MTV Games, best known as the publisher of the Rock Band franchise is no more. MCV reports the company closed its doors to its international office yesterday (February 2, 2011). According to the report, there are only a few employees remaining (mostly on the financial side) in New York. The closure of MTV Games is a testament to how far sales of music rhythm games have declined over the past few years.

Good news for everyone who ran to the store this morning, bought Dance Central and Kinect, started the game up and realized 32 songs just weren’t enough for them. Harmonix and MTV Games have already released the first batch of DLC! Yes, day one dlc! Granted, it isn’t a very large batch and only offers three extra songs, but still. If you need more and have some spare Microsoft Points, you’re all set…

The biggest mystery surrounding Rock Band 3 has been the price of the real Squier guitar made by Fender. This guitar is 100% real with strings, tuning pegs and everything else you’ll find in a guitar. Fender has finally announced the release date and price for its Rock Band 3 compatible guitar.

Someone’s getting fired at Harmonix! MTV Games and Microsoft have announced a huge Dance Central recall! Apparently there’s a instruction manual misprint so disasterous that the companies have ordered the original instruction manuals from the North American copies of the games removed and replaced. What’s the misprint? We have no idea…

Choosing which console you want to buy Rock Band 3 for just got simpler. The majority of gamers out there have an abundance of plastic guitars, drums and microphones by now. At this point buying these instruments all over again is just silly. The Rock Band 3 keyboard is just one more peripheral we can add to our growing collection. But if you own a PlayStation 3 in North America, you won’t be able to buy both the game and keyboard in the same package.

As we know by now, Rock Band 3 features a real midi keyboard as a playable instrument. When I say real, I mean it’s not a simulation of a real MIDI keyboard. You can plug that keyboard into a device and play it as if it weren’t associated with a videogame. This is the first time a music videogame has actually found a way to teach you how to play an instrument. The same rings true for the guitar.

After attending Harmonix and MTV Games’ presentation for Rock Band 3, I happened to see an interesting display stand for the newest DS Rock Band game, Rock Band 3. When I walked over, I was surprised to see that it had been designed to amplify your gaming experience and make it feel more interactive. A giant cone was above me, and once underneath all sound from the game was amplified. At first I was shocked because I was wondering where all this noise was coming from, and had to step away from the booth. Once I realized it was part of the experience, I stepped back in and began to play.

There wasn’t a wide selection of songs to play for the Rock Band 3 DS demo, but I decided to go with “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger. As always, it was the original band’s song playing through the speakers. I went with an easy mode so I could soak up the atmosphere, and headed into the game. Surprisingly, it felt like something was vibrating below my feet as I started to play. (I think this was part of an effect from the music dome above my head.)

If you’ve ever played Lego Rock Band for the DS, Rock Band 3 DS is quite similar…

The game that many in the industry believed would revitalize the music game genre hasn’t, at least so far. Despite an ad campaign that saw The Beatles: Rock Band promoted nearly everywhere, sales have been just so-so. The game sold 595,000 copies in September 2009, according to sales data from research firm NPD Group.

The latest Rock Band installment shared a simultaneous September 9, 2009 (or 09/09/09 as the marketing people rather enjoyed promoting), release with remastered versions of the Beatles albums on CD. The game was marketed alongside those albums, giving it plenty of exposure. The Xbox 360 version sold 254,000 copies, while the Wii version moved 208,000 copies. Neither number is a huge return on the resources Electronic Arts put forth promoting this game, expected to be a blockbuster. In the battle of September music games, Beatles did outsell Guitar Hero 5, despite a promotion that offered those purchasing the game a free copy of Guitar Hero:Van Halen. Guitar Hero 5 sold 499,000 copies in September 2009.

What could possibly be better than the availability of twenty new downloadable tracks for Rock Band 2? How about twenty new downloadable tracks for Rock Band 2 for the low price of $0.00? Well, that’s just what’s going to be on offer come November 4, 2008 (aka election day).

MTV Games and Harmonix confirmed the more-than-welcome news via press release earlier this week (October 22, 2008). Rock Band 2 owners will able to grab the new tracks by using the DLC redemption code located within the game’s retail packaging.

The full list of freebie tracks will be as follows…

So the Rock Band 2 E3 press release is an explosion of revolutionary information on the Xbox 360 version of the game. There’s so much, that its hard to know where to begin. Of course there will also be new locations, challenges, performances, staff, character creation options and over 100 tracks. But there’s even more good stuff coming.

The most important feature announced is that almost all Rock Band music can be imported to Rock Band 2. The downloadable content (dlc) will be able to be imported, as will almost all of the tracks from the original Rock Band disc.

Click through for the on-disc tracklist…

There will also be a lot more interaction among players. There will be two kinds of online modes – local and global, to allow players to interact. Also many modes go online, like World Tour Mode. The Battle of the Bands mode will feature Harmonix contests that users around the world can compete in all at once online.