The Rock Band franchise has sold millions, but according to MTV Games parent Viacom, the series fell short of expectations for the fourth quarter ended in December.

Viacom CFO Tom Dooley said in a Thursday earnings call that Rock Band 2 sold nearly 2 million units ("hardware, software and bundles") since its debut in September 2008 across all platforms.

But a challenging retail environment kept sales of the sequel below Viacom's projections, Dooley said.
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Tracks:
Turbonegro "Wasted Again"
White Zombie "Black Sunshine"
White Zombie "More Human than Human"
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An interesting press release has just surfaced from the offical Rock Band foums that states that "In addition, songs from Snoop Dogg's impressive catalogue of hits will be released on MTV's hot-selling Rock Band® music video game platform."
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Owners of the Nintendo Wii versions of the Rock Band games are getting another dose of classic rock music DLC. This time 7 songs from the legendary band Rush will be made available on Tuesday.
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Power Chord Academy, the nation's leading summer camp for amateur musician training, is excited to announce the addition of two new Summer programs!

GameROCKERS is an exclusive 3-day cutting edge game-musician program for the new age of musicians who play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. iROCKER is a 1-day version of the GameROCKERS program.
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3 tracks from The Fratellis will be available from next week.
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Chris Faylor of ShackNews writes:

"After Guns N' Roses premiered "Shackler's Revenge," its first new single in nine years, through last fall's release of Rock Band 2, the band has revealed that the multi-instrument music game will soon receive the rest of the Chinese Democracy album."
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IncGamers report:
"Blondie drummer Clem Burke is teaming up with researchers from the Universities of Chichester and Gloucester to study the potential physical and psychological benefits of playing drum-based music games."
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All factory-included songs for each version now only need YOU to step up to the challenge and show that you are worthy of being the first official World Record Holders for the game at Twin Galaxies
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Destructoid writes:

"If Pearl Jam's classic album Ten coming to Rock Band this March isn't enough for you, it looks like there's even more on the way.

Best Buy is running a special promotion for those who pre-order deluxe or "super deluxe" version of the forthcoming re-issue of Ten -- a token redeemable to download three bonus tracks for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The songs:

* "Brother"
* "Alive" from the "Drop in the Park Concert"
* "State of Love and Trust" from the "Drop in the Park Concert"

No word on whether the songs will be made available for purchase in the Rock Band store, but we'd put all of our money on "yes." Pearl Jam's remastered version of Ten hits stores on March 24; it comes to Rock Band as downloadable content on that same day."
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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that Spectacular! will be the first DVD movie to offer tracks for Rock Band. A Nickelodeon Original movie, Spectacular! will premiere on February 16, 2009. Two songs from the film will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace starting next week, but with the March 31 DVD release of Spectacular!, consumers that buy the movie will get a redemption code for a free download of the two songs.

"We think this is the first-ever DVD tie-in of this kind with Rock Band," said Marc Rashba, Sony Pictures VP of marketing.
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From the article: "An article in the latest issue of Billboard all about the upcoming year has laid a few predictions for 2009 at the feet of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises. According to the article, an unnamed MTV spokesman has said that the Rock Band Store will increase its catalog from 500 songs to 5,000 songs in 2009."
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Off the back of the earlier news that Guitar Hero World Tour has outsold Rock Band by a ratio of 2:1, Red Octane's UK senior brand manager, Ian McClellan has said that in the UK, this figure is more like 4:1.
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Thatgamingsite writes: "Forbes Writer, Peter C. Beller has responded to criticisms made after calling music game 'Rockband' a shameless knockoff in comparison to Guitar Hero. Althought it looks like he's sticking to his guns on this one."
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Videogaming247 reports that EA have refused to comment on plagiarism accusations by Forbes in regards to the Rock Band franchise.

The report in question by Forbes included bold words such as "teamed with MTV to sell Rock Band, a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero that added drums, bass and a microphone to the world of make-believe rock stars".
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That Gaming Site writes: "Is Rock band a 'shameless' rip off of Guitar Hero? According to the latest article from Forbes Magazine it is."
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Nirvana's bassist struggles to perform his own song in Rock Band 2.

Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame complements music-based video games in a new blog entry on Seattle Weekly's website, introducing his post in the following way;

"Rock and roll has been proclaimed dead countless times. After a slump, rock usually bounces back in a wave of new bands and sounds. Things are different today: Rock has found new life with video games, and the phenomenon is leading to a revival of bands that have been around for a long time."

However, he wasn't too successful when it came to actually trying his hand at playing the bass line of a Nirvana song in Rock Band.
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Electronic Theatre write: ...eccentric British designer Edd China takes to the streets in one of his unusual inventions to set a brand new world record for the Fastest Mobile Gaming Rig. Fully roadworthy and complete with screens, water cooler and a phone, the office-like unit will be fitted with three fully powered gaming consoles during Edd's inaugural drive around central London. He aims to reach a minimum speed of 60 kilometres per hour and give participating gamers an experience of a life time.

As part of the activities to commemorate the new Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition, the world's youngest professional videogamer, ten-year old Lil Poison (Victor De Leon III) will visit the UK for the first time between the 9th and 11th of February.
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IGN writes: "The Wii and PlayStation 2 versions of Rock Band (released in June 2008 and December 2007, respectively) were mere shadows of their former Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 selves. Most of the key features had been gutted, there was no online play or downloadable content, no character creation, and they weren't too easy on the eyes. The masses didn't seem to mind, though, as the Wii and PS2 versions of the original game outsold both Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on the other systems last year. "
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Today Fender and Little Kids Rock, a non-profit music education organization, announced that an informal survey they conducted in November 2008 revealed that music games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" actually do inspire students to play real instruments. The survey polled 812 music instructors and said that enrollment in music programs has increased in the past year.
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