Activision Blocks Patch for PS3 Guitar Hero III Controllers to Work with Rock Band
By Jonathan on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 5:56 PM PST In Activision, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games, Games Industry, Sony, Sony
According to Harmonix, Activision is blocking the release of a patch that would enable their game, Rock Band, from working with the PS3 Guitar Hero III controllers. Apparently, they developed a patch, which was approved by Sony for release on December 4th. However the release of the patch has been stopped due to objections from Activision. Currently, the PS3 Rock Band guitar is only available in bundle, meaning a consumer would have to buy a whole new bundle just to get the full four-player experience. This is an especially strange move by Activision considering the Xbox 360 versions of their controller work just fine with Rock Band. Harmonix released this statement on the issue:
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.
Via Game|Life
my Xbox 360 Rock Band Guitar does not work with any of the Guitar Hero games, but my Guitar Hero guitar works with Rock Band.
RB was released. PS3 owners discover the only controllers that works with RB are RB’s controllers. Enraged PS3 owners made Harmonix out to be the bad guy. Harmonix respond with a fix. Harmonix “making good” now shifts “bad guy” status over to Activision.
Yeah, who doesn’t now see that Harmonix probably planned this all along. There has got to be some bad blood between them and Activision or something, otherwise support should have been there from day one. This was a slick move by Harmonix to shift all the hate on Activision now. Now they (Harmonix) can shrugg their shoulders and claim “See? It’s not our fault…”
This whole debacle now actually makes the 360’s proprietary (read: “closed format”) controller scheme seem more appealing now. Realistically, the only company has say in what works with what on the 360 is Microsoft. Royalties be damned, it at least guarantees a unified standard.
“Open format” != standard.
I cringe everytime I see Harmonix pat itself on the back while preaching how it supports an “open format”. Open formats only work if everone hops on your bandwagon. Sometimes it’s better to force everyone to use a standard.
Activision is fucking retarded.
This makes no sense. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Activision would NOT want their GH3 controller to work with Rock Band.
If gamers have the option of either a RB or GH controller as my second Rock Band controller, those who don’t have GH3 will pick up the game simply because it’s cheaper than a Rock Band bundle, and they get to play both the games.
Denying gamers that option, regardless of whose fault it is, is stupid.
Screw you Activision, being cheap and petty wont win you any gold stars. I hope rock band puts you out. But EA are just as cheap not allowing their guitar to work with Guitar Hero.
If a person buys a game with a peripheral it should work with any other game thats similar, ex: Arcade fighting stick, Dance pad, Flight stick. Why be cheap and not allow it to be used if it can be, its pretty lame if u ask me. so Screw you Activision and EA for being cheap. Get over your one sidedness and let the people share their peripherals, they own the damn things after buying it.
I loved Guitar Hero. I’ve purchased every incarnation. I will never buy another Activision title again. If THIS (patch blocking) is how they reward customer loyalty, then I hope that their company goes under.
Activision are saying this isn’t true and that Harmonix actually refused a deal from Activision that would have allowed their equipment to work on Rock Band:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2007/12/activision_on_gh_not_so_fast_m.html
Upon learning of Activision’s actions, I promptly returned my wrapped copy of GH III. Activision is only hurting their paying customers with this action. Screw them – join me in protest. Please join in my commentary over at – http://boycottactivitision.blogspot.com/
Make your opinion heard.
-GOOS
Subscribing to the odd conspiracy theory as I do, how about this one.
GHIII isn’t the only knobbled PS3 game under the Activision banner.
They also ‘own’ Call of Duty 4 and PS3 support, particularly server hosting outside of the U.S,, is woeful.
I’m suggesting that it appears that Activision is having an issue with supporting [b]anything[/b] on the PS3, for whatever reason.
(Even getting on the official GHIII web-site and linking your GHIII game account to a PC-based web-account is more painful that it would seem worth.)
I’m really disappointed with Activision, and with Sony for not taking a leadership position in this matter.
I liked Guitar Hero enough to return to gaming and to buy what I thought was the most cutting edge console – the PS3. I even went out of my way to find a 60gb PS3 for the hardware compatability.
…and then I found out that the controllers wouldn’t work, even though the game starts right up like a champ.
Activision needs to take the high-road here, and deliver on the good faith that it’s GH, GH2 and GH80’s customers have shown them by buying their products for the last few years.
Sony needs to recognize as well, that the longer it sits on the fence and refuses to bring Activision to the table with Harmonix/MTV, that they are allowing them both to de-value their console system. It’s one thing if we were talking about a mildly popular game, but the Guitar Hero franchise is a MAJOR revenue stream to disenfranchise with petty behavior.
so if harmonix supports an open format why doesn’t their guitar work with guitar hero??? hmmm? THINK ABOUT IT!
I’m so pissed.Ok, I saw my cousin had a 360 guitar hero guitar working with Rockband and that was tight, so I thought it would work with ps3 because I hate the Rockband guitar (imo) and I buy a gh3 guitar for Ps3 and find out rockband thinks its a microfone, so I try to fix the problem by unplugging and plugging stuff and I can’t find the problem and i find out Activision are dicks…when you think patch will come out becasue i cant return my gh3 guitar…..
what doesn’t Harmonix release a patch to allow the GHIII guitar to work with RB?