It has been announced today that MTV Games and Harmonix will be bringing The Foo Fighters’ best selling album, The Colour and the Shape, to Rock Band in what will become the 7th complete downloadable album available on the Rock Band Music Store.

The album has apparently sold 2 million copies in the US alone and features songs such as ‘Monkey Wrench,’ ‘Hero’ and ‘Everlong.’ The downloadable album, meanwhile, will be available on November 11th on Xbox 360 for 1600 MS Points and November 13th on PlayStation 3 for $19.99, with individual songs going for 160 MS Points or $1.99 respectively.

The full album listing follows below:

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Harmonix have announced that US Rock Band 2 players will have access to twenty new songs on November 4th. The price of entry? Nothing! Using the code that apparently comes with all versions of Rock Band 2 in the US, you’re able to redeem these twenty free songs from Rock Band’s official site.

The full tracklist below:

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Two announcements regarding, Rock Band 1 and 2, as well as Guitar Hero, have been made to let people know that new DLC is on the way for both games.

Rock Band 1 and 2 players will have access to a seven-song Nirvana track pack from the album ‘Nevermind’, with each track going for $1.99 (190 MS Points on Xbox LIVE Marketplace) or $10.99 for the whole pack (880 MS Points). The songs included in the pack are Breed, Lounge Act, On a Plain, Polly, Something in the Way, Stay Away and Territorial Pissings.

Guitar Hero, meanwhile, will receive an injection of new songs in the form of new Oasis album, ‘Dig Out Your Soul’, releasing as premium download content next year. In the meantime, you’ll be able to download three individual tracks from the album on November 6th - The Shock of Lightning, Bag it Up and Waiting for the Rapture.

It’s been announced that, in conjunction with AC/DC’s new album, Black Ice, a new entry to the Rock Band family will be introduced, including 18 of their most well known songs, all master recordings. Entitled “AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack”, the game features the same line-up of songs performed at AC/DC’s legendary Castle Donington Show in 1991.

The game will become part of a cross-promotional web, of sorts, as the game, as well as the new album, will be distributed exclusively through Wal-Mart stores in the US. AC/DC’s new album, Black Ice, is apparently their first album of all-new material in eight years, featuring 15 tracks from the current band line-up

AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will be available for PS3, Xbox 360 and PS2 on November 2nd in the US, while the Wii version releases on November 16th, with the price ranging from $30 to $40 across the platforms. The rest of the world gets it early December. The game is compatible with both Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

Full track list after the jump:

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Thought I would share this cool pic of young James (6 months old) and his dad Brad jamming to Rock Band, proving you are never too young to play videogames or to start training as a new StarCraft companion!

If you have any pictures of the younger generation exhibiting signs of becoming a gamer please share them with us.

Gamers - taking over the world one baby at a time!

Bobby Kotick, head of Activision, has proclaimed his company’s dominance in the music rhythm genre by throwing some numbers around. During the recent Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, Kotick revealed that, not only is the Guitar Hero franchise outselling Rock Band 6 to 1, they have many more people dedicated to the task of dominating that market. Kotick bellowed:

“We’re outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the world’s music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there. I would also say when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software, and so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category.” Right on, Bobby. Right on.

Source: Kotaku

Harmonix has announced a European price cut for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band Instrument Edition. The publisher also announced when the PS3, PS2 and Wii versions of the game would be available across Europe.

UK Rock Banders can expect the PS3, PS2 and Wii versions of the game to arrive in stores on the 8th of September while French gamers will have to wait until the 15th. The game will arrive in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and Luxembourg on the 22nd of September and in Spain on the 29th.

The Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii versions of the Instrument Edition of Rock Band will cost 139.99 Euros in Europe and £109 in the UK.

The DLC that was available to download in North America is now available in Europe for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Harmonix has confirmed that new DLC will be available simultaneously in the US and Europe.

The European version of Rock Band will feature the 58 tracks from the North American release as well as nine additional tracks (* denotes cover song):

• Blur “Beetlebum” (English)*
• Oasis “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (English)
• Tokio Hotel “Monsoon” (English)
• Muse “Hysteria” (English)
• Les Wampas “Manu Chao” (French)
• Playmo “New Wave” (French)
• Die Toten Hosen “Hier Kommt Alex” (German)
• Juli “Perfekte Welle” (German)
• H-Block X “Countdown to Insanity” (German)

Rock Band (original) players will have the opportunity to export most of their on-disc songs to Rock Band 2 via a new option that is now available.

A title update for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band will add an ‘export disc’ tab under the extras option in the Rock Band menus, allowing players to export 55 tracks from their original Rock Band disc to become compatible with Rock Band 2, should you choose to buy it. The service will cost you 400 Microsoft Points (or $4.99). This is apparently necessary to compensate music licensors for future use of their songs.

It’s also been discovered that this patch is required for all future downloadable content releases for Rock Band, although previously bought downloadable content will not be affected. Additionally, certain songs will not be available to export from Rock Band to Rock Band 2, including ‘Paranoid’ (as made famous by Black Sabbath), ‘Run to the Hills’ (as made famous by Iron Maiden) and ‘Enter the Sandman’ (by Metallica). From the European setlist, ‘Through the Monsoon’ (by Tokio Hotel) will not be available for export.

Although Rock Band was released on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America in November 2007, Harmonix’s music video game only arrived on European shores as a timed Xbox 360 exclusive in May this year.

Since then EA has skirted around the issue of when the PS3 version of the game would become available in Europe, only saying that additional platforms would follow later in the year.

PS3 Rock Band fans will be interested to know that a retailer listing has popped up (thanks NeoGAF) suggesting that Rock Band will be released on the Wii, PS3 and PS2 this month across Europe. While EA has not yet confirmed the release dates, the listing does back up rumours from earlier in the year which suggested a September release date for the PS3 version of the game.

According to the retailer listing the PS3, PS2 and Wii versions of Rock Band will be released on the 25th of September across Europe. The Rock Band bundle (including drums, guitar and mic) will retail at 139.99 Euros while the drum set will cost 89.99 Euros and the guitar (for the 360, Wii, PS3 and PS2) 79.99 Euros. The standalone copy of the game for the PS3 will retail at 69.99 Euros while the Wii and PS2 software will cost 49.99 Euros. The retailer listing also has Rock Band song pack volume 1 for Wii and PS2 priced at 29.99 Euros.

With Rock Band 2 scheduled to be released in North America on the Xbox 360 later this month (Wii, PS2 and PS3 versions due later this year) and Guitar Hero: World Tour expected to arrive on the 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii this October, will European gamers purchase Rock Band 1 or wait for the newer installment of the game?

The Ant Commandos (great name!), creators of wireless gaming peripherals, announced something new to add to their product line - Illuminated Drumsticks!

For use with drumming music games (Rock Band and probably the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour), the sticks illuminate whenever you hit a surface - ‘flame red’ and ‘electric blue’ are your colour choices, at a RRP of $19.99 per pair (2AA batteries included). An extra feature is that the tip of the sticks are coated with silicon for noise reduction while playing. They’ve thought of everything!

These could be pretty cool…you don’t know until you try! Head over to www.theantcommandos.com for more information.

Rock Band fans will be happy to know that Harmonix and MTV Games have announced new downloadable content for Rock Band.

New singles from Staind, Scars on Broadway, The New No2 and Testament will arrive on Xbox Live Marketplace on the 29th of July and on the PlayStation Network on the 31st of July.

‘They Say’ will be Scars on Broadway’s (consisting of two System of a Down members) debut single on Rock Band and will cost $1.99 or 160 Microsoft Points, as will Staind’s ‘This Is It,’ the first single from their upcoming album titled The Illusion of Progress.

‘Yomp’ is the latest single from The New No2, consisting of Dhani Harrison, son of Beatle George Harrison, and Oli Hecks. It will cost $.99 or 80 Microsoft Points. Testament also debut on Rock Band with ‘Electric Crown,’ a track from their 1992 album that will cost $1.99.

Harmonix and MTV Games have announced more exclusive tracks for Rock Band, coming to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live this week, from Nine Inch Nails and Shinedown.

Nine Inch Nails tracks to be added are “Burn” from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, “Capital G” from Year Zero, and “Last” from EP Broken. Tracks from Shinedown will be available in the form of “Devour” from The Sound of Madness as well as the never released “Junkies For Fame.”

Each track will be available for $1.99 or 160 Microsoft Points while the Nine Inch Nails three-pack will be available for $5.49 or 440 Microsoft Points.

Another revelation made at this week’s E3 conference is that Rock Band will be shipping to seven more countries later this year.

As has become the norm, Rock Band will have an exclusive launch period on the Xbox 360 in Italy, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. It will be available for the Xbox 360 on the 24th of July, becoming available for additional platforms in these countries later this fall.

Rock Band was released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the United States in November 2007, with the PS2 version following in December that year and the Wii version recently released in June this year. The game was only released in Europe in May this year, and only then as a timed Xbox 360 exclusive, with many Rock Band fans still waiting to receive word of when the PS3 version will land in PAL territories.

The European release of Rock Band features 58 additional tracks including:

• Die Toten Hosen “Hier Kommt Alex” • Juli “Perfekte Welle” • H-Block X “Countdown to Insanity” • Blur “Beettlebum” (cover song) • Oasis “Rock ‘n’ roll star” • Tokio Hotel “Monsoon” • Muse “Hysteria” • Les Wampas “Manu Chao” • Playmo “New Wave”

Harmonix and MTV Games have added new downloadable content to sweeten the Rock Band pot.

Rock Band fans can download new exclusive Rock Band versions of two Rush tracks. ‘Closer to the Heart’ and ‘Working Man’ (a Vault Edition that features a never released alternative guitar solo) will be available for $1.99 per track or 160 Microsoft Points. This brings to five the number of Rush songs available on Rock Band including cover versions of ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ‘Limelight’ and ‘Working Man.’

You will also be able to download two tracks from Red Hot Chili Peppers, namely ‘Snow (Hey Oh)’ and ‘Tell Me Baby’ from the album Stadium Arcadium.

The new tracks will be available today on Xbox Live Marketplace and will arrive on the PlayStation Store this Thursday.

Harmonix and MTV Games will be releasing a special CrüeFest downloadable pack for Rock Band to celebrate CrüeFest.

The pack includes songs from Mötley Crüe (“Down At The Whisky”), Papa Roach (“Time Is Running Out”) and Trapt (“Who’s Going Home With You Tonight”).

The CrüeFest songs will be available from the 1st of July for a limited time at a special price of $0.99 per track or 80 Microsoft Points from Xbox Live Marketplace. The entire collection of tracks will set you back $2.99. The tracks will be hit the PlayStation Store on the 3rd of July.

Rock Band fans will also be able to download “Promised Land” from Vesuvius for free. Vesuvius is a fictictious band that is featured in the upcoming comedy The Rocker in case you were wondering.