Fans cross with Rock Band PS3

Harmonix says that it's not its fault if Guitar Hero controllers don't work with the PS3 version of Rock Band, which they don't.

The game, which is available in the US this week for PS3 and 360, comes as a bundle containing microphone, drums and one guitar, but in order to play four-player you need to source a second axe.

Harmonix has said in the past that Guitar Hero peripherals should be compatible, and while this is true on 360, PS3 owners are discovering it's not the case with the Guitar Hero III wireless Les Paul controller.

"Harmonix develops and bases all of our games, guitars and other peripherals on open standards established by platform manufacturers such as Microsoft and Sony. Rock Band is no exception and supports an open controller standard," the developer said in a statement on IGN.

"If a third party game controller is based on open standards, then it should work with Rock Band as well. If certain controllers do not work with Rock Band, questions about those controllers should be directed to the peripheral manufacturer."

The developer also said that it welcomed third parties to support Rock Band hardware.

At a distance, you might question whether it's naive of Rock Band buyers to assume compatibility with a rival product, but positive responses during development certainly appear now to have been misleadingly confident, and the fact that the game is only available to US consumers as a multi-instrument bundle merely exacerbates things in the eyes of the many people rioting on the official forums.

With the bundle itself in short supply, it could be a while before anyone's placated.

Anyway, look out for our Rock Band review in the near future!