Rock Band 3 in the works

Rock Band is coming back for a second encore. In an interview with MCV this week, MTV Games executive vice president and general manager Scott Guthrie confirmed that Harmonix has begun work on a third Rock Band game.

When asked about MTV's plans for the franchise's major releases in 2010, Guthrie confirmed the possibility of a genre-spanning Rock Band game like the first two releases in the series, as well as a game dedicated to a major artist, like next month's The Beatles: Rock Band.

"We're exploring both, and possibly will do both," Guthrie said. "The Harmonix development team are working on what is effectively the next game, or 'Rock Band 3.'"

The executive also talked about the changing face of the music genre and described it as "transitioning as a category out of the 'plastic' area." With a plethora of musical instrument controllers littering the living rooms and closets of gamers worldwide, Guthrie said that MTV was switching its focus to software, whether it be packaged or online. And given the introduction of new technology like Microsoft's motion-sensing Project Natal, there might come a day when Rock Band might not even need all that hardware.

"We aren't standing still," Guthrie said. "We will keep moving into new areas and look at new technologies that our platform holder partners are also developing, such as Project Natal from Microsoft. We're working with them to pull some things together. "