The Answer to the Question that Phase from Harmonix begs!

"“It would be technically feasible but there’s something special about having a person involved,” Crooker said. “The people we hire are musicians themselves. When they open up a guitar track [to program it into the game], they can really make good music.”"Multiplayer Blog....

This in answer to the question that couldn't the technology of Phase be implemented in a Rock Band 2. This being that the consumer can use their own music library to play the game rather than pre-made tracks. OK... But the fact that the technology exists would make an awesome game and probably destroy the downloadable business model that both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have subscribed to. The money train would come to an abrupt end. I wouldn't expect to see anything like Phase coming to a console anytime soon. At least not from Harmonix or Redoctane. Because endless DLC money is far better than making consumer VERY HAPPY!

Rock Band DLC first Wave Revealed!

Head over to XBOX 360 Fanboy for the article. The question here is why are there so many multi-packs when supposedly the game was supposed to be like Itunes and you could pick and choose the songs you want. Also isn't this whole prepackaged thing the whole problem with Guitar Hero that everyone has been complaining about?

1UP PREVIEW OF ROCK BAND!

1UP Needs to think outside their box: Rock Band Hub problem Solved!

"Check Out Rock Band's USB Hub
Prepare to plug yet another device into the wall.
By Patrick Klepek, 10/29/2007
When Rock Band ships next month, you'll quickly realize there aren't enough USB slots on Xbox 360 to accommodate the load of peripherals that need to be jacked in for the whole experience. Given the PlayStation 3 features four accommodating USB ports, this extra step won't be necessary there.

1UP was recently shipped the finalized Rock Band peripherals, including the USB hub. We haven't had enough time with the hub to determine how well it holds up -- up until now, we've been using a separate hub that was delivered with an earlier version of the game, but isn't part of the bundle on Xbox 360 -- but we can't say we're happy about having yet another device that needs to plug into the wall, especially considering the hub's limited length.

The hub's made by a company called ViPowER, and while it's a little disheartening there don't seem to be many reviews of the other USB hubs they make, here's hoping we don't have to search out our own replacement hubs a few weeks after launch. We'll keep you posted."1UP

Hey guys, this is a pretty simple solution. Go to any Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, or Target and pick up a 4 port USB hub. I believe they are around $20-$24. You can plug this into your XBOX 360 directly and let the XBOX 360 power it. These hubs don't have their own power supply, but you don't need it if you are going to plug it into the XBOX 360 anyway. All most all of these hubs work with the XBOX 360. because they have been tested prior in many magazines including OXM. Just because it doesn't say it is for Rock Band, it doesn't mean you can't use it for the accessories.

Is This the Last Guitar Hero?

As great as the new Guitar Hero is; it is far from perfect, according to critics. The upcoming Rock Band will offer a ton of features besides just instruments beyond the guitar. Activision has been having quite a run,

" The latest from the NPD group shows that sales of Activision's titles, led by the Guitar Hero series, has hit almost $400 million. EA has lost the top spot for the first time in over a decade with sales of $365.7 million."Destructiod

This is all pre-Rock Band and Skate came out to good sales and good critical review but it has had a very short time to build steam. Most games of this type including Tony Hawk, are usually "long game" titles that make more money as time goes on. Even more when they reach the discounted price point. When RedOctane was rocking the Guitar Hero, the price point never went down; which is probably why Activision bought them in the first place.

Guitar Hero 3 was all ready pretty far along when the deal went down between RedOctane and Activision. It is certainly understandable that there aren't too many improvements or advancements. However, with Rock Band coming out in about a month with some of the advancements that would have benefited Guitar Hero 3. There are certainly more songs on the way for Guitar Hero 3 but there are even more songs on the way for Rock Band. Even that won't help in the long term.

Guitar Hero 3 was Activision's coming out party, and it rocks. But if there aren't some big changes in the future this might be the swan song for the series. At one point if Harmonix and Redoctane were still together they would have a monopoly. Now that Harmonix is working for EA, and coming out in a month. With features that everyone was thinking about since Guitar Hero 2. It is hard to believe that Activision and Redoctane are going to be able to recover from this very easily.