Update (18 August): With new information, drums and Rock Revolution, we introduce Instrument Compatibility Matrix v3.0.
Guitar Hero / Rock Band guitar compatibility matrix v2
by Christopher Grant 
on Jul 9th 2008 10:00AM
69
Update (18 August): With new information, drums and Rock Revolution, we introduce Instrument Compatibility Matrix v3.0.
Reader Comments (69)
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:23AM HappyFunBall said
I agree on the PS3, but on the Wii, Activision used the Wiimote to send the commands (green button=A, etc.), and Harmonix could have emulated it easily, but they chose not to, probably because they just wanted to port the crappy PS2 version over with limited changes so they could print money faster.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 9:41PM Demaar said
Ah yeah, true. The choice to not use the Wii remote is an odd one. Even if they didn't want to have it slot into the guitar they probably could have had a cable run to it or something... though that'd probably make things more cumbersome. I dunno, the whole situation is screwed up. I wish someone would step in and get them to agree on a unified controller type. Then again, if someone did that stops innovation like GHWT's touch pads and RB's solo buttons.
This is why I'm not managing a publisher I guess lol
Reply
This is why I'm not managing a publisher I guess lol
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 10:15AM (Unverified) said
This is such a fucking shame and is probably going to keep me from buying GHWT, I like the feel of the RB strat a lotmore, it feels more natural compared to the GH shorties.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 10:20AM copa said
Activision's anti-consumer policy is finally going to bite them in the ass this fall.
When Guitar Hero: World Tour comes out in October, there will already be two generations of Rock Band out on the market.
They might be surprised when they find out how few consumers actually want to buy a second drumset to play their game, just because they insisted on locking out all Harmonix instruments.
Reply
When Guitar Hero: World Tour comes out in October, there will already be two generations of Rock Band out on the market.
They might be surprised when they find out how few consumers actually want to buy a second drumset to play their game, just because they insisted on locking out all Harmonix instruments.
Posted: Jul 10th 2008 8:57AM (Unverified) said
For me, the most comfortable guitar is the Rock Band with the lower fret keys. I tried going back to the GH guitar because it's wireless but it's no comparison.
Counting my useless Guitar Hero 1+2 guitars for the PS2, I now have FOUR plastic guitar peripherals lying around. I DON'T NEED ANY MORE.
Reply
Counting my useless Guitar Hero 1+2 guitars for the PS2, I now have FOUR plastic guitar peripherals lying around. I DON'T NEED ANY MORE.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 10:35AM DrHockey said
Question for those who have played Rock Band - is the game any fun if you just have the guitar and none of the other instruments? My NYC apartment is basically a box and doesn't have room for all the other stuff. I'd like to pick up RB or RB2 but not sure I'd get much out of it.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:03AM (Unverified) said
I had it with just the guitar for months and absolutely loved it. It's pretty much the same as Guitar Hero.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:41AM (Unverified) said
you can get the mic too- that wont take up much space!
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 3:04PM DeadPlasmaCell said
Yea it's still pretty fun. Though I think Rock Band is much much easier, overall, compaired to Guitar Hero.
Reply
Posted: Jul 21st 2008 5:09AM (Unverified) said
For regular game play, i say its a little less chalenging than GH, but its a whole new set of songs, so thats fun to play.
Online play would be better than GH because you can join in and make a band with others who have the drums you cant find space for.
All in all, yes. Rock Band will be fun with just guitar.
Reply
Online play would be better than GH because you can join in and make a band with others who have the drums you cant find space for.
All in all, yes. Rock Band will be fun with just guitar.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:00AM (Unverified) said
You know, I have a really weird guitar hero gruitar.
It's non of the above, so it must be 3rd party. But the odd thing is that I can't find it in the internet.
It's for PS2, but wireless, has 10 fret buttons, and looks just like the Xbox Xplorer.
Ever heard of one like this? Give me a link if you do, I want to know it's compatibily chart.
Reply
It's non of the above, so it must be 3rd party. But the odd thing is that I can't find it in the internet.
It's for PS2, but wireless, has 10 fret buttons, and looks just like the Xbox Xplorer.
Ever heard of one like this? Give me a link if you do, I want to know it's compatibily chart.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:05AM (Unverified) said
Maybe it's made by Ant Commandos?
http://www.theantcommandos.com/
They have a bunch of random PS2 ones. Where did you get it? I see them a lot on ebay and the like.
Reply
http://www.theantcommandos.com/
They have a bunch of random PS2 ones. Where did you get it? I see them a lot on ebay and the like.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:50AM (Unverified) said
No, I didn't find it, it looks a lot like the blue Freedom V only in the shape of the Xplorer and with 10 frets (2 green 2 yellow 2 red 2 blue and 2 orange)
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:06AM murph17 said
X360 GH3 Wireless...FTW!! Now where's the drum compatibility matrix?
The Gamespot RB2 preview said the new drums have the same number of pads, so any chance of the RB2 drums working on GHWT are out the window. If Activision is smart, their drums (which look kick ass) will work with RB too. Otherwise...no sale.
Reply
The Gamespot RB2 preview said the new drums have the same number of pads, so any chance of the RB2 drums working on GHWT are out the window. If Activision is smart, their drums (which look kick ass) will work with RB too. Otherwise...no sale.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:12AM (Unverified) said
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:24AM Rob Bourne said
This news is sweet as a bell.
Now to fund my imminent purchase of GH3, GH:A (w/guitar) and Rock Band...
Reply
Now to fund my imminent purchase of GH3, GH:A (w/guitar) and Rock Band...
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:27AM (Unverified) said
Wait!!!!! Rockband guitars work with gh3 but gh3 guitars don't work with rock band????? (for Wii)
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:40AM (Unverified) said
Just curious, but what about PS2/PS3 guitar compatibility?
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:00PM ammar91994 said
You guys should add Rock Revolution to the table when the information for it becomes available and make a table for drums compatibility aswell. I can remember reading somewhere that the GH guitars will work for RR, and they even used them to demo the game.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:48PM baby sea tuna said
Or, they can just not bother since you're probably the only person who is actually interested in Rock Revolution.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 5:55PM ammar91994 said
Konami were the people who started this whole rock rhythm game craze, so it will be interesting to see how their game turns out. Besides, if its already compatible with the GH or Rock Band guitars, it might be worth it for some different songs.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:07PM (Unverified) said
For the sake of readability, could you sort the rows and columns? It would be far more readable if the Stratocasters were adjacent and the RB1 and RB2 were adjacent. Same goes for the GH games.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 4:22PM (Unverified) said
Right now the older games are on the right and the old guitars are on the top. It's all done by when each game/guitar was released.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:47PM (Unverified) said
is that an error or does the rock band 1 strat for wii work with guitar hero III? That seems counter intuitive since it also is marked as not working for GH aerosmith
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:12PM (Unverified) said
Activision should be shot and Xbox should be severely beaten for allowing this. One of the hard and fast rules on Xbox has always been that any controller work with any game.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:49PM baby sea tuna said
At least 2 of the controllers work for every game up there on the 360. That's more than can be said for any of the other systems.
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:50PM (Unverified) said
Just a little video I put up on YouTube to put this to rest for the 360:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCEYUpqgotk
Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCEYUpqgotk
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:48PM (Unverified) said
These charts would be easier to read if the GH products and the RB products were next to each other, instead of having everything split up. It's only going to get worse with the Konami Rock Rev stuff too :-)
Reply
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:06PM doubledeej said
Why is Activision being raked over the coals here? Their guitars work with the most games, not the least. And the GH3 guitars work exactly the same as the GH2 guitars (created earlier by Harmonix) on any platform (Xbox, PS2) that GH2 was available for.
It's Harmonix that broke compatibility when they released the Stratocaster; up until it came out there was a standard way for the guitars to interface with the games. Their Strat only works with Rock Band on any platform.
It's really up to the game maker to make sure that any given guitar works with their game, not the guitar maker (because there aren't any drivers to install; the game talks directly to the hardware). Since GH3 came out first, Activision couldn't have tested with the RB guitar, but Harmonix could have tested and added compatibility for the GH2/3 peripherals.
I'm in process of developing a PC-based program that uses these guitars for input, and far and away the way that the original GH2/GH3 guitars for Xbox work is the best way to do it. The RB Strat is a hack at best, and I'm not surprised that it doesn't work with GH.
Reply
It's Harmonix that broke compatibility when they released the Stratocaster; up until it came out there was a standard way for the guitars to interface with the games. Their Strat only works with Rock Band on any platform.
It's really up to the game maker to make sure that any given guitar works with their game, not the guitar maker (because there aren't any drivers to install; the game talks directly to the hardware). Since GH3 came out first, Activision couldn't have tested with the RB guitar, but Harmonix could have tested and added compatibility for the GH2/3 peripherals.
I'm in process of developing a PC-based program that uses these guitars for input, and far and away the way that the original GH2/GH3 guitars for Xbox work is the best way to do it. The RB Strat is a hack at best, and I'm not surprised that it doesn't work with GH.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:38PM (Unverified) said
Where did you get your completely incorrect info? Activision went to court to stop Sony from releasing a patch that would allow Rock Band guitars to function for GH3. Harmonix had no part of these court proceedings. Peripherals have a rediculously high profit margin. If Activision was to allow the superior peripherals from Rock Band to function on their game, they give up money. Rock Band, on the other hand, was a driving force in the original Sony patch being created in the first place knowing that they had nothing to lose by allowing open compatibility.
Also, when GH: World Tour comes out, none of the songs from older versions will work with it. Rock Band is releasing a RB2 version of every song from RB1 and all DLC.
Reply
Also, when GH: World Tour comes out, none of the songs from older versions will work with it. Rock Band is releasing a RB2 version of every song from RB1 and all DLC.
Posted: Jul 9th 2008 3:08PM (Unverified) said
I asked a Harmonix employee on the Rock Band forums why Rock Band Strats don't work on at least Guitar Hero II (since that does seem to go against all their crowing about controller standards). I got a strange answer:
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?p=802107#post802107
Basically, "I really can't say anything, but I swear it's not our fault."
Reply
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?p=802107#post802107
Basically, "I really can't say anything, but I swear it's not our fault."
Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.
Featured Stories
The most popular posts
in the last 7 days
- Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 219 comments
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 152 comments
- David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
- Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
- Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments
