Rock Band 3 to feature keyboards

360 Rumour | If only it were keytar...

The Rock Band franchise has always been a great one to get out at parties. Everyone loves getting together to play plastic instruments and yell into a mic, blasting out their favourite hits to all their imaginary fans. Yet while the guitarists, drummers, and vocalists out there had all the fun, the keyboardists and pianists were forced to sit out.

Not for much longer it seems. Today's latest juicy rumour is that Rock Band 3 will feature support for a keyboard/piano peripheral.

The rumor comes from a demo disk of the latest Rock Band iteration; Green Day: Rock Band. Using the magic of science, and by science we mean pressing a few buttons, a Rock Band 3 splash screen appears, on it the usual instrument icons known well to the franchise. This time, however, instead of four icons we're presented with a five, the fifth closely resembling the keys of a piano or keyboard.

Rock Band 3 was officially announced back in March, with a target release for later in the year, but between then and now there have been no details given as to what kind of enhancements and changes the latest installment would feature. If this keyboard addition is indeed true, we should receive confirmation at E3 2010.

And if it is true, we look forward to tapping out filthy 80s synth pop in Rock Band 3.

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28 Comments

arbok

2 years ago

i love rockband but why dont i just play the piano?

grim-one

2 years ago

Looks like singing in harmony is making a return from the Beatles game too.

And here I was hoping for an accordion...

DancesInUnderwear

2 years ago

Keyboard + Vocal Harmonies = Bohemian Rhapsody, surely. Keyboard justified right there.

Island_Wolf

2 years ago

Woohoo, FINALLY!!!. I grew up playing the keyboard and grown to make it my favourite musical instrument (I tried guitar but doesn't have the wrist for it)... funny the other day, I just told my other half if only there is a keyboard peripheral for RB/GH.

mantra79

2 years ago

Light my fire by the doors please

IISpacebreakII

2 years ago

YES!

(I have nothing more to say)

sobriquet835

2 years ago

Great news! So we in Australia can look forward to playing Keyboard on Rock Band in 2012! Oh, of course, GH will copy this latest instrument and we'll have Keyboard/piano Hero by midway through next year, or even perhaps shoe-horned into GH6, which is most likely going to be released in september, if Activision's record is anything to go by.

Sorry if this sounds a bit cynical, but both the RB teams and GH teams have really dropped the ball as far as the Australian consumer is concerned. Actually, GH has dropped the ball completely, GH5 felt like it was slapped together in about five minutes.

I just hope we get a surprise, and that RB3 will be released within a sane time frame when compared to the rest of the world. Won't hold my breath, though.

XtremeXfactor

2 years ago

grim-one wrote

Looks like singing in harmony is making a return from the Beatles game too.

And here I was hoping for an accordion...

The sad thing is that i would actually buy and play it

grim-one

2 years ago

sobriquet835 wrote

Sorry if this sounds a bit cynical, but both the RB teams and GH teams have really dropped the ball as far as the Australian consumer is concerned. Actually, GH has dropped the ball completely, GH5 felt like it was slapped together in about five minutes.

Blame the publishers and distributors, not the development teams... well apart from the GH5 being slapped together.

Remember that Beatles Rock Band made it here on time tho

XtremeXfactor wrote

The sad thing is that i would actually buy and play it

Me too! I didn't get DJ Hero but I'd buy Accordion Hero.

Agent 042

2 years ago

DancesInUnderwear wrote

Keyboard + Vocal Harmonies = Bohemian Rhapsody, surely. Keyboard justified right there.

only if it's licensed for both guitar hero and rock band (bohemian rhapsody is in gh6).

DancesInUnderwear

2 years ago

Agent 042 wrote

DancesInUnderwear wrote

Keyboard + Vocal Harmonies = Bohemian Rhapsody, surely. Keyboard justified right there.

only if it's licensed for both guitar hero and rock band (bohemian rhapsody is in gh6).

There has been crossover in the past, so there better be crossover again or I'm gonna be pissed.

Agent 042

2 years ago

DancesInUnderwear wrote

There has been crossover in the past, so there better be crossover again or I'm gonna be pissed.

yeah i know both games tend to repeat a bunch of songs, but bohemian rhapsody is one of those songs i'd expect someone to try to get exclusively.

sortius_nod

2 years ago

Do people actually still care about these "music" games?

IISpacebreakII

2 years ago

^We used to, until they realised they had a cash cow on their hands and ruined the series...'spirit' I'll say. The thing is it wasn't really about the songs, it was about the Awesomeness, That final brick wall in GH3 with all those metal songs, I just wish they could pull it off again.

GH4 focused more on being band-related and alot of crap indie songs and stuff that just didn't work out.

Anyway I still hope one day something will be alright. Band Hero and GH5 and GH4 were sacks of crap imo (Didn't play RB/RB2) and I'm not interested in the Beetles/Green Day/Van Halen/Metallica. I really wish they would do genres rather then individual bands. Metal would be nice.

I wonder how Pianos going to work though, there better me atleast 20 buttons, but if there was I'd have no idea how it will fit on screen with the others. Maybe a horizontal bar like the vocals. 20 buttons may sound like alot but it isn't really, cause if there was 10 buttons you would really be moving your hands and that would suck...30 buttons would be nice

Pilot

2 years ago

I'll happily pick up the new software when it's available, but I'll pass on any new peripherals. Still have drums and microphones sitting here that have never been used and probably never will be. If Beatles Rock Band is anything to go by, the Instrument Bundle will drop by 50% a few months after launch anyway.

DancesInUnderwear

2 years ago

Agent 042 wrote

DancesInUnderwear wrote

There has been crossover in the past, so there better be crossover again or I'm gonna be pissed.

yeah i know both games tend to repeat a bunch of songs, but bohemian rhapsody is one of those songs i'd expect someone to try to get exclusively.

This is true. But with Rock Band already having 12 Queen songs, you can't imagine they'd miss out on Bohemian Rhapsody. Surely not.

JP2daMC

2 years ago

Besides the fact that "rumour" has an "our" (we live in Australia) and the headline makes this seem like fact rather than speculation, I'm not sure the simple addition of the keyboards is enough of a change for number 3.

G3ck0

2 years ago

sortius_nod wrote

Do people actually still care about these "music" games?

I still play Rock Band 2 every day, often for a couple of hours or more, so yes, I very much care about these "music" games.

XtremeXfactor

2 years ago

sortius_nod wrote

Do people actually still care about these "music" games?

My interest isn't as high as it was when GH first came out here and again with GH 2. GH 3 onwards, it dropped from game to game. I purchase them, but rarely finish them (World Tour about a tier/tier and a half away from completion, only did a few songs in GH 5 before shelving it, still havn't played through Greatest Hits). Yet i gradually finished RB: Beatles, Band Hero, GH: Metallica etc. I have not and probably won't purchase GH: Van Halen..... 50/50 on RB: Green Day.

Pilot wrote

I have no room for any new instruments, the Logitech wireless guitar is my last one. I have a GH 1 and GH 2 ps2 guitar, GH 2 Xbox 360 guitar, Rock Band full kit bundle, GH III guitar and the Logitech wireless guitar from a few months ago.

Eyce

2 years ago

XtremeXfactor wrote

Yeah, I've got:

GH1 PS2 Controller
GH2 PS2 Controller
GH3 360 Controller
GH5 360 Controller
RB1 Microphone x2
RB1 360 Guitar Controller x2
RB1 360 Drums Controller x2
ION Drum Rocker
DJ Hero Controller

I've still got room but I've got all my bases covered right now.

Jarrod

2 years ago

Now the rumor is that its not keybaord but instead keytar

Fetidchimp

2 years ago

yep rock bands the world over endorse keytars.....oh **** it's 2010 not 1980....this will be handy for when they release pseudo echoes entire back catalog though.

Agent 042

2 years ago

Jarrod wrote

Now the rumor is that its not keybaord but instead keytar

but if it's keytar, how is it any different from charting piano/keys on the guitar part?

grim-one

2 years ago

Agent 042 wrote

but if it's keytar, how is it any different from charting piano/keys on the guitar part?

So imagine the 'frets' at the top of your RB/GH guitar are the piano keys. You still need a set of buttons instead of the single button at the bottom (ie. your strum bar) for different effects (pitch bends, vibrato, portamento, sustain, etc). A keytar would typically have them at the top and the piano keys at the bottom of course though.

Keytar on Wikipedia

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Rock Band 3

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  21/10/2010 (Confirmed)
Publisher:
  Electronic Arts
Genre:
  Music
Year Made:
  2010
Players:
  4

Read more...

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