Rock Band: details surface, MIDI support?

Rock Band is MTV's next-generation, multiplatform successor to Guitar Hero. Using custom controllers modeled after real instruments, up to four players can create a band and jam together over hand-picked licensed tracks. Best of all, you'll be able to do it online. Imagine strumming along with a bass player in Kansas CIty, a drummer in San Diego, and a vocalist in Tokyo, all simultaneously. This is what next-gen is all about. Unfortunately, aside from the premise, we know pretty much nothing about the game. Details are beginning to surface this week.

IGN's Rock Band "blowout" yesterday really shouldn't be called that. "Blowout" evokes images of things more extreme than five non-gameplay screens and a short interview. It's good to hear anything on this title, though, since it's been completely under wraps since Harmonix and MTV announced it earlier this year. The company still has nothing to say about how gameplay works, what the controllers will be like, what songs will be included, how much it will cost, online specifics, or for that matter, anything at all. But the screenshots do show an art style very similar to what we're used to from Guitar Hero. Here's what little we do know:

•There's actually 4 games on the disc: a guitar game, ala Guitar Hero; a drum game, ala Taiko Drum Master; a singing game, ala Karaoke Revolution; and a cooperative band game, making use of all four instruments.

•The guitar is modeled after the Fender Stratocaster. The game will probably support third-party periphrials, so the original Guitar Hero guitars will work.

•Harmonix is actively considering MIDI support for user-created content.

If you'd like to read between the lines for more, check out the interview.