Best Buy schedules midnight openings to release Rock Band

At midnight of November 20, 2007, select Best Buy locations across the United States will be opening their doors in order to unite gamers with the highly anticipated Rock Band for Xbox 360 and PS3. The game is the latest release from Harmonix Music Systems, the developer of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. Although similar to Guitar Hero in gameplay and style, Rock Band offers up to four players to participate in a simultaneous music simulation using guitar, drum and microphone peripherals.

Rock Band‘s arrival places it in direct competition with the recently released Guitar Hero III. Although Harmonix was the original developer for the Guitar Hero series, last year’s acquisition of Harmonix by MTV forced Guitar Hero series publisher RedOctane to hire developer Neversoft to continue the beloved franchise. Neversoft, popular for the Tony Hawk collection of skateboarding simulations, seems to have struck a chord with its first music-based title, but it will be interesting to see just how fans will react to the availability of two similar but highly acclaimed titles.

Best Buy has released a small list of stores that will be opening at midnight for the release of Rock Band. The participating stores include, but are not limited to the following locations:

California

City of Industry
Murrieta
Riverside
San Bernardino
San Francisco
Sherman Oaks
West Hollywood
West Los Angeles

Colorado

Lone Tree

Florida

Sawgrass
S. Tampa

Kentucky

Lexington

Massachusetts

Watertown

Minnesota

Coon Rapids
Eden Prairie
Roseville
St. Cloud

New York

Midtown
Westbury

North Carolina

Cary

Ohio

Florence
Mentor

Oklahoma

Norman

Pennsylvania

South Hills

Texas

Galleria

Wisconsin

Green Bay

Read [Megatonik] Site [Best Buy]