Finally, Rock Band fans can expand their set of peripherals without buying an entire extra $170 bundle.
Harmonix announced this morning that individual Rock Band peripherals will be available starting next month. The $80 drum controller will ship on February 12. A wireless guitar will cost $60 and be available on April 1.
Two versions of each instrument will be shipped: One for Xbox 360, and another compatible with both PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
On that last point, the April 1 release date for the guitar peripheral must seem like a cruel joke to PlayStation 3 owners, because that's when they'll finally be able to play "Rock Band" with four players without actually buying a second copy of the game. That's got to be an excruciatingly long wait.
Stand-alone instruments to go on sale early next month, could this bring about a four way verses mode?
Since the title's November release, consumers have only been able to buy the game bundled with mic, drums, and guitar. Or the standalone game.
That limitation has prevented all but the most creative gamers from forming a full band, or going guitar-on-guitar in verses mode.
That all changes February 12 and April 1 when publisher MTV Games puts individual instrument peripherals in stores.
The Rock Band Drum Kit for the Xbox 360, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2 go on sale February 12 for $79.99. On April 1, the Rock Band Wireless Fender Stratocaster Guitar Controller for all consoles will go for $59.99.
"The release of standalone instruments allows Rock Band musicians to enjoy the full Rock Band experience, including drum, microphone and guitar head-to-head modes, creating a whole new level of competitive fun," Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos said in his statement.
The sale of standalone peripherals also lets consumers that are unable to fork over the $169.99 for the full bundle jump in on some Rock Band action.
The game, created by the makers of the the early Guitar Hero titles, has been a big seller for MTV Games and distributor Electronic Arts. The combined versions of Rock Band (for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2) have sold 1.1 million units through December.
The latest Xbox 360 Live Stats for the week ended January 14 have just been release by Major Nelson. Call of Duty 4 is the most popular retail game and Metal Slug 3 is most popular XBLA title.
All statistics are based on unique users. The most popular Xbox 360 Live titles for the week ended January 14 are:
OVER TWO AND A HALF MILLION SERVED!
ROCK BAND™ DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT GOES “DOUBLE PLATINUM,” SELLING MORE THAN 2.5 MILLION SONGS IN JUST OVER EIGHT WEEKS MUSIC FANS/GAMERS BURN UP XBOX LIVE® MARKETPLACE AND PLAYSTATION®NETWORK DOWNLOADING CHART-BUSTING HITS FROM METALLICA, FOREIGNER, WEEZER & MORE
New York, NY – January 18, 2007- Eight weeks after the release of the red-hot music video game, and while Rock Band continues to fly off store shelves, the response to the downloadable music is clear, as fans and gamers have propelled its downloadable content to “double platinum” status, purchasing more than 2.5 million game levels based on songs since its launch on November 20, 2007.
"Our goal with Rock Band was to create an entirely new way for people to interact with the music they love," stated Van Toffler, president, MTVN Music Group/Logo/Films. "The incredible response to the downloadable content we've released to date motivates us even more to establish this platform as a way for people to discover new, up and coming artists through the game - in addition to delivering great game play experiences set to the music of mega-artists."
A Metallica pack featuring three of the mega-platinum band’s most electrifying tracks—“Ride The Lightning,” “Blackened” and “And Justice For All”—is currently the game’s top-selling music download, followed by three-song packs from The Police, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie and a collection of Black Sabbath covers. Top-performing singles are Foreigner’s early ‘80s hit, “Juke Box Hero,” followed by a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s late ‘60s smash, “Fortunate Son,” Weezer’s mid-90s single “Buddy Holly” and a cover of The Knack’s blockbuster hit, “My Sharona.”
In addition to bringing mega-star and classic rock acts to Rock Band, this new distribution method for music has seen fans and gamers also embracing developing artists. The first selection of up and coming bands included 30 Seconds To Mars, All-American Rejects and The Sounds. These three bands were part of a special holiday promotion, offering tracks such as 30 Seconds To Mars’ “Attack” and “The Kill,” All-American Rejects’ “Dirty Little Secret” and “Move Along” and The Sounds’ “Song With A Mission” at a discounted price of $0.99 per song (80 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the month of January. Fans can expect more music available for download every week through 2008 through a variety of song packs, albums and individual tracks with suggested retail pricing varying from $.99 to $2.99 per track (The equivalent of 80 to 240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360), with the vast majority selling for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360).
We're not exactly sure how to react to the recent announcement of the Rock Band Stage Kit, a peripheral for the already peripheral-heavy rhythm game.
It's meant to enhance your experience with a (supposedly) fully synchronized light and smoke stage show -- we imagine the only thing it will truly enhance is your sense of regret, which will sink in when you realize that you'll never see that $99.99 ever again.
At the same time, the idea of complete immersion into one of our favorite games of last year excites us to no end -- we only hope they release themed stage kits shortly after the first kit tanks. Perhaps a Flaming Lips kit, complete with costumed fly dancers and two-hundred pounds of confetti? Or, better yet, a GWAR kit, stuffed full of giant rubber wangs and Hitler masks. Can peripherals get an AO rating?
We received NPD's 2007 U.S. video game industry sales report less than an hour ago and it took Microsoft only a few minutes to send their comments on the subject:
Xbox 360 Drives the Video Game Console Industry in 2007: NPD data released today confirms consumers spent more dollars on Xbox 360 in 2007, with more than $13.7 billion in total consumer spending. Xbox 360 won 2007 with $4.8 billion in total consumer spend compared to Wii with $3.5 billion and PlayStation 3 with $2.2 billion. This wraps up a historic year, with NPD reporting consumers have spent nearly 45 percent of total industry figures on Xbox 360.
Here is a quick snapshot of what is driving revenue for Xbox 360, based on the latest reports from NPD and Microsoft data:
XBOX 360 WIDENS THE GAP OVER PS3 WITH CONSOLE SALES: According to NPD, Xbox 360 sold 1.3 million consoles in December alone, and has steadily widened the gap between Sony’s PlayStation 3 console sales. In December, NPD stated that Sony sold 798,000 PS3 hardware units. Since PS3’s launch in November 2006, Xbox 360 has outsold PS3 by nearly 2:1 on average, bringing a total U.S. Xbox 360 install base of 9.2 million consoles, compared to and installed base of 7.4 million Wii consoles and 3.3 million PS3 consoles.
GAMES DRIVE INDUSTRY GROWTH: Xbox 360 robust games portfolio spans across the highest-ranked AAA titles to the largest collection of “Everyone” and “Teen” rated games. According to NPD, of the top 20 best-selling titles in 2007 for this generation, 11 were on Xbox 360; while only seven were sold on the Wii and two sold on the PS3.
NPD reported that this holiday’s leading multiplatform blockbusters continue to sell better on Xbox 360:
“Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” for Xbox 360 was the leading game last month with 1.5 million copies sold, outselling the PS3 version nearly 3:1.
“Assassin’s Creed” for Xbox 360 was the fourth best selling title, having sold 894,000 units. It outsold the PS3 version more than 2:1.
“Guitar Hero III” outsold the PS3 nearly 2:1, having sold 625,000 copies.
“Rockband” continues to rock the charts, selling 463,000 units for the Xbox 360 platform, compared to 174,000 units for the PS3
To date, 33 third party games on Xbox 360 hit the top 10 list across all consoles compared to five third party games on PS3, and four on Wii. These results confirm that third party partners create better games and reap more sales on Xbox 360 than any other platform.
In its fourth month on the market, Halo 3 continued its strong performance and was the sixth best selling title in December, selling another 742,000. In 2007, NPD projects that Halo 3 has sold 4.8 million units in the U.S. since its launch in September.
Xbox 360 continues to lead in number of games sold per console, setting another record with an attach rate of 7.0 games per console.
XBOX LIVE SETS NEW HEIGHTS: Xbox LIVE’s network is 10 million members strong and growing, achieving membership goals six months ahead of schedule. Only on Xbox LIVE can members experience the largest catalog of on-demand, high-definition content in the U.S., including movies and television shows from our most recent partners: Disney-ABC Television Group and MGM Studios.
HQ Network: 8,265 | 
Guests: 4292 |
Members: 0
"Our goal with 
At the same time, the idea of complete immersion into one of our favorite games of last year excites us to no end -- we only hope they release themed stage kits shortly after the first kit tanks. Perhaps a Flaming Lips kit, complete with costumed fly dancers and two-hundred pounds of confetti? Or, better yet, a GWAR kit, stuffed full of giant rubber wangs and Hitler masks. Can peripherals get an AO rating?
Here is a quick snapshot of what is driving revenue for Xbox 360, based on the latest reports from NPD and Microsoft data:
