Harmonix and MTV Games’ DIY Rock Band creation and publishing service, Rock Band Network, looks to be a mostly Xbox 360 affair, but PS3 owners won’t be entirely left out on the action.
The Rock Band Network lets any artist create and publish their own Rock Band songs for distribution in Rock Band, but the inclusive spirit of the service doesn’t apply across platforms. Because the service utilizes Microsoft’s XNA Creators Club, Harmonix and MTV Games are keeping this a Xbox 360 service, for the most part.
PS3 owners will still be able to buy some number of the user-made songs the Network will supply to its Rock Band Network store, reported Joystiq today. Artists who submit songs to the Rock Band Network can “opt in” to the service, at which point it will be up to Harmonix which songs make it to Sony’s console. So it’s up to the artists whether or not they’ll let Harmonix put their songs on the PS3’s store. That shouldn’t be a tough question for them – “It’s more revenue, right?” Harmonix says.
Those in the XNA Creator’s Club, meanwhile, will be able to peer review every song submtted to the store, while songs up for PS3 candidacy will likely have to pass through this quality check before being picked out by Harmonix. Which probably means that PS3 owners will only get the most popular songs on their platform – that could be a good thing since you’d have less junk, but also a bad thing since you’d have less selection.
In any case, it’ll be more than the Wii has. “We would love to get it running on the Wii,” Harmonix said, but apparently they haven’t figured a way to get the service to work on Nintendo’s system.
