Rock Band 3 Coming For The Holidays

The next installment of Rock Band is on the way: MTV Games and Harmonix have announced that Rock Band 3 will be here just in time for the holidays.

The announcement hit the airwaves via the game’s official Facebook page, saying the next version in the series is set to “innovate and revolutionise the music genre once again.”

Philippe Dauman, president of Viacom, which owns MTV Games, also confirmed Rock Band 3 at the Credit Suisse Group Global Media and Communications Conference.

Let us ask: do ‘we’ want/need another version of Rock Band? Surely MTV Games, Harmonix and Electronic Arts, who will handle distribution, think so. And they hope the new version sparks excitement considering the recent dip in sales for both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises.

No major details about the new game are known, but look for the creators to spice things up to entice Rock Band weary players. Billboard has remarked that Rock Band 3 may try to incorporate new motion-capture technology and motion-based controllers, due out on both Playstation 3 and Xbox later this year (via Exclaim). Rock Band 3 may also incorporate the Rock Band Network, which launched earlier this month.

Already on deck is a Jimi Hendrix Rock Band due later this year, plus a Green Day edition. All this news comes after last year’s Rock Band franchise seemed entirely focused on The Beatles: Rock Band; it was expected to commence sales with as many as 1 million copies… but sold 595,000, according to NPD Group.

Rock Band 2 was released in 2008.