The website which reported that three Rock Band tracks would be packaged with the South Park: Season 11 DVDs has now taken that bit of info back. TVShowsonDVD.com says that a Paramount representative informed them the information was incorrect, but that there will be other bonus materials in the release. South Park's eleventh season had the infamous "Guitar Queer-o" episode.

Considering South Park had an entire episode about Guitar Hero, it would have been a little weird if the DVDs came with Rock Band downloads. However things got mixed up, it's a little sad to see the info turn out false -- unless the "bonus materials" end up being Guitar Hero III tracks.

[Via X3F]

Hopefully, people have been brushing up on their non-English. This week's Rock Band Weekly brings us the songs packaged with the European release of Rock Band. We've known for a while these tracks were coming as DLC, and Harmonix has seen fit to do it the week of Rock Band's European release. Also, all DLC available in North America should be available in Europe beginning May 20.

Individual songs

• "Beetlebum" - Blur (Cover, 160 MS Points / $2)
• "Hier Kommt Alex" - Die Toten Hosen (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Countdown to Insanity" - H-BlockX (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Perfekte Welle" - Juli (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Manu Chao" - Les Wampas (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Hysteria" - Muse (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Rock N Roll Star" - Oasis (160 MS Points / $2)
• "New Wave" - Pleymo (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Monsoon" - Tokio Hotel (160 MS Points / $2)

Le sigh, videos for all of next week's tracks can be found after the break. The DLC will be available next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Harmonix must be beside itself with this last week finding not one but two companies hopping on the developer's coat tails and revealing a pair of drum kits that bear more than a passing resemblance to those used in Rock Band. However, while Guitar Hero IV's kit still carries some basis in reality, the kit revealed by Konami for the company's newly announced Rock Revolution looks to be designed for players with extra appendages or other rhythm enthusiasts who are not quite human.

With six face pads of three different sizes, as well as a kick pedal, Konami's kit is certainly the most complex of the three. However, according to MTV Multiplayer blogger Patrick Klepek, the drums carry what sounds like a much more forgiving difficulty curve than those in Rock Band, which while great are almost unapproachable by rhythm game newcomers even on the easiest setting. By contrast, and according to his admittedly brief time with Konami's offering, the game doesn't penalize players for improvising during a song, and also features five difficulty settings with the lower two removing the foot pedal entirely. Still, the question remains as to if there is room enough for another peripheral-heavy rhythm game, not so much in the genre but in our own living rooms.

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!]

Some of you may have already received the June 2008 issue of Game Informer in the mail, but, for those who haven't, we thought you might enjoy seeing the first image of the new Guitar Hero IV drum kit one subscriber scanned. As you can see, the main difference from the Rock Band kit is that the yellow and orange drums have been turned into two wedge-shaped pieces elevated above the others.

Cool as it looks, we still don't have the most important piece of information about the kit: If it will be compatible with Rock Band, or if RB's kit will work with Guitar Hero IV. We like fake instruments as much as the next nerd, but two fake drum kits may just be more than our dens, living rooms and dignity can withstand.

[Update: Just so there's no question, you have to click the picture to see the full image. There is totally a foot pedal.]

Bring out the haters for this week's Rock Band Weekly update post. The songs are perfectly fine, but considering the amount of hate there is in any given week for really good tracks, we can only imagine what it'll be like for these songs. Come on, "Random Song Lover Defense Force," where are you?

Individual songs

• "Hanging on the Telephone" - Blondie (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Train in Vain" - The Clash (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Kool Thing" - Sonic Youth (160 MS Points / $2)

Videos for next week's tracks are after the break for people to make informed decisions on whether they actually hate the songs.The DLC will be available next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

Activision is planning to innovate the Guitar Hero franchise. In a conference call yesterday, Publishing CEO Mike Griffith said, "For the holiday, we will provide a significant leap forward in innovation for Guitar Hero worldwide, on all platforms." That includes PlayStation 3, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. Griffith also said that more information will be provided "in the coming weeks."

We wonder if this has anything to do with those recent rumors about Guitar Hero IV going multi-instrumental. Guess we'll find out soon.

Just a reminder that while Rock Band is riding high, its older brother is still the dominant sibling. In a conference call yesterday (start at the 29-minute mark), Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith confirmed that the Guitar Hero franchise has passed the 15 million mark in individual song downloads. Last week, Harmonix owner Viacom revealed that Rock Band had surpassed the 10 million mark.

We know that, especially thanks to the spiffy new Rock Band in-game store, buying tracks in the game is the very height, the apex, if you will, of impulse buying. But, for a few select tracks from the game, it might be better if you can restrain yourself temporarily: A batch of songs from the game will be getting their prices slashed to 80 points ($1.00). Though only Microsoft's Major Nelson has posted about the sale, we're assuming it applies to PS3 owners as well. We've emailed Harmonix for confirmation.

The sale starts with "Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore and "Rock 'n Roll Band" by Boston, but new pairs of songs will be subbed in each week. We've put the full list after the jump so you can plan your buying accordingly.

"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!"

Harmonix's grand-parent company, Viacom, announced today as part of its Q1 earnings that Rock Band has shipped three million "bundled units." GameDaily reports that the company also stated that Harmonix has had over 10 million songs downloaded for the game.

The last report we had was that Harmonix hit the six million DLC song mark in mid-March, which means the new music store apparently did help accelerate sales. Viacom's CEO said that Rock Band is emerging as a valuable long-term franchise and he expects further success from the Wii and European launches.

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

Much as many people expected, Activision public relations recently confirmed that (one song aside) Aerosmith's catalogue will remain a Guitar Hero-exclusive for the foreseeable future. There's a considerable amount of public speculation as to whether or not this will spark future fights over exclusive content, and I'm inclined to assume that it will. The incentives are just too strong to avoid future conflict – the battle between Guitar Hero and Rock Band is a great example of the prisoner's dilemma.

The prisoner's dilemma is a common building block of game theory, which is often used in business strategy to describe potential competitive responses or explain company actions. It's so named because of the story that was used to illustrate its problem. Imagine two fugitives that have robbed a bank and were just picked up by the police. Each man is taken into a separate room, and the police make the following offer to each: if they confess to the crime and help to implicate their partner, they'll receive an extremely lenient sentence. However, if they stay quiet and their partner implicates them, they'll receive the maximum penalty - while their partner gets off scot-free. Of course, if both confess, the evidence they provide isn't particularly useful, and they'll each go to trial, ending up with a sentence somewhere in the middle. What should each man do?

This ain't a scene, it's a Rock Band Weekly update post. Next week the band that people argue whether it's emo or not, Fall Out Boy, adds its song "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" to the music store. Don't lie, when it's on the radio while you're driving you sing along. Actually, all the songs sound like fun if you're in a non-snob music mode.

Scene pack (440 Microsoft Points / $5.50)

• "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" - Fall Out Boy (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Date With The Night" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (160 MS Points / $2)
• "It Hurts" - Angels & Airwaves (160 MS Points / $2)

As usual, the tracks will be available next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively. Videos for the songs are after the break.

Buffeted by presidents, presidential hopefuls, titans of industry, and the occasional blogger on this year's Time 100 – a list of, well, those sorts of people – are Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, better known to you all as "those Harmonix guys." While Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto came out tops on the user-voted list (ie: the popularity contest), Rigopulos and Egozy were cherry picked and their writeup comes to us courtesy of one Mr. Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band (yeah, the Boss also made the Time 100) and chair of the Rock Band music advisory board.

At the root of their new celebrity is Rock Band, of course, which Van Zandt says "is one of the ways kids will find music in the future" and "may just turn out to be up there with the rise of FM radio, CDs or MTV." While we're not quite ready to sign that declaration, we're thrilled that Rock Band is being put on Time's cultural pedestal and happy to have Little Steven as an impassioned (if somewhat partisan) proponent of the medium. Now what's a blog gotta do to get some Springsteen in the Rock Band Store?

Those of you patiently waiting for that song from that video with that girl from Clueless in it, or that song from that movie about those working-class guys who blow up an asteroid to wind up in the Rock Band Store may want to sit down for this news: Outside of Rock Band's "Train Kept a Rollin," Aerosmith's entire catalogue of rock and/or roll hits will be exclusive to Guitar Hero. Newsweek got confirmation from an Aerosmith publicist and Activision PR that the band's songs would be locked down for "an unspecified period of time." Is this the beginning of the licensed song wars? Our Magic 8-Ball says, "Probably."