That Rock Band update that would have added Guitar Hero III controller support for the PlayStation 3 version of the game isn't coming—at least, not until Activision says so. The mega-publisher has taken its figurative ball and is going home, according to Harmonix, indicating to Sony that it certainly does not want to share its controllers with Rock Band. While it's quite clear that RedOctane considers supporting its competition a "headache" and an "open standard" for music controllers a "crock," that's not going to sit very well with the thousands of PlayStation 3 Rock Band rockers who find themselves bassist-less.

Harmonix reps broke the bad news to PS3 owners of Rock Band on the official community forums this morning.

Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision's Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band. The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4. 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.

Harmonix reps further expressed their desire for a more open guitar controller platform, indicating it would allow support for any third party publisher to use its Rock Band peripherals. The full official response from the Harmonix team is at the official community site.

The silver lining to this horribly depressing decision is that I certainly know now that I'll have no desire to pick up any future Guitar Hero games. Thanks, Activision and RedOctane! You just saved me hundreds.

PS3 Guitar Compatibility - UPDATE 12/12/2007 [Rock Band Forums]