Unbundled Rock Band available at launch

SIDEBAR: The upcoming PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2 game Rock Band is dependent on specialized microphone, guitar, and drum controllers that won't be available individually when the game launches. However, that isn't stopping developer Harmonix and MTV Games from selling stand-alone copies of the game from day one, in addition to the $169 bundle with the game and all three peripherals.

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos gave a few more details on the company's Rock Band plans to the trade site Next-Gen in a recent interview. Rigopulos gave two reasons for the company's decision to release the game unbundled at launch, even though players won't be able to buy individual Rock Band instruments with which to play it at the time.

"Harmonix supports open platform standards in our game design, so people will most likely be able to use their existing peripherals with Rock Band," Rigopulos told the site in an opaquely worded reference to the Guitar Hero franchise Harmonix previously developed. "Furthermore, we know that many, many friends are planning to purchase a Rock Band bundle together, along with extra copies of the software, and then share the individual instruments among them."

As for when the official Rock Band instruments will be available outside of the bundle, Rigopulos only said that Harmonix is working to make them available "as soon as humanly possible."