Ever since E3, potential buyers ofRock Band 2andGuitar Hero World Touron the PS3 (a group that includes yours truly) have been wondering if they’re going to get the same privilege as 360 owners: that is, the cross-game compatibility of instrument peripherals. During a not-E3 press conference, Activision confirmed that, at least on the Xbox 360,Guitar Hero World Tourcan be playedwithRock Bandinstruments.
However, PS3 owners haven’t been afforded the same courtesy. You see, Microsoft implemented rather draconian standards for Xbox 360 peripherals, demanding that they be built to a unified specification. You can look at that as a bad thing, but all 360 controllers have to “talk to” each other — and no such requirement is in place on the PS3, which is why third-party wireless peripherals need USB dongles. It’s a much more free system, but as you can see, it has its drawbacks.
According to the PlayStation.Blog, Sony has been working diligently with Neversoft/Activision, Harmonix, and Konami, in order to guarantee that the peripherals for the upcoming music games from those companies will work with each other. I’m happy to report that they’ve succeeded on that front, and here are the details: the guitars and drums forGuitar Hero World Tourwill work withRock Band 2andRock Revolution;RB 2’s drums and guitars will work withGH WTandRR; the drums forRR(aside: curiously, Konami hasn’t announced a guitar peripheral for that game yet) will work withRB 2andGH WT; and finally,RB 2andGH WTwill support theSingStarmicrophones.
Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on whether those games will feature legacy peripheral support (e.g., willGH WTwork with the drums and guitars fromRB, like on the 360?). But take heart, PS3-owning music gamers: “We’re still working hard to ensure compatibility between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles currently on the market, and we hope to have an announcement on that shortly.”
[ViaPlayStation.Blog— thanks, Joe!]
