Sony: Music peripherals to work across games on PS3

by Jem Alexander { Aug 18th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Remember back around Christmas, when we were promised a Rock Band patch which would allow people to use Guitar Hero III controllers? You know, the patch which was going to allow PS3 owners the same features as the Xbox 360 version? Sure, it never appeared, but it seems that Sony is making sure that such a thing never happens again. Michael Shorrock, director of 3rd party relations, has posted up some info on the PlayStation.Blog stating that Rock Revolution, Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour's instruments will all be compatible with each other.

Not only that, but Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 will support SingStar microphones. This is great for those of us who are interested in picking up all of these games, but are a little less interested in having our living rooms full of plastic drum sets and guitars. The good news doesn't end there, though. That patch we mentioned at the beginning of this post may still see the light of day. Shorrock says they're "still working hard to ensure compatibility between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles currently on the market, and we hope to have an announcement on that shortly."

Thanks to Sony for pre-emptively solving what could have been a very messy Christmas. Universal peripheral compatability just makes so much sense. Now comes the hard decision. Which game's instruments look best?

Tags: guitar-hero-world-tour, playstation-blog, rock-band-2, rock-revolution

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

oOo BioShock oOo @ Aug 18th 2008 1:34PM

Sweeeeet!!

Toby @ Aug 18th 2008 1:38PM

theres a different count between the number of pads on RB, GHWT and RR. I dont think the B/C will be working to well for the drums =(

Nate @ Aug 18th 2008 1:56PM

By default, there's still only 4 pads on the GHWT drums, the elite set of drums has extra pads for songs that use them in different ways.

Lars @ Aug 18th 2008 4:53PM

GH:WT automatically checks what type of drum controller you have and changes the note-track accordingly.

"Which game's instruments look best?"
The Strat looks best, but that's irrelevant. What is relevant is which one each individual likes best. I prefer the Strat because it's a bit closer to real guitar and much easier to play than the GH controllers.

For drums, the ION kit looks great. Should perform spectacularly too.

Toby @ Aug 18th 2008 5:24PM

Good info to have. If the ION set works with RB and GH, im picking that up

macserv @ Aug 18th 2008 6:58PM

There is also functionality on the GH:WT guitar that doesn't exist on its RB counterpart.

WhaleMenacer @ Aug 18th 2008 1:55PM

Yep, not bad at all. Now I might be able to afford the ridiculously priced Ion drum set. let's see....which course do I really not want to take this semester....

Nate @ Aug 18th 2008 1:56PM

It's about freakin' time. Usually, I'm not a fan of console makers making mandates for games made for the system, but in this case, I think it's necessary. The fact that in order to play a couple different games on the PS3 you had to have 4 mostly life size guitars was just ridiculous. It was awful for the fans, and it limited sales of both GH3 and RB. It would have been even worse if GHWT was going to have proprietary drums, too.

Thank you Sony. Now how about getting cross-game invites and voice chat working?

Devin @ Aug 18th 2008 1:59PM

My cousin's going to be so happy. He bought Rock Band, but never bought GH because of the issue. Nyko took advantage of it by releasing a guitar that worked on both, but tbh Sony should've seen this coming beforehand since they don't have a set standard like MS does for 360 on game peripherals. Atleast they are trying to work this out though so hats off to them for that.

Joshua Mills @ Aug 18th 2008 2:22PM

Here's hoping for a retroactive patch - I wouldn't mind snagging rock band just to jam on the guitar some more :)

faxsi @ Aug 18th 2008 2:34PM

But will this let me use my PS2 Guitar Hero guitar to play Rock Band on my PS3? =)

Snutz @ Aug 18th 2008 3:24PM

I already do.

http://store.theantcommandos.com/Universal-PS2-PS3-Adapter-p/gtr-ps3-adpt.htm

It works wonders.

Tommy @ Aug 18th 2008 6:19PM

I can second Snutz's comments. I have one, too, and it indeed works. It was finnicky the first time I tried it, but now it works wonders! I had a Rock Band party, and was able to use my PS2 GH2 guitar so we had 4 people playing Rock Band without shelling out for the extra Rock Band guitar.

And I agree, this is HUGE news. I was going to skip GH:WT if I had to buy more instruments, but if this is true, GH will at least get some revenue from me (although my heart belongs to the Rock Band franchise now).

mike @ Aug 18th 2008 9:19PM

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

It's about time someone wised up and got this done. I might buy the next guitar hero game if I can use my rockband guitar on it.

TheMan726 @ Aug 18th 2008 2:33PM

Will rock band 1 instruments be compatible with gh:wt and RR?

clif @ Aug 18th 2008 2:38PM

This is some of the best news in gaming in a long time. Sure, it might have been coming. But sony could have taken the same neutral route and have pissed off gamers.

It would be nice if they still could put out that patch so I could use my les pual in rock band 1 and hell maybe use the start in gh3 I'd be happy :).

Also, Toby Actvision mentioned at thier E3 conference that they are going to remap their songs so that the rb drums work with gh world tour just fine.

Happy Day. I wonder what shortly means this week would be nice. Rock Band 1.05 patch and a 1.12 patch for gh3 would be nice by thursday if possible.

Neon @ Aug 18th 2008 3:30PM

OK, THANK YOU. I was wondering when Sony would step in and say "enough is enough". This was a REALLY stupid problem that should have been nipped in the bud long ago.

jq71586 @ Aug 18th 2008 2:49PM

About damn time. With the confirmation of this I'm going to pick up the stand alone copy of GH: WT.

rvkremer @ Aug 18th 2008 3:08PM

People can say what they want about PS3, but Sony is really listening to its community, this is just the latest. Through all the complaints about Nintendo abandoning its core audience and MS hardware issues, PS3's install base has been very quietly getting new features almost every week. Seriously, search the PS3 tagged articles for the past several months. The $599 Riiiiiiidge Racer days are long gone.

Major kudos are in order.

realityzero @ Aug 18th 2008 3:08PM

And here I was about to give up on guitar hero and buy a second rock band guitar. Good news!!

TheHakku @ Aug 18th 2008 6:23PM

You do know that you can send in your broken rock band guitar controller in for a new one, right? Through http://support.ea.com/rockband I believe.

realityzero @ Aug 18th 2008 10:29PM

Nothing wrong with my guitar I just wanted to be able to play 4 players on rock band.

rmjohnson124 @ Aug 19th 2008 8:23AM

HAHA!!!....hmm....what everyone gonna buy? Peripherals from the company that tried all along to get open compatibility or ones from the company that said screw the consumer, we are just greedy and want everyone's money regardless of whether they are happy or not...

GH2 was cool but GH3 sucked and the guitar was worse, Rock Band had the best of everything....

AF @ Aug 18th 2008 4:33PM

Awesome news. Sony rocks! The game companies couldn't get it together, but Sony did it for us. That's some serious customer support right there. Now I can be excited to get both RB2 and GH. Nice job.

Squid7085 @ Aug 18th 2008 5:24PM

I was hoping we woudl see this happen soon, and the microphone news is even better. I still think I will spring for the GH:WT Drum Set though. After that hopefully I wont need any new stuff.

Tanya @ Aug 18th 2008 5:55PM

Hallelujah! It's about time! I'm glad Sony is finally putting their foot down on this and I don't have to worry about getting different instruments for some of these games.

RavenPaul @ Aug 18th 2008 7:12PM

So will I be able to use RB mic with GHWT? Only way I will buy GHWT.

CPRxChris @ Aug 19th 2008 8:09AM

That's good. Because I'm kind of a mess when it comes to this kind of stuff...

I prefer the microphone of SingStar (especially the wireless ones), the drums of GH: WT (from the look of it), and (contrary to what other people like) the Guitar of Rock Band.