We knew that Guitar Hero and Rock Band would come to clash at some stage, but few gamers expect such a clash to be such a complicated one, as Activision and Harmonix butt heads over compatibility issues with the guitar peripherals used in their games.

As has been reported around the internet, the Lee Paul controller used in the PS3 version of Rock Band does not work on PS3 Guitar Hero. Rock Band developers and past Guitar Hero creators Harmonix decided to create a patch to fix this problem, and the Rock Band guitar compatible with Guitar Hero 3.

But this patch may never even see the light of day

Activision apparently isn’t at all happy about the idea of letting gamers using peripherals from the competition’s products, and wants to keep GHIII support exclusive to their own guitar peripheral, and have put the patch in “lockdown”.

The reasons why are explained below, from Harmonix’s perspective, courtesy of an official statement by the company on the issue, which can be read below.

“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 release of the compatibility patch. 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 Xbox 360, 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 in the industry will also adopt this philosophy.”

Who will come out on top in this convoluted battle of the bands? It’s anyone’s guess.

Filed under: G