Rock Band 2 PS3 Software Update

Hi there, PlayStation fans!
My name is Dan Teasdale. I’m DeliciousBees on the PlayStation Network, but more importantly I’m also the Lead Designer on Rock Band 2!

We’re perfectionists over here at Harmonix, and we want to make sure that everyone’s Rock Band experiences are as awesome as they possibly can be. With that in mind, I’m proud to announce that the Rock Band team has finalized a software update for Rock Band 2 on the PlayStation 3 that addresses some common feature requests from our fans. We’ve also added some great new functionality that we think you’ll be excited to try out when the software update arrives this Thursday.

This update wouldn’t be possible without the feedback and suggestions that we receive from everyone in both the Rock Band and PlayStation communities. Everybody here at Harmonix takes your forum posts and suggestions to heart, and we wouldn’t be able to make our games as awesome as they are without all of the feature requests and feedback that we get from you on a daily basis. So from all of us here at Harmonix, thank you, and please keep letting us know what you’d like to see in future updates and games!
This update includes:

• “Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!
• Improved “Sort by Stars” fix: Players will not have to beat a previous high score to record a star rating for their songs.
• Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.
• Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.
• Rock Band Network Store Support: When the Rock Band Network goes live, select songs will be available for PlayStation 3 users through a new storefront available in game. Stay tuned for more information closer to the launch of RBN!
• SingStar Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports the SingStar Wireless Microphones currently available through Europe! Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience on your PlayStation 3!

We’re extremely happy to be able to finally release this update for the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band 2. We know many of you are rabid PlayStation rockers, and it’s a priority for us to make sure that everyone gets the best experience playing Rock Band. On behalf of everyone here at Harmonix, we hope you enjoy the new features!
Rock,
-DanT