Sony says (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/08/18/ps3-music-peripheral-compatibility-update/) that Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, SingStar and Rock Revolution will all share basic instrument functionality on the PS3. They are also working with these developers to get the same functionality working in the older titles as well, and expect to announce something on that shortly. Great news for music gamer fans out there!

Hi everybody, Michael Shorrock, here. I’m the Director of Publisher Relations here at SCEA. I work closely with all of the publishers and developers who create games for all PlayStation platforms. While SCEA had a ton of great announcements at E3, I’m excited to say, we have one more for today, one that I know a lot of you have been asking about:

For the past several months, we have been working closely with Neversoft and Activision, Harmonix and Konami to ensure that PlayStation 3 guitars and drum sets will all feature a basic level of gameplay compatibility.

For the most part, this means that the titles with musical peripherals will work with the other’s software. A few specific examples include: Guitar Hero: World Tour’s guitars and drums will work with Rock Band 2 and Konami’s Rock Revolution software.

And yes, you guessed it, Rock Band 2’s guitar and drum set will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour and with Rock Revolution.

Conversely, Rock Revolution’s drum set will work with both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2.

In addition, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 will both support the SingStar microphones.

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.

Of course each of these great games have their own specific cool features that may not be compatible with the other controllers, but this is our first big step in bringing a level of compatibility to music games that is sure to benefit PlayStation 3 consumers.

Keep an eye out here for more information in the future.

Great news!

I just saw that as well, but I am still peeved about the activision problem in the first place.

(the one where they blocked a patch that would have allowed gh controllers to work with RB on the PS3)

I have already pre-ordered the software only version of RB2, if I get bored with the songs I might give GH another shot at my money.

Yeah, I'm sure Activision realizes the problems they caused. With the old games being addressed for this as well eventually, it'll bring back some of the GH fans who were upset with them due to the lockout. These companies can't expect people to buy 2-3 completely new instrument sets every year!

Do you think this means that GH1 & 2 will work with the PS3 GH3 guitar? Or is that a hardware issue?

Great - announced months after I sold GH3 back to gamestop for a huge loss.

Do you think this means that GH1 & 2 will work with the PS3 GH3 guitar? Or is that a hardware issue?

well GH 1 didn't have any lag calibration(at least i don't remeber it having it) and GH2's was pretty rudimentary plus the emulation also adds in signifigant lag as well meaning neither game will be all that playable(and considering the ps3 wireless les paul still has it's own lag issues).

Maybe SingStar 2 will work with RB and GHWT microphones, but the current SS isn't going to. it looks for that dang splitter box right off the bat.

The SingStar mics work with Rock Band. I'm currently using those mics for both games.

For Rock Band, you need to crank up the mic sensitivity to 2 below max. The 2nd mic also works, but you have to yell loud...practically screaming.

well GH 1 didn't have any lag calibration(at least i don't remeber it having it) and GH2's was pretty rudimentary plus the emulation also adds in signifigant lag as well meaning neither game will be all that playable(and considering the ps3 wireless les paul still has it's own lag issues).

Emulation of PS2 games do not inherently add any lag at all on the PS3. However there is a frequent lag issue with PS2 controllers when converted to work on the PS3's USB ports. For instance, if you had the Pelican or Real PS2-to-USB converter, you would not experience lag when playing PS2 games on your PS3 (unless your HDTV has conversion lag issues for 480i games).

Wonder if this will help Konami move a few more units of Rock Revolution.