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Rock Band PS3 owners still stuck as a three-piece band, despite Harmonix efforts

For Microsoft Xbox 360 owners of the video game Rock Band, adding another guitar is a simple matter of tracking down a compatible Guitar Hero II Gibson Xplorer or Guitar Hero III Gibson Les Paul controller. For owners of the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band, however, the solution to rounding out a four-piece band is far from simple.

The PS3 version of the Guitar Hero III Gibson Les Paul controller does not work correctly with Rock Band for PS3. Given that separate Rock Band Fender Stratocaster guitars are not available for purchase yet, Rock Band PS3 players are understandably frustrated at being unable to form a full band.

Rock Band developer Harmonix promised after the release of its game that it was working on a patch to introduce compatibility with Activision’s Gibson Les Paul peripheral, but now it seems that such a fix is stuck in purgatory.

According to a post by a member of the Harmonix team, the developer submitted a patch to Sony, which was approved for release on December 4, only later to be blocked from release by Activision.

“Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch's release,” detailed the forum post. “The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision's continued objection.

“We sincerely hope that Activision will reverse its decision and allow release of the compatibility patch and further, that Activision will allow Guitar Hero III to support Rock Band guitar controllers as well. We welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.”

Strangely, the Gibson Les Paul controller for the Xbox 360 works flawlessly with Rock Band, to which Activision has taken no action against.

Activision later addressed the media with more details on the situation between the two dueling music games. Activision confirmed that it was blocking the release of such a patch, but with a very specific reason – lack of an agreement.

“In fact, Harmonix and its parent company MTV Games/Viacom recently declined Activision's offer to reach an agreement that would allow the use of Guitar Hero guitar controllers with Rock Band. We have been and remain open to discussions with Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom about the use of our technology in Rock Band,” read the Activision statement. “Unfortunately for Rock Band users, in this case Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom are unwilling to discuss an agreement with Activision.”

Although Activision did not specify what sort of agreement it was seeking, it’s speculated that such an agreement would include some form of financial compensation or licensing fees for using its peripherals.

Like a distant parent, Sony is taking a hands-off approach to the tiff between the two parties. “This is a matter that needs to be resolved between Harmonix/MTV and Activision regarding Intellectual Property,” said an SCEA spokesperson to 1UP. “At SCEA, we of course want this resolved and to ensure the best possible gaming experience. We encourage MTV, Harmonix and Activision to discuss this among themselves so there can be an amicable resolution in the best interest of the consumer.”

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The end user suffers for no reason
By MykC on 12/16/2007 6:31:39 AM , Rating: 2
This is complete and utter BS, there is no reason that each guitar shouldn't work with each game. Functionality wise, they are the same controller.

The end user suffers because of this

With holding a patch that helps PS3 owners make their 4 person band or prevents some people from having to carry 2 plastic guitars over to their friends house is just petty.




RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By Wagnbat on 12/16/07, Rating: -1
RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By Goty on 12/16/2007 8:28:58 AM , Rating: 5
Talk about drinking the kool-aid...

This has absolutely nothing to do with Sony and everything to do with Activision and Harmonix.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By FITCamaro on 12/16/2007 12:15:18 PM , Rating: 3
As much as I dislike Sony sometimes for their business practices, no. This is Activision's fault. They know their game isn't as good, so they're trying to hurt the guy who's kicking their ass.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By Treckin on 12/16/2007 1:47:22 PM , Rating: 2
As if rock band is kicking guitar hero's ass...
That absurd, GH is FAR more popular and has stronger sales than rock band does or ever will.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By borismkv on 12/16/07, Rating: 0
RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By mikeyD95125 on 12/16/2007 3:50:44 PM , Rating: 4
That was good...until you made the personal insult.

Stick to your facts and don't lower your own intelligence by handing out insults when they aren't needed.

GH is a very social game. It has been the "party game" in my area for a while now.


By borismkv on 12/17/2007 1:45:25 AM , Rating: 1
Sorry. Mocking fanboys is one of my favorite pastimes.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By FITCamaro on 12/16/2007 4:07:52 PM , Rating: 2
Guitar Hero will likely sell more because its cheaper. But Rock Band is the better game.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By Lazarus Dark on 12/17/2007 10:42:46 AM , Rating: 2
Rock band doesn't interest me in the slightest.I don't care about drums or singing badly.
GH looks funner and the two player is more evenly competitive. plus the guitar controller looks and feels better.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By Murst on 12/17/2007 10:51:27 AM , Rating: 2
From a single player, guitar only perspective, GH3 is probably slightly better. However, that's probably the only thing that GH3 has going for it.

When we had thxgiving, no one cared about GH3 anymore, as everyone was busy playing rockband. Its just a much, much better party game than GH3.

Although I haven't even tried single player vocals, its pretty neat when you have the entire family in the room and everyone's doing something (multiple people can sing at the same time too).

I imagine this xmas will be similar, except there's another copy of Rockband bought, so we'll have the guitar/bass combo in as well... which is pretty good cause the only prob we had w/ rockband was that people started arguing over who's going to play the next song :)


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By SirLucius on 12/16/2007 12:39:17 PM , Rating: 1
How is it Sony's fault that two independent, multi-platform developers got into a quarrel over controller proprietary controller compatibility with their games? This is an issue of Harmonix missing the bug in the first place and Activision being stubborn asses about letting them fix it.


By BMFPitt on 12/17/2007 9:46:59 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
How is it Sony's fault that two independent, multi-platform developers got into a quarrel over controller proprietary controller compatibility with their games?
I don't know anything about their agreements with developers, but if I were a console maker I would demand some compatibility because it would be good for my users. I'm pretty sure Microsoft and Nintendo have this power.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By BansheeX on 12/16/2007 1:39:49 PM , Rating: 2
You've inspired me to create a satirical blog that attempts to rationalize Sony as the undeniable source of every problem on Earth. Thank you for being so unintentionally idiotic.


By tfreston on 12/17/2007 9:43:16 AM , Rating: 2
I look forward to reading your blog, sir.


By Chaser on 12/17/2007 12:58:48 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. Second only to President Bush however.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By orochi on 12/16/07, Rating: 0
By orochi on 12/16/2007 7:59:23 PM , Rating: 2
And fuq Red Octane for being the sh1theads that they are. You started off as a company making 3rd party Dance pads and now you're banning other 3rd party companies from trying to make a living. You are SCUM and I'll never buy your products ever again.


RE: The end user suffers for no reason
By munim on 12/16/2007 8:58:21 AM , Rating: 4
Maybe Harmonix is helping people not look like idiots carrying plastic quitars?

I kid, sort of.


Frustrating
By CKDragon on 12/16/2007 12:27:15 PM , Rating: 2
The most frustrating part of this entire saga over the last few weeks is not any action taken by EA, Activision, Harmonix or MTV, but the completely lack of understanding by so many message board readers shouting off-the-cuff remarks about how it's Harmonix that has a responsibility to make all their guitars work with all games.

What the hell? Has reading comprehension become that poor? Harmonix spent their time to develop the patch and it's sitting at the ready. Activision managed to hold the patch up for ransom so that the Rock Band userbase, much of whom are also in the Guitar Hero userbase, are the ones to suffer. And people are mad at Harmonix? Activision is screwing over many of their own customers just to get a few dollars out of EA/MTV/Harmonix.

I hope they enjoy those few dollars, because I'll tell Activision where they can shove Guitar Hero 4.




RE: Frustrating
By zzzya on 12/16/2007 1:03:57 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. It seems crazy for Activision to delay the opportunity for Rock Band customers to purchase one of the Activision guitars. The longer it takes, the closer Harmonix will be to releasing their own guitar for purchase as a separate product and Activision will have lost sales.

I am still not quite sure why Sony has allowed enough variation in peripheral requirements that this situation could take place. I can see developers liking this flexibility, but this is one negative about computers vs consoles that most consumers do not have the patience for, just let me plug it in and go. "A patch, what the heck is a patch and why should I ever need one for my game or system to work?????" Something the computer gamers are quite familiar with but never a console issue in the past.

They are starting to limit the market to more computer savy people the more complex and less standardized these systems get. I think this combined with the more family oriented gaming of the Wii is what makes that system sell. Nintendo has improved technology but not to the point that it scares aware buyers and combined with a better looking price point means market leader and more developer support. I am sure Nintendo could even lower it's price and still be quite profitable, but since the competition is priced so high, they can feed off that and still come in as the more affordable option. Excellent business decision.


RE: Frustrating
By m0mentary on 12/16/2007 2:10:22 PM , Rating: 2
Financially it makes business sense for Activision to delay the patch if they can somehow recoup development costs that went into their Guitar.

Harmonix, and to some extent MTV, was just too naive thinking it had access to the Guitar Hero guitar. Even if they worked on previous Guitar Heroes. Property is property, and the Activision owns the rights of use to that guitar.

Imaging if you spent the money to develop a new game and a new controller, and a new publisher made a game with the intent to use your controller. You might also have a problem with them riding off the coat tails of your success.

Activision doesn't have to let anyone use their guitar. Especially not a competing product. Yes the gamers ulitmately lose, but I can't fault Activision for choosing not to ask for compensation for the use of it's guitar.


RE: Frustrating
By zander55 on 12/16/07, Rating: 0
RE: Frustrating
By KernD on 12/16/2007 8:37:43 PM , Rating: 3
Yea Activision didn't make the guitar or invent the gameplay, but neither did Harmonix, that company only lives to ripoff Konami.

Harmonix are just dumb, they wanted to make a game with 4 custom controller, so they decided to use a GH guitar to lower the needed count to 3, but did they get it published by the same company? no, so why should Activision help EA make money off there hardware.


RE: Frustrating
By rdeegvainl on 12/17/2007 6:03:37 AM , Rating: 2
But financially, wouldn't this encourage people who bought Rock Band, to buy GH3? I mean, they would get the extra controller, and a whole other game. I don't really understand how holding out is in their interest, financially, or when dealing with their reputation.


RE: Frustrating
By m0mentary on 12/17/2007 8:58:15 AM , Rating: 2
Well this is mere speculation, but as others have suggested, Rock Band is competition for Guitar Hero. So Im guessing that they're using the patch as leverage to make sure they can both profit from AND WEAKEN the success of Rock Band. Honestly I can't see any other reason for Activision to do this but additional theories are welcome.

Zander55 was right about the development thing though, so sorry about that. Red Octane made it, but it isn't stopping Activision from trying to get something for it. I also agree Harmonix and Sony should try harder to negotiate with Activision, yeah it sucks, but they messed up by not anticipating this and they owe it to customers to make it right. Activision likely only cares about Guitar Hero customers, not Rock Band.


RE: Frustrating
By afkrotch on 12/17/2007 12:47:56 PM , Rating: 3
Huh? Patching is a bad thing for consoles? Need to be tech savvy? Huh?

Seriously, do you own any of these consoles? You don't have to be tech savvy at all. It's not like you have to go to a website, download a patch, double-click the patch to load it, then restart Windows. All you ever get is "press X to patch" or it just patches without asking. Other times you are given the option to not patch at all. A little 5 year old kid can patch a console.

Guess what? Even Nintendo has patches on the Wii. It's only downside is that it can't be used as a dvd player, nor is it HD. Aside from those things, it does the exact same thing as the other two consoles.

My PS3 doesn't update it's firmware, unless I specifically decide to go to the System Update and update it. It doesn't need to be updated. It's just, with an update, you end up getting more features. Just like my Xbox 360. No need to update, I just prefer to.

Patches are one of the greatest things to come out for the console. You can get updated rosters for sports games, new maps for fps games, racing games, etc. Fixed balance issues in the games and so on.

I have a copy of Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver. B for PS2. It's an arcade port. It had many errors and glitches. So they had to release Melty Blood: Act Cadenza ver. B2 to fix these flaws. Something a short 30 second download could have fixed. Instead users were force to purchase another $75 (yes, Japanese overcharge for games) to get the fixes. Then they are left with an old glitchy copy of the game.

I own the ver. B and stuck with an almost impossible to kill White Len, due to the glitches with her character. I'm not stuck with this kind of crap with the latest generation of consoles. A short download and I get flaw fixes.


Bigger problems
By MonkeyPaw on 12/16/2007 10:24:45 AM , Rating: 5
I'm still waiting for them to fix the "Groupie" compatibility issues. Our virtual band is really good, so where are the chicks?




RE: Bigger problems
By FITCamaro on 12/16/2007 12:17:22 PM , Rating: 5
Hanging out with guys who are actually in a band.


RE: Bigger problems
By Omega215D on 12/17/2007 2:34:24 AM , Rating: 2
I wish... my Ibanez gets more play than I do...


The real slap to the face...
By SirLucius on 12/16/2007 10:20:55 AM , Rating: 3
...is that the controllers work fine with each on the 360 versions. I wouldn't be nearly as upset about this if it were a problem across the board, but it makes no sense to me that Activision would actively block compatibility on the PS3 while allowing it work just fine on the 360. Whatever argument they can come up with against allowing the two controllers to coexist is completely undercut by their indifference to the 360 version of the games working with each other.




RE: The real slap to the face...
By m0mentary on 12/16/2007 2:13:37 PM , Rating: 2
My guess is that it was lack of foresight that allowed the GH guitar to work with Rockband on the 360. Most likely its a programming issue that the PS3 has which the 360 doesn't. Im sure if Activison saw the development of Rock Band on the horizon it would done something about the 360 too. Thats how corporations are, they try to protect their assets.


RE: The real slap to the face...
By cplusplus on 12/16/2007 6:27:22 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
My guess is that it was lack of foresight that allowed the GH guitar to work with Rockband on the 360. Most likely its a programming issue that the PS3 has which the 360 doesn't. Im sure if Activison saw the development of Rock Band on the horizon it would done something about the 360 too. Thats how corporations are, they try to protect their assets.


I don't think that's it. More than likely, what happened was that they had a 360 Guitar Hero guitar to work with for compatibility during development (the one released with GH2), so they were able to make sure that it was compatible. And since the GH2 and GH3 guitars for 360 are probably programatically very similar, this covered them for the GH3 guitars. But with the PS3, there was no old guitar to work with for compatibility, and they probably just put some code in there that they thought would work with the PS3 guitar that Activision would release, without being able to test it at all. By the time they got their hands on an actual PS3 Gutiar Hero guitar (and they probably would have had to get it straight from retail, like everyone else), it would have been too late to code compatibility into the game on release, so they went to work on a patch to be released after the game.

Or at least that's this man's idea of what might have happened.


RE: The real slap to the face...
By orochi on 12/16/2007 8:14:46 PM , Rating: 2
I'm pretty sure that's how it is. If I remember correctly, GH2 for the PS2, the guitar requires the d-pad left to be held down for it to ID itself as a guitar and it has to go through some other ID process. It was rather lame since it broke compatibility to TAC's wireless controllers.


profits...
By comradeiggy on 12/16/2007 10:18:01 AM , Rating: 3
Why should Activision help out a competitor?




RE: profits...
By MrPickins on 12/16/2007 12:32:07 PM , Rating: 3
No doubt.

And why doesn't Harmonix just release their standalone guitar? Everybody is blaming Activision for not being able to play bass on their competitors game. Doesn't make any sense.


RE: profits...
By Murst on 12/17/2007 10:19:36 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
Why should Activision help out a competitor?

I don't recall Harmonix asking for help. Harmonix developed a patch by themselves, without any support from Activision.

Its not often you see spiteful companies. Its generally pretty bad business.


PS3 rock band compatibility
By tkad on 12/16/2007 8:56:16 AM , Rating: 2
seems to me, sony has an obligation to its customers regarding the guitar compatibility issue. Microsoft has apparently handled this issue themselves. I am sure the software vendors involved would have acted the same with both consoles otherwise.




RE: PS3 rock band compatibility
By michal1980 on 12/16/07, Rating: 0
RE: PS3 rock band compatibility
By Murst on 12/17/2007 10:22:12 AM , Rating: 2
According to rumors, HMX designed the game to work w/ a prototype of a GH3 guitar... however, that prototype was not the same as the final build.

Perhaps you should use your prophetic powers to help companies make their products futureproof. :)


RE: PS3 rock band compatibility
By m0mentary on 12/16/2007 11:32:45 AM , Rating: 2
Though it would have been nicer to just come to a general agreement between Activision and Harmonix that blanketed BOTH versions, perhaps that was avoided due to the differences in licensing fees for Sony and Microsoft.

Or Maybe 360 owners just got lucky that there were no compatibility issue but since there is a "bug" on the PS3, Acitivision just sees a chance to make a profit/cut their competition.

I think Harmonix had a greater duty to make sure it had a solution. It advertises a full "rock band" setup.


Fix
By Murst on 12/17/2007 9:41:33 AM , Rating: 2
This issue could easily be solved if the rockband patch mysteriously appeared on some torrent sites.




RE: Fix
By afkrotch on 12/17/2007 12:53:04 PM , Rating: 2
Hire me, I'll leak the patch, then fire me a couple days later. I'll just pick up my 10 million dollar last paycheck and have a misdemeanor on my record. No big.


GHII 360 Controller?
By Soulchaser on 12/16/2007 9:57:21 AM , Rating: 2
Has anybody tried the 360's GHII controller? It's USB if I remember correctly from people complaining about having wires. I have no idea if the PSIII GHIII controller is USB or not, but all the Rock Band equipment is isn't it?




Missing the point
By bruins00 on 1/1/2008 10:43:03 PM , Rating: 2
Most are missing the point that these consoles run on an open standard that is for the better of all users. The guitar is a controller. Nothing more. Would you rather buy a new controller for every game you buy. It even more critical considering rock band isnt going to be selling seperate controllers for weeks to keep up to demands for their box set.
Sony can be looked at as part of the problem. I dont know what their certification process is to let games and controllers onto their system. Im sure the could sue they to make the controller function as it should or ban any further releases of their products onto the ps3 until they fix it.




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