Activision says no to Harmonix's Guitar Hero friendly update

Cambridge (MA) - Harmonix created a patch that would allow Rock Band players to use the Guitar Hero III controller in the game, but says Activision has voiced objections that prevent the patch from being released.

Harmonix, the developer of Rock Band said it submitted the patch to Sony and received approval for it on December 4. However, the company says Activision, which publishes the Guitar Hero games, did not approve of the patch and thus Sony could not post it for users to download.

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Owners of the Playstation 3 version of Rock Band were angered when they found out their Guitar Hero III controllers were not compatible with the multi-instrument game.

This means the only guitar controller that works is the one that comes packed in the $170 bundle, and since the game allows for two guitars to be played simultaneously, gamers are frustrated that there is no way to buy just an additional guitar.

"Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch’s release. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision’s continued objection," wrote Harmonix in a statement.

The Xbox 360 version, meanwhile, works perfectly with the Xbox 360 controllers from Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III.