Activision Blocks Rock Band Guitar Patch; On Santa's Naughty List
Apparently, the concept of "Holiday Cheer" and "Good Will" are foreign concepts to some folks in the gaming industry. Well, some, not all. Rock Band creators Harmonix developed a patch which would have allowed gamers to use the PlayStation 3 guitar controller for Guitar Hero III, but Activision is blocking it.
In a statement issued today, Harmonix stated that the patch was submitted to Sony for final approval (which it received), and was supposed to be released on December 4th for download. However, Sony put things on hold when Activision objected to the patch, and it doesn't look like things are going to change anytime soon.
This doesn't make any real sense, though, since the 360 version of Rockband is compatible with GH II and GH III controllers. However, single guitar controllers aren't available for the PS3 version, and if you want to have the entire four-player experience, gamers would theoretically have to buy another bundle (complete with the game). Hopefully, Activision will come to their senses and stop behaving like Scrooge before Christmas hits.
As we have said in the past, Harmonix and MTV Games believe in an open standard philosophy of hardware and game compatibility. We think that there should be interoperability between music instrument controllers across all music games. This is clearly in the best interest of consumers, game developers and console manufacturers and will only help to grow the music game genre as well as inspire innovation and creativity.Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision's Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band. The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4. Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch's release. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision's continued objection.
As is the case with the Microsoft Xbox360, we believe that Sony PLAYSTATION 3 users should be able to use the peripheral of their choice with Rock Band. We sincerely hope that Activision will reverse its decision and allow release of the compatibility patch and further, that Activision will allow Guitar Hero III to support Rock Band guitar controllers as well. We welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.
We believe that when consumers have choice, everyone wins. Harmonix and MTV Games hope that Activision and others will also adopt this philosophy.
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Miscellany on 12 December 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: activision, christmas spirit, controller, guitar hero III, harmonix, ps3, rock band, xbox 360
A big game company trying to screw over the players by ripping them off with peripherals? Heavens, no! What is the world coming to!?
Corporate greed really does know no bounds. If I thought it would do any good, I would recommend writing letters of complaint. But it's not like they would give a shit.
I bought GH3 on the PS3 just for Rock Band (prior to RB's release). GH3 on the 360 is hard to find, but on the PS3 it is found in abundance. I wonder if this incompatibility issue has something to do with it??
I've sent my emails to Activision and will be boycotting future Guitar Hero games until this is resolved. =/