Joystiq Holidaze: the guitar compatibility guide

by Ross Miller { Nov 21st 2007 at 9:00PM }

'Tis the season for shredding plastic guitar controllers in a virtual environment for screaming, adoring virtual fans - do you know if your plastic axe can rock with your game? Through playtests and corroboration via other sources, we have combined three handy charts (one for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and now Wii) to let you know what guitar controllers work with what games.

First, the Xbox 360:


Rock Band Stratocaster	Yes	No*	No**
Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul	Yes	Yes	Yes
Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer	Yes	Yes	Yes

Notes:
* Can navigate menus, but during the songs the green button is stuck down, orange is red, and everything else is dead
** Interestingly, the drums are recognized, so you can actually navigate menus using them, but playing songs is a no go.

The PlayStation 3, however, has a much "easier" choice (after the break).


Rock Band Stratocaster	Yes	No
Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul	No	Yes

The Nintendo Wii, for that matter, also has a pretty easy-to-read chart:


Rock Band Stratocaster	Yes	No
Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul	No	Yes

So the PS3 and Wii guitars just don't play nicely together - they're punk rockers like that. The compatibility of each guitar and game can be updated later through software, but there's no guarantee either Rock Band developer Harmonix or Guitar Hero 3 developer Neversoft will put forth the effort.

Tags: activision, christmas, ea, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-2, guitar-hero-3, guitarhero, harmonix, Holidash, holidaze, mtv, mtv-games, neversoft, rock-band

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

sirjess @ Feb 19th 2008 7:25PM

Here is another situation. Does the Wii GH3 guitar work with PS2 Rockband?

SuedeGopher @ Nov 21st 2007 9:16PM

Anyone know if the Guitar Hero II or III guitars can change the guitar effect in Rock Band? IE the Wah Wah or Echo that the strat has the lever for.

Guess it doesn't matter in the end, fricking HATE the Rock Band guitar.

umm....hello??? @ Nov 23rd 2007 3:51AM

no, you can't change the effects on the GH guitars for RB.

I don't like the RB guitar either, but one of my friends who is wayyyy better at GH than I am preferred it--must be personal taste. the RB guitar action is too soft. although as someone else mentioned further below it IS nice that it isn't so "clicky" noisy.

Silver R. Wolfe @ Nov 21st 2007 9:16PM

It's too bad the Stratocaster has compatibility issues, it's awesome.

Tiger of PTS @ Nov 21st 2007 9:19PM

lol furries

Fernando Rocker @ Nov 21st 2007 9:16PM

This article has a lot of tags...

mike_p @ Nov 22nd 2007 10:00PM

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Sam406 @ Nov 21st 2007 9:17PM

I´ll go ahead and asume the best bet are the GH guitars because they are compatible with all games.

It's not my idea of fun to re-buy guitars

Dragod @ Nov 21st 2007 9:25PM

It's for the best... The Rock Band guitar is a piece of crap...

SoulBlade @ Nov 21st 2007 9:51PM

I wonder if/when PS3 homebrew's going to happen to the level it has for the PSP - then you'll have a whole community out there who would probably make drivers for this sort of thing.

Tim Dorr @ Nov 21st 2007 10:13PM

What's with all the hating on the Rock Band controller? I like it a lot. It feels more solid than any of the existing controllers out there. It certainly feels more like an actual guitar and not a controller.

bluestriker @ Jan 25th 2008 5:22PM

I agree. While it does feel like it would break easier, it is much better looking, and in my opinion feels/performs better.

jedbeetle @ Nov 22nd 2007 6:59AM

so wait....will GH or GH2 controllers work on the ps3 Rock band? i tried and haven't gotten the ps2 GH1 controller to work with Rock Band on the ps3 - used an adapter that works great for all ps2 controllers, so i'm guessing this is a no, but what about GH2 controllers for ps2 using the adapter? i don't want to waste money finding out....but i also don't want to wait until 2008 to have a bass player in the band....

yzzlthtz @ Nov 21st 2007 11:24PM

why not the LS2/LS7? @ Nov 21st 2007 10:54PM

Also the GH2 SGs don't work on a PS3 with a USB adapter. I tried two different adapters. The closest I got was the same error the game gives with the Les Paul.

It's too bad, I went over a friends who also had Rock Band and we played two guitars and drums at once and it was great. I love the Strat so much I'd gladly buy one if they'd offer them. Until then I am sad.

I would love to know how Harmonix gets off printing "compatible with most guitar controllers" on the front of the PS3 Rock Band case when it's only compatible with one of them.

For the record, the internet points out PS3 Rock Band isn't compatible with the 360 X-Plorer either.

I'd love to see Harmonix patch this game so the statement on the box is true. It should at least work with the GH2 guitars on a PS2 adapter. GH3 managed this (so the internet says, I didn't test it and I'm thinking of trading my GH3 in).

KHCloud @ Nov 22nd 2007 2:45AM

Harmonix can't patch it, it's for Activision to do not Harmonix...The issue is not that Harmonix's guitar does not work with Activision's game but that Activision's guitar does not work with Harmonix's.

freecajunlove @ Nov 22nd 2007 2:59AM

KHCloud:

You make no sense. The PS3 recognizes the GH3 guitar as a controller, but Rock Band doesn't recognize it as an instrument. How can Activision patch this? Their dongle works. Rock Band needs to be patched to recognize that the GH3 guitar is more than a controller.

David @ Nov 21st 2007 11:58PM

Does anyone know if a PS2 to USB adapter would work for the 360 version of Rock Band? I have a PS2 GH guitar and would love to use it with my 360 Rock Band.

Roddie @ Nov 21st 2007 11:48PM

These tables are pointless, all they say is that the guitars only work with their bundled game apart from the Xbox GH ones which also work on the Xbox RB.

Ramifications @ Nov 22nd 2007 1:49AM

Good....so the table worked for you...

Now imagine without the table...you woulda been like, "do xbox rockhero drums work on ps3 guitarband? what????"

Roddie @ Nov 22nd 2007 10:57AM

My point is that you don't need 2 tables if you can put out the information in a simple sentence.

Incidentally, I eagerly await Rock Hero and Guitar Band :)

Guzzie @ Nov 21st 2007 11:49PM

Do the Rock Band 360 peripherals work with the PS3 version of the game?

Abscissa @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:35PM

Good question, actually. Both systems use USB connections for wired controllers, don't they? (I could be wrong)

mike @ Nov 21st 2007 11:49PM

will the maddness never end? 10 + Guitar hero/rock band posts a day for the past 2 weeks on joystiq. Its getting annoying. Go open up a musicplayinggamefanboy.com

CarpeD1em500 @ Nov 21st 2007 11:55PM

Uhh..this is a video game blog, and one of the big crazes right now is music based video games...

Get over it buddy...

ill trooper @ Nov 22nd 2007 5:29AM

...Or maybe you could go over and only read about stuff you like on
Ionlylikethisstuff.com

That's a great site, I heard. You better go check it out.

sheppy2.0 @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:02AM

Yes, Yes... Ross Miller. We get it. PS3 fucking sucks. Period. We get shafted so nicely. It's so nice to own the machine, love it, yet constantly be reminded how horrible it is.

I swear, sometimes the articles at Joystiq are even worse than Fernando.

Slaziman @ Nov 22nd 2007 10:04AM

Where does he say anything derogatory about the PS3 you tool? The guitars don't work, that's a fact, what the hell are you even complaining about?

Sounds like is in a bad mood because of these news.

kojo87 @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:04AM

any one know if the XBox 360 GHII controller works on GHIII for Wii via USB?

PKFC @ Nov 22nd 2007 1:32AM

Yeah I've pretty well had it with incompatible devices that do the same thing... Stuck with the PS2 GHIII since I already have two guitars. Was going to do the PS3 GHIII and use it as the bass guitar, but yeah.. None of that. Would have been nice if GHI/II/80s would work on the PS3, but nooo... Good times to be a consumer being lead to the cheese

ShortFuse @ Nov 22nd 2007 3:03AM

the x360 version of the Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer also works with Guitar Hero 3 PC version (or so i've heard)

ill trooper @ Nov 22nd 2007 5:26AM

LAME

Catoo @ Nov 22nd 2007 6:44AM

A Les Paul with a trem? Pfft.

JJ Rooster @ Nov 22nd 2007 9:21AM

This is a crazy, terrible issue for PS3 owners. I truly feel sorry that the 2 companies screwed this up. Why do GH guitars work on 360's RB? It's too bad there's animosity between the GH and RB developers now, so they're both pointing fingers and customers lose out in the end.

Specter @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:00PM

The Rock Band guitar is exponentially better. How can you people prefer clicking. click. click.

Brian @ Nov 23rd 2007 11:54AM

I think it's more the Rock Band guitar breaking. Break. Break.

Leshrac @ Nov 23rd 2007 1:20PM

I also like the RB Guitar... the strumming just feels better as it's not just a click-fest... although I may be slightly better with the GH Guitar still...

As for compatibility, it's ridiculous that they're not all fully compatible with each other. How many fake guitar controllers do these developers think we want? I don't know who's fault it is that the RB guitar isn't compatible with GH, but I suspect it's the software and not the hardware (that is, Harmonix built their software to allow the use of the GH controllers, but Red Octane and/or Activision won't allow outside guitars to work with its game). I really hope that Neversoft patches GH3 to allow the use of the RB controller, as there's no way I'm buying another guitar controller... their game will go completely unplayed multiplayer if they don't (thus limiting their potential for more content downloads from me).

-Jeff
http://alinktothefuture.com