Sony mum on need for Guitar Hero III dongles, Rock Band to get similar treatment?

We’re all hyped for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane‘s sequel to the massively-successful series that lets players rock out to classic tunes with the Guitar Controller. And with all three next gen consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) getting a version of their own, it’s going to be a console-wide thing.

However, there’s something that sets apart the Sony PS3 version from the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 versions – and that’s the dongle that you need to plug into the PlayStation 3 for the guitar controller to work wirelessly.

While this in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing – the dongle itself is shaped like a pick, with the game’s logo printed upon it, so it doesn’t look out-of-place at all. However, we have to wonder why this extra step for the PlayStation 3 was included, since all three consoles support some sort of wireless controller technology in one form or another (read: Bluetooth).

Red Octane was asked about this, and their response? It was because that Sony’s developer tools only currently provide support for the SIXAXIS. Thus, the developers had to think up of an alternative solution in time for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock‘s release, and thus the dangling dongle was born.

And it seems that Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360), Harmonix‘s four-player game of multi-instrument mayhem, will be getting the same dangly bits come the game’s release. This comes from a statement made by a Harmonix PR representative:

Our first and ideal choice is to utilize Sony’s tools for 3rd party use of their PS3’s Bluetooth functionality, however our development schedule timing for Rock Band did not coincide for this to be an option for the first generation of Rock Band guitars.

When asked about the issue itself, Sony kept mum, choosing not to comment nor to give any hint that they’re working on a dongle-less solution for both games in the near future. Strange, but at the very least, we can take solace at the fact that all versions will have wireless play – even if it means sticking a dongle into your PS3’s USB port. Updates as we get them, and you can check out the entire article that discusses the dongles in question via the read link below.

We’re all hyped for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane‘s sequel to the massively-successful series that lets players rock out to classic tunes with the Guitar Controller. And with all three next gen consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) getting a version of their own, it’s going to be a console-wide thing.

However, there’s something that sets apart the Sony PS3 version from the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 versions – and that’s the dongle that you need to plug into the PlayStation 3 for the guitar controller to work wirelessly.

While this in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing – the dongle itself is shaped like a pick, with the game’s logo printed upon it, so it doesn’t look out-of-place at all. However, we have to wonder why this extra step for the PlayStation 3 was included, since all three consoles support some sort of wireless controller technology in one form or another (read: Bluetooth).

Red Octane was asked about this, and their response? It was because that Sony’s developer tools only currently provide support for the SIXAXIS. Thus, the developers had to think up of an alternative solution in time for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock‘s release, and thus the dangling dongle was born.

And it seems that Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360), Harmonix‘s four-player game of multi-instrument mayhem, will be getting the same dangly bits come the game’s release. This comes from a statement made by a Harmonix PR representative:

Our first and ideal choice is to utilize Sony’s tools for 3rd party use of their PS3’s Bluetooth functionality, however our development schedule timing for Rock Band did not coincide for this to be an option for the first generation of Rock Band guitars.

When asked about the issue itself, Sony kept mum, choosing not to comment nor to give any hint that they’re working on a dongle-less solution for both games in the near future. Strange, but at the very least, we can take solace at the fact that all versions will have wireless play – even if it means sticking a dongle into your PS3’s USB port. Updates as we get them, and you can check out the entire article that discusses the dongles in question via the read link below.