As revealed earlier this year, Harmonix has scheduled the final Rock Band DLC pack to be released on April 2nd, ending over 275 weeks of continuous content updates. That leaves players with a paltry 4,000 songs to jam out with until the end of time. Wait, that's quite a lot of music, isn't it? Doesn't matter, still sad.

It seemed like the days of plastic instruments cluttering up living rooms would never end. On April 2nd, however, Harmonix has announced that DLC support for Rock Band 3 will be terminated as the team moves on to other projects. The songs aren't going anywhere, and sales will continue to occur, but new content is officially at an end. Not only is it a sobering reminder of an era coming to pass, but it also marks the longest DLC support for a franchise in video gaming history, boasting over 275 weeks of continuous releases.

A new Rock Band game is on the way; apparently, reports of the death of the music game genre were greatly exaggerated. The latest entry into the series, though, is a drastic departure from form. You won't need any plastic instruments to play it, and, sadly, co-op is gone, as well.

Harmonix has confirmed that there will be no new Rock Band game this year. They have no immediate plans for a sequel, but are currently working on new concepts to advance the Rock Band franchise. The good news for all you Rock Band fans out there is that there's plenty of DLC planned for this year instead. Reportedly, tracks from Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga, and the Foo Fighters are planned to be available for download later this month. 

It’s true that the seasons are changing. Warmer weather is all around us, flowers are blossoming, and it’s nice to just get out of the house on occasion. What does that mean? This issue of On the Download will be addressing very portable iPad and iPod Touch/iPhone games for download, and co-op play.

For fifty bucks you can get a music game developer.  That's way cheaper than buying a Rock Band or Guitar Hero bundle.  The investment group, Columbus Nova, reportedly paid Viacom $49.99 for Rock Band developer Harmonix.  The music game industry has been dying a pretty hard death over the past 18 months. When Viacom put Harmonix up for sale in November you could actually hear other publishers laughing at them. Viacom looked like that kid who is desperately trying to trade a banana for a snack pack at the lunch table. EA reps mentioned something to the extent of "catching a falling knife."  Clearly, Jack Burton doesn't work at EA.

It was only a little over a month ago when we told you that Harmonix's parent company, Viacom, was putting the developer up for sale after only owning them for a few years.  Rock Band 3 sales numbers were partially to blame for this, but the $179 million dollar selling price surely contributed.

Five years ago today, the Xbox 360 was released into the wild. We've compiled a list of the top five Xbox 360 game series, as determined by user ratings and staff review scores. How does your favorite stack up?

Lets face it - your living room is beginning to look like a McDonald's Play Place and there isn't a McRib in sight. Your room is littered with plastic guitars, fake drum sets, microphones, and other peripherals used for Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and other co-op music games.  And the worst part?  The only time you break this stuff out is for parties.  There is hope though - LevelUp has a solution that both looks stylish and is functional.  Enter the officially license Rock Band Storage Ottoman.

Viacom, who owns such properties as Paramount Films, MTV, Comedy Central and Harmonix, have reported a 59% loss in earnings for the third quarter of 2010.  From the report - it seems partially to blame on Rock Band 3 development costs and early indicators of poor sales of the game.  Both the film and TV division of Viacom reported an increase in earnings - thereby making the Harmonix investment even more dire.

Rock Band 3 is a great game.  We say as much in our review.   Unfortunately, fans may be disappointed to hear that Harmonix  is taking a move right out of the Star Wars franchise playbook, in that they will be charging gamers again and again for the same content.  If you already own a song for Rock Band 2 you will need to purchase it again if you want to have the keyboard or vocal harmony portions. 

Harmonix has long set atop the music game pecking order, and Rock Band 3 is another very strong effort. The gameplay we've enjoyed for years is as good as ever, and arguably the best it has ever been. But the inclusion of an entirely new instrument and Pro mode are Rock Band 3's true focus.

If you've been following the yearly to bi-yearly releases of music games, you know the genre is becoming increasingly competitive.  But could the over saturation of music titles be signaling a change in consumers wants?  Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz has put Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock sales numbers at 89,000 units for the first 5 days following launch.  It may not sound that bad, but lets look at some perspective.

With Rock Band's catalog of music hitting over 2000 songs this week, and soon to be a lot more added with the impending release of Rock Band 3 later this month, it's become difficult to remember just what's available in the game.  Perhaps you need to see if your favorite song has been added to the catalog but don't have access to the game, or you'd like an easy way to search for the song.  Luckily Harmonix has released just such a tool and we've got it embedded for you below.

Guitar Hero may have just released a new title, but there's only one game on the minds of discerning music game fans this fall: Rock Band 3.  As the anticipation for the new Rock Band increases, the platform itself has reached a major milestone: as of next week, 2000 songs will be available to play in game, whether via game disc, export, or DLC.  The 2000th song, "Are You Experienced?" is from a real guitar hero: Jimi Hendrix.  I can't think of a better track to have such an honor.  You can download this track and the rest of the Are You Experienced? album on October 12.