This just in: Harmonix and sony team up for market strategy. Harmonix excited by the prospect of losing lots of money very quickly .

No single guitars? That definitely seems like a bad move. The only reason I could thing for this happening is if they're having trouble making enough guitars for just the bundles.

I guess the GH3 makers will be happy about this, at least.

My only question is will they sell the game by itself?

Harmonix is a software company, and they are no longer partnered with the hardware specialists, Red Octane. So we knew the big challenge for them was going to be designing, producing, and distributing all these instruments.

Thus, there won't be wireless 360 guitars at launch, and you can only buy 3-instrument bundles in a 4-instrument game.

And, oh yeah, baby, there will be shortages.

That seems like it's really gonna hurt Rock Band as it tries to go up against Guitar Hero...

Whatever happened to the argument: "We dont really expect everyone to buy all the instruments. Several friends buy one and team up for the band. Only the hardcore will have every instrument."


Individual instrument bundles FTW.

"I don’t know if I can say we’re cheaper or more expensive but remember, where as in other games they adjust the tracks for one or two guitars, in Rock Band it’s vocals, drums, guitar and bass on multiple difficulties. One thing we will do is give the gamer options. You can buy an album, or if you only want one or two tracks you can purchase those items separately."

That sounds to me like individual tracks will be more expensive than a third of GHII's 3-song pack. Full albums may be priced like an actual CD or even more expensive because of the added content.

pretty dumb

also "one's" shouldn't have the apostraphe

not really a big deal.. you could hardly find a stand alone x-plorer controller around here for months after GH2 was released. It's no big deal, most people who are going to go balls out and get a full set like that would already have a gh2 guitar to use anyway.

I was planning on buying the bundle anyway, so this doesn't bother me.

Darn.

This really is a non-issue.

First, the majority of people who are going to be picking this up on the day its released (and it will sell out, have no doubt about that) are 360 owners who already own GH2. So they've already got the Xplorer and don't need an extra guitar anyway.

Also, via the transitive property, it's been determined at least on the 360 that GH3 and RB guitars are compatible (Xplorer works in GH2, Xplorer works in RB, Xplorer works in GH3, Les Paul works in GH3, Les Paul works in GH2, therefore Les Paul works in RB). If the majority of people are going to end up owning both games anyway, why limit the number of full bundles you have out in the market to cater to that small segment who somehow won't have a second guitar?

And if you own a PS3, well, you're used to suffering already, so this shouldn't sting too much.

Finally, remember: A mini-fridge is more important than a bassist.

I found it stand alone on bestbuy online for the people who already have two XBOX 360 guitars. I'll probably wait to buy the drums next year and just buy the game in Nov.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8368036&type=product&id=1177718175971

This sucks, but it is only a very small tiny monority that does not already own another guitar, or know someone who does. I already have a few for II and will be picking up GHIII at the end of the month anyway.

The absolute crap part is I was going to buy another drum set for the head to head :(

This is totally a product of the instrument shortage at launch. The same reason that Europe was delayed into '08.

Give it a few months to ramp up hardware production and it will sort itself out.

so all of you people that are getting the game don't know ANYONE else that is also getting it, or already has GH2? then who do you have coming over to fill in those other 3 spots?

I fail to see how this is a real problem. everyone hates bass. :)

This article is talking about peripheral bundles. Almost every mainstream site has it sold both ways.

http://www.amazon.com/MTV-Games-Rock-Band/dp/B000TT2D0M/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4/104-2167746-5847146?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1192461002&sr=8-4
http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=200307
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2841320

For me, this is a major bummer. The only thing in Rock Band I care about is the Drum set. You could say I considered the game to be Drum Hero... but now I have to wait until next year to avoid buying controllers I don't want?

Surely I will be able to buy the game and drums 'al a carte' directly from the manufacturer's website. If they simply can't make enough, that's one thing. If they're making a play for money they didn't earn, that's another.

So, does this settle it people? Guitar Hero III will be the rhythm game champ this year in terms of unit sales?

"... you're going to have to buy a Guitar Hero controller. That seems kind of silly to us, but, hey, we're not the one's losing money."

Wouldn't the vast majority of people buying this game already have one (or 2 in my case) Guitar Hero guitars? By the time this comes out I'll have 3 with the new one in GHIII. Mmmmmmm wireless bass guitar.

Well, on the bright side they just announced "Flirting with Disaster" by Molly Hatchet. Harmonix has a great habit of picking songs most people haven't ever heard and having them be awesome.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/827/827329p1.html

Note: The Ignorant Sluts are still some of the worst Rock Band players I have ever seen. Their singer is appalling.

Well in the UK we are still waiting for individual x-plorer guitars and the only way still to buy GH2 for 360 is in a bundle. No stand alone guitar and no game on its own. And that didn't hurt having the bundle sell out everywhere for months. Luckily this time GH3 wil be available as a game only as well as the bundle.

Though I'm gonna have to import rock band from the US as we don't even have a confirmed release date yet. Sometime next year last I checked. That's gonna be one expensive shipping charge! Welcome to gaming in the UK

Bundle only? Lame. I just want the new songs to play on my old GH controller. I couldn't care less about the drums or microphone. Lead guitar is still the star of the show.