Rock Band, the franchise, is not under threat from the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour, despite the latter’s music creation feature as well as a full compliment of music instruments this time round.

According to one of the developers at Harmonix, John Drake, “We’ve talked about doing a music creator. We’ve actually done them before in other games that we’ve done like in Amplitude and Frequency…We’ve done the whole MIDI creation thing. We think we can do something really ambitious and really great that’s going to speak across all the users of the game, not just hardcore users.”

It seems, however, that this functionality will have to wait since Rock Band 2 is releasing so soon (September). Drake continued, “So Harmonix is going to do something great with it [the music creator] down the road, we didn’t want to rush it out and do it half-assed. This is definitely a full-on project for us. You’ll hear more about it soon.” Maybe a patch?

In the meantime, have a look at the enormous set-list that will be available with Rock Band 2, out of the box.

Hot on the heels of Sony announcing that all instruments for the PS3 versions of three upcoming music games (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution) will be compatible, Microsoft has announced that all instruments for upcoming Xbox 360 rhythm games will be compatible too.

In a post on the Gamerscoreblog, Microsoft stated “All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible. In other words, welcome to the party.”

A game notably absent from the list was Lips, a game from developer iNis that features motion-sensitive microphones and appears to be Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s SingStar series.

On the US PlayStation blog, Michael Shorrock, PR Director at Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has announced that all of the upcoming music-based games for the PS3 will be compatible with each other, hardware-wise.

Not only will Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour’s instruments work with the software of the other, Singstar’s microphones will also be supported by World Tour and Rock Band 2. The instruments in Konami’s future effort, Rock Revolution, are also included in the compatibility party.

This turn of events is a result of Sony’s work with Neversoft, Konami, Activision and Harmonix, the creators of each of the upcoming games, to ensure that all of the music peripherals released on the PS3 will work with other games, across the board, each featuring a “basic level of gameplay compatibility.”

Shorrock concluded, “Of course each of these great games have their own specific cool features that may not be compatible with the other controllers, but this is our first big step in bringing a level of compatibility to music games that is sure to benefit PlayStation 3 consumers.”

While this is great news for PS3 owners, Microsoft announced at E3 that Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour instruments on the Xbox 360 will also be compatible with one another, while Logitech, a 3rd party peripheral developer, has been given the go-ahead to create 3rd party controllers for World Tour. We’ll be swimming in plastic guitars by the end of the year!

The moment many Rock Band fans have been waiting for is upon us…the setlist for Rock Band 2 has been revealed!

Rock Band 2 will feature more than 100 songs, over 80 on the game disc and 20 bonus tracks available for free download this fall. Comprised entirely of master recordings, the setlist includes artists such as AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Bob Dylan, Metallica and Pearl Jam.

This is the first time that the music of Bob Dylan or AC/DC will be featured in a video game while Guns N’ Roses has chosen to debut their first new single in 14 years in the game.

The game will be backwards compatible with Rock Band downloadable music content that has been released to date. If you own Rock Band you will be able to export most of the original disc tracks and upgrade them into Rock Band 2.

Harmonix has also promised that DLC will be released weekly and that the Rock Band library will be swelling with over 500 tracks by the end of 2008.

Rock Band 2 will debut on the Xbox 360 this September during an exclusive launch period in North America. The game will become available on the PS3, PS2 and Wii later this year.

For more information check out our previous coverage.

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Yesterday at E3 Harmonix, MTV Games and EA took the wraps off new features for Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2 will debut on the Xbox 360 this September during an exclusive launch period in North America. The game will become available on the PS3, PS2 and Wii later this year.

A closer look at game modes

Rock Band 2 includes local and global online modes while Solo Tour and Band World Tour modes have been fused into World Tour mode. World Tour mode is now online and features new opportunity gigs, challenges, cities, venues and staff that can be hired.

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Harmonix, MTV Games and EA have revealed Rock Band 2 will be hitting shelves this September. Rock Band 2 will debut on the Xbox 360 with an exclusive launch window in North America. Other platforms have not yet been confirmed with the press release stating only that the game will arrive on additional platforms later this year.

Rock Band challenges players to assemble a band with drums, vocals, lead and bass guitar, touring to gain fame and money. Rock Band 2 is said to build upon its foundation with co-operative band game play, multiple instruments, online multiplayer as well as downloadable content.

It features backwards compatibility with Rock Band downloadable music content, meaning you can load your purchased tracks straight into Rock Band 2 without re-purchasing or re-downloading any tracks. The game features master recordings and is said to boast the “biggest and most diverse soundtrack ever featuring some of rock’s most prolific acts.”

The game will also include new and dynamic online modes that promise to connect Rock Banders locally and around the world. It features more instruments with new and improved drum and guitar peripherals, enhanced functionality and new designs – and the best thing is that they are all fully compatible with the original Rock Band instruments.

MTV Games and Harmonix also announced that The Rock Band online music store has recently passed 15 million paid downloads since Rock Band was launched in late November 2007. Currently there are over 200 tracks available to download.

Stay tuned for more details regarding features and music for Rock Band 2, which were promised to be revealed at E3.

“As successful as the original Rock Band continues to be, we’ve now had the benefit of the last eight months to listen to our fans’ requests and to build upon that foundation,” said Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. “Rock Band 2 is a second-generation band game that will elevate the music game experience to the next level.”

“We expect Rock Band 2 to continue to drive an amazing social music experience on Xbox 360, said David Hufford, senior director, Xbox Product Management for the Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft. “We look forward to supporting Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360 as gamers continue to download hundreds of new music tracks from Xbox LIVE so they and their friends can perform the rock music they love most.”