MTV, EA reunite on Rock Band 2

Tag : Electronic Rocker

There's nothing quite so rock and roll as a reunion tour, a factunderlined by today's announcement of Rock Band 2, which will seeMTV Games and Harmonix once again team up with Electronic Arts toput toy instruments and games on shelves across the nation.
However, unlike last year's series debut, Rock Band 2 will be veryselective about which shelves it appears on. The game will debut onthe Xbox 360 in September, and after a North American "exclusivelaunch window," it will find its way to additional unspecifiedplatforms by year's end.
With this year's installment of Activision's rival rocker GuitarHero going head-to-head with the full four-piece band concept, RockBand 2 is making a few upgrades of its own. First and foremostamong the details revealed today is that the sequel will bebackward compatible with the original Rock Band's downloadablecontent, with no need to repurchase or redownload it to the system.That makes for a sizeable potential Rock Band 2 library right offthe bat, given that the Rock Band music store currently has morethan 200 songs available, which have garnered some 15 million paiddownloads since the game launched in November.
Furthermore, Harmonix will be offering "new and improved" drum andguitar controllers with new features and designs, "all fullycompatible with original Rock Band instruments." The game'stracklist will consist entirely of master recordings, and Harmonixis also promising new online modes with a greater emphasis on theRock Band community's social aspects.
More details about Rock Band 2 will be made public at this year's E3 Media & Business Summit .