MTV Games has officially announced Rock Band 3, acknowledging the open secret that it will include support for a keyboard-shaped controller.
The game was unveiled on American news programme USA Today which revealed that the new controller will not be a keytar, as some had speculated, but a full-on 25-key MIDI keyboard with a two-octave range.
That makes it much closer to a real instrument than any previous music game controller (well, except Samba De Amigo's maracas). Not unsurprisingly though there's not yet any indication of how much it will cost.
Other new features for the game will include a Pro mode, which will utilise new guitar controllers which feature six (count 'em) real strings, instead of the usual plastic flipper. The official one is based on a Fender Squier Stratocaster and a slightly less official MadCatz one on the Fender Mustang Pro.
Pro mode will also use something closer to real music notation and drummers will have three new cymbals to whack. Naturally the harmonies feature introduced in The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band will also be included.
It all sounds like a pretty significant shake-up in the music game status quo, especially as there's other new stuff such as a revamped career mode and a seven-player drop-in/drop-out multiplayer.
The partially revealed track list naturally features plenty of keyboard heavy tunes to practise on, although there's not much synth pop yet:
1960s/1970s
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Break On Through - The Doors
Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix
1980s
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Here I Go Again - Whitesnake
I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Rainbow in the Dark - Dio
The Power of Love - Huey Lewis and the News
Sister Christian - Night Ranger
1990s
Been Caught Stealing - Jane's Addiction
In the Meantime - Spacehog
Plush - Stone Temple Pilots
Walkin' on the Sun - Smash Mouth
2000s
Combat Baby - Metric
Dead End Friends - Them Crooked Vultures
Get Free - The Vines
Lasso - Phoenix
Me Enamora - Juanes
Oh My God - Ida Maria
Portions of Foxes - Rilo Kiley
The Hardest Button to Button - The White Stripes
Roll Call (working title) follows a year in the life of Nick Mason, returning from military service to find his home city ravaged by gang warfare. He is quickly enlisted into the ranks of the newly fo..
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