 for Wii until early in 2009.

According to Destructoid and their GameStop tipsters, it seems that the Wii version of Rock Band 2 could possibly be delayed until January 2009. GameStop’s inventory apparently shows Jan. 6th, 2009 as the new shipping date for the game, which completely disregards Harmonix’s guess at a December release.

But fret not, mon frêre! As Destructoid points out, there’s always Wii Music, for those who would rather bob their heads to the smash hit Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which I’m told gets all of the kids at the playground dancing.

These instruments getting all “compatible” with each other borders on pornographic.

Harmonix, Neversoft, Konami, and Activision have all signed an agreement with Microsoft and Sony that guaranteed that all of the new peripherals coming out for the newest batch of music games would all be compatible with each other. Read more…

Rock Band 2 is the perfection to Rock Band 1’s innovation, according to the Harmonix development plan. Even the start menu is way more hardcore, with a snarly white tiger and slithering snakes. Read more…

We reported yesterday that Konami had filed a suit against the makes of Rock Band, claiming that Harmonix, MTV, and parent company Viacom, violated patents filed by Konami dating back to 2002 and 2003.

Today, Harmoix swung back at Konami, as a company spokesperson stated:

“Konami’s actions are extremely surprising. Unfortunately, successful products such as Rock Band can often become targets for baseless litigation … We have substantial defenses to this claim and intend to vigorously defend it.”

I smell a corporate rock off in the making! An epic battle, to be fought with plastic guitars and scaucer shaped drum kits! Extra points go to the first executive from either side that grows their hair out and adopts a “nothing but full body spandex will do” clothing policy.

Source: Game|Life

Like a pureed blend of Tetris, Harmonix’s cult-classic Amplitude, the wickedly obscure PlayStation game Vib-Ribbon, and some fashion of Windows Media visualizer, AudioSurf might just be one of the best indie games ever made. For one, its content is only as limited as your personal music library. Read more…

Rock Band has been bringing in money for Harmonix. And it just brought in a lot more. Viacom recently paid Harmonix a reported $208.7 million as a bonus for the company’s success. The bonus was outlined in Viacom’s 2006 buyout of Harmonix for $175 million. Read more…

We want to reward one lucky Riptenner with a copy of Guitar Hero 3 and the wireless Les Paul guitar for the Xbox 360.

The rules are simple, just register to be a member of our community, upload an avatar and leave a comment below with the words”air guitar”. We will pick one lucky Riptenner at random and send them out a Wireless Les Paul Guitar and Guitar Hero 3 game for the Xbox 360. Contest ends February 29th at Midnight EST. Good luck.

If Rock Band DLC keeps pouring in every week, it’s only a matter of time before your favorite band makes it in (if they haven’t already). Harmonix mixed it up a little this week with some Iron Maiden, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Hives. Details after the break. Read more…