On Rock Band compatibility-

[Christopherap34]

Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure Harmonix would be opening themselves up to lawsuits if they simple patched RB without RedOctane's permission/request. I can guarantee you that RedOctane has patents and copyrights surrounding the guitar and how it interfaces with the PS3 and software. If Harmonix were just create a patch, they could be infringing on RedOctane's IP and get sued.

While this is true, both parties stand to make more money. If patches were made for GH3 and RB making either compatible with the other, then the GH3 people would make money cause people will still play GH without having to buy another guitar, gamers could battle on GH3, still buy DLC for GH3. And the people that have bought GH3 will feel better about buying RB. Oh, and for thos that say that they will lose money because of the price difference from not buying an additional guitar. Think about this, If everyone is using there second guitars from the other games to play. You can worry about producing a lower number, and with the problems that these have with failures and breaking, that means less to replace.

[BathTub]

Red Octane could hardly complain if they simply opened the game up to a standard controller, which is all they need to do.

[MagicDrop]

One of the worest arguments I have seen on here so far is someone complainning that the box says it supports 4 player mode. Just because you don't have a fourth controller doesn't mean it supports four player mode. Does ANY other game that supports four play mode need to come with all the controls you need. You don't have to buy another full box you just need to have a friend come over that owns the game and use his/hers.

It is messed up that you can't buy another guitar but it is certainly not false advertising.

[oz8441]

I just want to know is there anyway I can have a guitar and bass at the same time without buying a whole other bundle? If not is there a official statement on when an alternative will be available?

[MF-PO'd]

Wesley, Sony has nothing to do with this. They don't have any restrictions on what third parties can do with peripherals for their system. Also, GH3 costs the same wireless on both systems because Activision is ripping off PS3 users by making them pay the same when it costs them less to produce. Harmonix decided not to rip off PS3 owners and keep the costs down on both systems. Which is awesome of them.

Harmonix, you guys just need to fix this one little thing. I look forward to your response sometime this week.

Actually, Sony does have a part in this, and that is coming directly from EA who blames Sony for not allowing the Sixaxis to work. Apparently, the Sixaxis doesn't follow this "open standard". EA specifically told me to take that up with Sony.

[MF-PO'd]

EA has now admitted to me that the PS3 standalone version should not be on the market. Look at this response:

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Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts!

It looks like you purchased the game individually, though we do not currently have the game for sale in that state because we do not have all of the individual components for sale at this time. We should only have the bundle for sale. Looking online it looks as though Amazon.com is selling just the game, though they really shouldn't be at this time because of the situation it creates.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Customer Support
Electronic Arts
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[djbarg]

Looking online it looks as though Amazon.com is selling just the game, though they really shouldn't be at this time because of the situation it creates.
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And Best Buy, and WalMart, and Kmart and etc, etc etc,....

I feel really bad for everyone that purchased the game seperately. It is totally irresoponsible for a company to market their product in this way. EA should send 50% off vouchers for equipment to all who purchased the game by itself.

[DoctorSpaghetti]

sean, with all due respect, an answer straight out of the PR department isn't going to satisfy anyone. Harmonix's own marketing material was quite misleading in the case of the PS3, and the last thing anybody wants to hear is it's everybody elses fault but yours.

Am I the only one that heard the PS3 GH controllers wouldn't work like a couple weeks in advance? Everybody else seems to be shocked...

[AdamWill]

Red Octane could hardly complain if they simply opened the game up to a standard controller, which is all they need to do.

How many times do I have to repeat myself?

There *is* no standard for guitar controllers.

If the guitar controller did absolutely nothing different from the only 'open standard' that exists, which is what the first-party controller for the system does, then you could play RB with a Sixaxis. You can't. This is demonstration enough that just making your controller 'standard' is not enough for it to work with RB.

Anyone who's ever actually looked at how guitar controllers works would be able to tell you that anyway.

The controllers do not use any proprietary system for communicating with the game. None of them do. Not Red Octane's, not Harmonix's. They use the standard interface. All the buttons and levers and strum bars on a RO or Harmonix guitar send signals to the console which are the same as one of the signals sent by a Sixaxis.

However, the games need to be able to identify when a guitar is plugged in (and RB needs to know when a mic is plugged in and when a drum kit is plugged in). So to do this, the controllers send an arbitrarily chosen 'signal'. For instance, the GH2 guitar does the equivalent of permanently holding down both the left and right d-pad buttons (you'll note that these controls are not used anywhere in the GH2 interface). This is the signal that tells the game it has a compatible guitar controller plugged in.

These signals *are not standardized*. It is also not standardized which Sixaxis controller buttons the fret buttons should map to, and which button or axis the strum bar and whammy bar should map to. These are the things that need to be standardized to guarantee guitar peripherals will interchange reliably between games. As long as they're not standardized, HMX's excuse is pure crap. As I've been writing all along - the blame for this situation is *equally* HMX's and RO's (and Bemani's, if you care), because it would take the involve of both / all three of them to ratify a proper standard. No-one is saying HMX is entirely to blame here, we are saying that they are *partly* to blame and that their attempts to excuse themselves from all blame are weak and bad form.

[Yordakin]

I agree with most on this subject HMXSean. A simple PR " it's not our fault" won't do in this case. It's not like you guys have an amazing number of parties to deal with when it comes to assuring compatibility of your hardware. I expected this from Activision/ Neversoft, I knew my Les Paul wouldn't work with my previous GH games because they TOLD US!! I did NOT expect this from Harmonix however. Nothing was said about these compatibility issues, NO warning at all. Here I am thinking I'm going to get to play Rockband. Instead all I can do is play Drums/Vocals. Not only do I not have ANY 3rd party options for my guitar, but my Rockband guitar is among one of the many that is faulty. I payed 181 dollars including tax for RockDUO! I know this post sounds angry, because it is. HMX is not stupid, they HAD to know of these issues facing PS3 owners especially. Thank you for becoming yet another company that just screws it's PS3 customers in order to milk the mighty Xbox cow. Oh wait, this is nothing new, EA was involved, they've been releasing inferior products on the PS3 for just over a year now. I was wondering what part EA played in making Rockband, guess I know now. I hope this post pisses someone off at HMX, I hope you think I'm an @#$hole. I am a pissed consumer, and after giving you a fair chunk of my money for a faulty product, I have a right to be. Up until this point I have given HMX my total faith, however, this failed launch looks like typical rushing of a product for profit, so I cannot defend my favorite game company. So in closing, fix the problem, don't try to shift blame somewhere else. The gaming community is not expecting anyone but HMX to get this issue resolved, because frankly, the gaming community does not have any faith in any other company to get it done, at least I don't.