Rock Band jams 3M bundles, 10M downloads

Earlier today, American media conglomerate Viacom reported a solid first quarter. The MTV parent company posted revenues up 15 percent year over year to $3.1 billion, with net income spiking a significant 33 percent to $270 million, up from $203 million for a year prior. Although Viacom has its hand in all manner of media, including film, TV, and radio, the company specifically called out the Harmonix-developed Rock Band as a particular contributor to growth.

Reporting on its earnings, Viacom said that since Rock Band launched in North America last November, MTV Games has shipped more than 3 million bundled units. Viacom will undoubtedly soon have more cause to celebrate MTV Games and Harmonix's rhythm game. In April, the game's publisher said that the Xbox 360 version would finally arrive in Europe on May 23, with other editions slated to follow later in the summer. Harmonix also said that a Wii version of the game will be released in North America on June 22 for $169.99, complementing the already available Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 editions.

Additionally, the media conglomerate said that more than 10 million songs have been downloaded across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions of the game. In March, MTV and Harmonix played to fans' wishes, opening up an in-game Rock Band Music Store for downloading new and existing bonus tracks. At that time, the game's makers also said that more than 6 million pieces of content had thus far been downloaded.