We've received a handful of anonymous tips indicating that Electronic Arts is conducting surveys (surprise!) for Rock Band 2. From what we've seen, the survey is being conducted by Listen Research for EA. The survey breaks down as follows:

• The sequel will be full featured and will represent a jump similar to that from Guitar Hero I to GHII, or GHII to GHIII.
• Separate questions ask the likelihood of purchasing Rock Band 2 Special Edition (i.e. the full instrument package) for $199, $169 and $149, respectively. All current Rock Band consoles (PS3, PS2, Xbox 360 and Wii) are mentioned.
  
• There are questions concerning Rock Band Track Pack: Volume 1 and how many expansion packs you are expecting to purchase in the next six months.
• The survey asks likelihood of purchasing Rock Band over a multi-instrument version of Guitar Hero.

EA reportedly provided details on the new features for Rock Band 2 in some of the surveys, but we haven't been able to confirm this. New additions to World Tour mode are said to include online play, the recording of music videos and hiring of staff members. Other new features include Battle of the Bands, competing against other bands in daily and weekly battles, setting challenges to progress through your band's discography in increasingly harder setlists, as well as a drum trainer mode.

We've requested comment from MTV, Electronic Arts and Harmonix.

[Thanks to Andre and everyone else who sent this in!]

"I'm perfectly satisfied," you say to yourself as your fingers dart across spongy, fake frets. "I don't need those fancy high-definition graphics. As long as I can make out the notes, I'm happy. Heck, I can even see them when I close my eyes." Indeed, you're more than delighted with the PS2 version of Rock Band, the musical friend that keeps you company as you rock out in the basement. Alone.

EA, Harmonix and MTV Games can't help you with your graphics or self-deception issues, but they can offer you some of the downloadable tracks that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners of Rock Band have been enjoying. Mind you, they won't be "downloadable" so much as they'll be purchasable for $29.99. The Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1, headed for Wii (the full game is out on June 22) and PlayStation 2 on July 15th, will contain 20 songs from such artists as David Bowie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Weezer and Oasis.

Peer past the break for the full list and see if you go, "Ah, there's that song I like! I will gladly purchase this standalone set of tracks! I'm still talking to myself!"

First promised back in July of '07 and teased again just last month, Rock Band will finally see its first full downloadable album when Judas Priest's "Screaming for Vengeance" becomes available Tuesday, April 22. The set of ten master tracks will be available for $14.99 (that's 1200 Microsoft Points for those who can only make calculations in fake currencies) or individually for $1.99 (160 MS Points) per song.

A Rock Band forum moderator also confirms two more albums coming down the pike sometime soon: The Cars' self-titled debut and The Pixies' "Doolittle." Still no word on The Who's "Who's Next," which was originally promised as the first album available for download, or Nirvana's "Nevermind," which was hinted at in last July's GamePro -- or Cyndi Lauper's "Time after Time," which we've been hoping against hope will be coming ever since the game's release. Oh Cyndi ... why did you ever stop recording?

If you're a gamer in Europe (sorry about that) and have your heart set on purchasing Harmonix's multi-pronged take on the instrument protagonist genre, you'd best stop tossing your coins into the well and start aiming them at your precious porcelain piggybank. In the second attempt at damage control following Rock Band's European pricing announcement, a Harmonix developer deemed the price immobile and immune to the magical power of wishes.

"You may conclude that Rock Band isn't worth the price charged, and that is your prerogative. But it's not magically going to get cheaper because you wish it to be so," said product development manager, Greg LoPiccolo, posting on the official Rock Band forums. He explained that shocking shipping costs (all the peripherals are manufactured in China, natch) contributed to the price hike, as did the UK's longtime scapegoat, VAT. LoPiccolo went on to insist that the company was not "gouging" consumers. "We can only build our franchise if you buy our games."

While it's up to European gamers to accept this as reason or excuse, it does appear to signal the arrival at an impasse. Somebody has to budge -- be it EA finding cheaper distribution methods or consumers convincing themselves that a set of delayed peripherals is worth more than a Wii or the Xbox 360 Arcade. If the game's sales are severely hampered when it releases on May 23rd, however, you can be sure a price drop will "magically" arrive to save the day.

[Via Eurogamer]

Electronic Arts has finally announced a release date for fake instrument extravaganza, Rock Band, in the chronically shafted land of Europe. Eurogamer reports that the music-and-rhythmer will launch as a timed Xbox 360 exclusive on May 23rd, with PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii versions following "later this summer."

The game will be sold separately from an "Instrument Edition," which is comprised of the drum set, guitar and microphone, priced at GBP 129.99 / EUR 169. Including the cost of the game (we're assuming you want to play something with all that kit), folks in the region are looking to shell out about $360 for tickets to their own concert. Sounds like there'll be less rocking and more wailing among this poor band of gamers. In addition, wireless guitars will be sold separately for GBP 59.99 / EUR 79.99, while the drum kit will go for GBP 69.99 / EUR 89.99.

As a minor consolation, the European version of Rock Band will come with several exclusive tracks from bands such as Oasis, Blur and Muse (you'll find the complete list after the break). If none of those appeal to you, Rock Band's extensive online store will open on May 27th, fully stocked with all existing downloadable tracks. New songs will then become available every week alongside the American releases.

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

When Guitar Hero 3 launched last year it was an immediate success, selling out at a fairly quick pace throughout the holiday season. Following just behind it was Rock Band, selling very well, but not nearly as quickly as Guitar Hero. So far, all versions of Guitar Hero III have sold about 9.1M copies, versus just roughly 1.5M for Rock Band. Of course, part of the discrepancy lies in the fact that Rock Band launched on two platforms while Guitar Hero 3 launched on four, but that is about to be remedied with Harmonix's recent announcement of Rock Band for Wii. While Rock Band was a more ambitious game and representative of an evolution of the music game, it did seem like Activision may have made the right choice in buying the Guitar Hero publisher (and thus the Guitar Hero brand), but not the developer. With so much brand awareness already built into Guitar Hero, was there any way that Harmonix could possibly top the original creation that it no longer owned the rights to?

After initially seeing EA's explanation about its pay-to-play DLC weaponry in Battlefield: Bad Company on MTV's Multiplayer, it was time for a nice walk around the block to inhale some crisp spring air and exhale some vexation before sitting down to write about it. The publisher states that five of the DLC weapons in its upcoming FPS will be "free," and the other five will be bundled with the game's "Gold Edition." For gamers who don't want to buy the "Gold Edition," the weapons will be available to purchase through PSN and XBM -- no prices are currently attached to the weapons.

EA states that the pay-to-play weaponry in B:BC will not unbalance the game and that "more weapons offer players more choices but do not create an advantage/disadvantage for players who do not opt to buy new item." Wait, what? Paying extra money for weapons other players don't have doesn't change the game experience? We had hoped EA had given up on its dubious microtransactions, but we're sure consumers will vote using their wallets if they agree with EA's tactic.

Today's Rock Band for Wii announcement left us with some lingering questions. Here are Harmonix's answers [update: added answers to Mii support, 480p questions]:

Will the Wii version of Rock Band include the Rock Band Store, and downloadable tracks?
When developing Rock Band for the Wii platform, we focused on making the core gameplay experience as solid and enjoyable as possible while tailoring it specifically to the strengths of the platform. The Wii version still contains the robust four-player band experience and all the fun at the core of other versions of Rock Band. However, because the Wii's online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they've come to expect.

Will the Wii "bonus songs" be Wii-exclusive, or five songs included on the disc from the Rock Band DLC store?
We'll announce the songs closer to launch. Stay tuned!

Will the Wii version have missing or crippled features similar to the PS2 experience?

Harmonix confirmed today that Rock Band for Wii will be released on June 22nd for $169.99. The so-called "Special Edition" bundle will include the game, drums, microphone and a wireless guitar. Standalone instruments will also be available for purchase on June 22nd. The Wii edition will feature 63 songs, including five unspecified "bonus" songs. We've asked Harmonix to answer some of your more burning questions -- we'll update this post when they do.

Update: Check out Harmonix's answers to some of your most pressing questions ... also, first image of Wii drum kit!

Following Activision's filing of a pre-emptive lawsuit last week – asking a judge to dismiss guitar-maker Gibson's Guitar Hero patent claim and later saying it had "no merit" – and then Gibson's lawsuit against major retailers selling the game, Gibson has now filed a patent infringement lawsuit against ... well, not Activision. No, Gibson has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against former Guitar Hero developer Harmonix; Harmonix's parent company's parent company, Viacom; and Rock Band publisher and all around Guitar Hero-less innocent bystander Electronic Arts.

Gibson is claiming the aforementioned companies violate their 1999 patent covering "a system for electronically simulating participation by a user in a pre-recorded musical performance." For their money – even though they're not the ones being sued – Activision claims that "by waiting three years to raise its claim, Gibson had granted an implied license for any technology." Regardless of the outcome or the number of Gibson-branded plastic guitars out there, we suspect it won't be getting a fruit basket from the video game industry this holiday.

The Rock Band music store won't be the only thing added by the forthcoming patch, with several fixes to the game included as well. Harmonix states that the patch fixes "some of the common issues" it's heard about on Rockband.com.

• Fan cap revision -- Increase on number of fans possible before cap. Easy players can travel across Atlantic, Medium players have a wider range of venues and Hard players on the Xbox 360 can unlock "One Million Fans" achievement.
• Increased diversity in Band World Tour song selection.
  
• Improved phoneme recognition -- Improved detection and scoring for phoneme recognition. Examples are songs like Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld and Blitzkrieg Bop.
• Microphone latency on PS3 improved.
• Xbox 360 band logos now visible through Xbox LIVE -- Parental controls prevented band logos from being visible over Xbox LIVE.
• Faster loading of DLC -- Songs are cached for a one time wait.

The company admits that this does not fix every issue out there and states Harmonix is "listening to all of your requests, and actively want to get these features onto the Rock Band platform in the future."

One thing we noticed when perusing over these hawt new pics of the in-game Rock Band music store was a listing for "Albums (Coming Soon)." Downloadable albums are something we've heard about since July 2007, with Nirvana's Nevermind and The Who's Who's Next cited as the first contenders.

When contacted for a statement, a Harmonix spokesperson told us, "No ETA yet - expect an announcement soon." For now, all we can recommend is you download the patch later this week and ogle at the inaccessible Albums tab, dreaming of the day when the text goes from light grey to white.

At some point this week Harmonix will finally launch the Rock Band music store, a fully integrated shop allowing players to preview and purchase tracks without ever leaving the comfy confines of the game. Songs in the store will provide a difficulty metric for each instrument and the DLC can be organized by artist, genre, difficulty and year of release.

Harmonix tells us that this is the "only patch planned" at this time, so players looking to streamline their multiplayer registration experience or do Band World Tour online are gonna have to sit tight. Also, be sure to continue checking with us every Friday for the latest Rock Band DLC announcements with Rock Band Weekly.

Harmonix' Greg LoPiccolo wants you to know that he's thinking about you. He knows that as you play Rock Band, the song that you'd really like to play and spread across the world is your own band's tune. LoPiccolo wants you to know that he wants The Cephalopods' local hit "Three Is a Tragic Number" in the game as much as you do, saying "We would like to make it possible for people to introduce their own music into the Rock Band ecosystem, which is a pretty complicated topic."

Some of those plentiful complications include IP issues and ratings problems, but LoPiccolo still thinks it's the "natural direction" for the franchise. He also talks about the feasibility of a keyboard peripheral for the game. Can we just be the ones to point out that he's missing the obvious? Keytar, people. Keytar. It's staring you right in the face. Pull the trigger on the fun gun. Do it.

Paramount tells MCV that the studio would like to increase its presence in video games and even establish a publishing division. Paramount Digital's General Manager of Worldwide Distribution, Alex Carloss, says being part of Viacom gives Paramount inroads into many worlds and the studio is "very, very excited" about growth into the "interactive entertainment market." He concludes, "You're going to see an awful lot more from Paramount in the space."

When asked if Paramount would follow Warner Brothers into third-party games publishing, Carloss replied it would be "imprudent" to give "guidance" on that. Being a part of a behemoth like Viacom certainly has its advantages. Another Viacom child, MTV, is set to spend $500 million over the next two years, and initial investments seem to be paying off.

[Via GameDaily]