A few years back, Rock Band exploded in North America. In Europe. In Australia. It didn't in Japan. There must be a reason for that.

In this video Rock Band 3 senior designer Sylvain Dubrofsky walks us through just how the keyboard play is going to work in Harmonix upcoming rhythm game.

Harmonix's big hit before Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and a foreshadowing of their gameplay, was Amplitude, developed for SCEA on the PS2. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says he'd love to "do it right" for the PS3.

What does the future hold for the Rock Band series? Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos gives us another hint in a new interview, one that teases closing the gap between real and fake rock and roll.

Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says that Rock Band may be taking the year off in 2009, with the developer focusing its efforts on the Beatles game it announced in October. Instead, expect more music.

Activision looks to have the upper this round, as Guitar Hero World Tour will out-feature Rock Band 2 at least in the custom song creation department. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos confirms to CNN that the sequel to Rock Band won't allow users to write their own music. That said, Rigopulos does hint that a comparible…