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As difficult as it is for us to get motivated to show support for saving the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, a UK effort to preserve video game history is one that managed to get us to stop pounding away at the keyboard and give a second look. Apparently both Sony Europe and Harmonix agree, and during the recent GameCity festival in Nottingham both made donations to the UK's newly founded National Videogame Archive, including the first ever EyeToy prototype and a prototype drum kit and guitar from Rock Band.

A collaborative effort between the National Media Museum and Nottingham Trent University, the National Videogame Archive promises to keep the dust from settling on important pieces of gaming history while documenting the "full life of games." First announced last September, the archive's organizers are currently debating the scope of the project, which currently is expected to preserve everything from early development art to advertising media. Even fan art and community activities will be on display, and we cannot wait to hear the screams of horror echoing from the fan fiction wing of the museum.

The game industry's head-banging love affair with rock and/or roll stretches back as far as we can remember -- sometime around the late '70s. Now Rolling Stone has strummed its keyboard to capture what it calls the Top 50 Rock & Roll Video Games of All Time, laying accolades at the leather boots of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, while giving the likes of Revolution X and Crüe Ball the chance to scream into the mic one last time as if to shout, "Remember me!!?"

Lumping together the good (Loom, Frequency) with the awful (Spice World, really?) and just plain odd (are Simon's 'bleeps' and 'boops' really considered music?), the laundry list is something of a mixed bag. Though admittedly we're still reeling from the fact that whoever put together the feature managed to overlook Audiosurf and Gitaroo Man, but managed to give props to Sensible Software's canceled flamebait, Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll.

Developers vying for a slice of the rhythm game pie may soon find the cost to dig in to be increasing -- at least if they want players to nod along with music they know. According to Reuters, Warner Music's top exec Edgar Bronfman has come forward, stating that game companies should pay more to the music industry in order to include licensed tunes in their music-based games.

Says Bronfman, who compared the relationship to the likes of MTV or Apple's iPod, "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small." Given Warner's interest in music currently flowing through both Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, not to mention the war that is about to unfold on living room stages later this year, it will be interesting to see who will 5-star this game of financial tug-of-war.

No longer will Belgium virtual rockers have to settle for playing air guitar to dreams of living room stardom, as Harmonix and MTV have announced plans to bring Rock Band to Belgians, as well as those in six other countries later this month, including Italy, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

According to the duo, the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band will be the lead SKU in these territories, shipping on July 24, with other fake instrument flavors arriving sometime later in the fall. As with the existing European release, the disc will include all 58 tracks found on the North American version as well as nine non-English tunes such as Die Toten Hosen's Hier Kommt Alex, Oasis' Rock 'n' roll star, and Playmo's New Wave. We welcome our new friends to the stage -- may you never fail out and your fingers never cramp.

Another seven songs have been revealed from Rock Band 2's tracklist of 80 songs in the latest issue of Game Informer magazine. This makes a total of 17 songs officially known so far. The 7 songs are:

• Bon Jovi - "Livin' on a Prayer"
• Steve Miller Band - "Rock 'n Me"
• Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation"
• Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
• Rage Against the Machine - "Testify"
• Avenged Sevenfold - "Almost Easy"
• Billy Idol - "White Wedding Pt. 1"

Notice that every single one of these songs are on the earlier leaked list from 8bitfix, so that increases the possibility the rest of the songs on the list are correct. Other improvements disclosed in the extensive article include a more user-friendly lag calibration, quieter buttons on the guitar and quieter pads on the drums, simulated tuning during loading screens and more.

Ion, a maker of real drum kits, will release a premium Rock Band drum kit which will have "amazing" cymbals and pads, and the option to plug it into a real drum brain and for usage as a real electronic drum kit. Harmonix will also be producing limited edition guitars by taking a couple of real Fender Strats, ripping out the insides, and replacing each one of them with Rock Band parts. Sounds fancy, and very expensive. Who's first in line to sell their organs for one?

[Via Joystiq]

The raw, unbridled power of The Rocking is an equal opportunity force that can be tapped by anyone with a strong enough desire to evoke its boundless energies. Unfortunately, physical restrains can often limit a person's personal rocking aptitude, as most instruments are not created with those with disabilities in mind. Take, for instance, the Rock Band drum kit, which has a pedal that cannot be operated by those inflicted with paraplegia and other ailments affecting the lower body.

Fortunately, for every peripheral made unaccessible to those with disabilities, there's an altruistic, MacGuyver-esque modder with a solution. The folks over at Kinetic Communications recently solved the bass drum dilemma with a doorbell receiver and some audio cable, placing the foot pedal substitute directly onto a pair of drumsticks -- and it only cost them around $20. If you're in need for a stick-pedal, they've got simple instructions on how to make your own. Rick Allen would be so very proud.

This week The Cars' 1978 self-titled debut record becomes the latest full album available from Rock Band's music store. Currently, it's keeping Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance company. Who's Next? Yeah, we're wondering that too.

The Cars album (1200 MS points / $15) -- All songs are also sold individually (160 MS Points / $2)

• "Good Times Roll"
• "My Best Friend's Girl"
• "Just What I Needed"
• "I'm in Touch with Your World"
• "Don't Cha Stop"
• "You're All I've Got Tonight"
• "Bye Bye Love"
• "Moving in Stereo"
• "All Mixed Up"

Videos for all this week's songs (the second week in a row of large Rock Band Weekly post video hunts) can be found after the break. The Cars will be available tomorrow on Xbox 360 and Thursday on PlayStation 3.

We've heard tell of the incredible success Harmonix has seen with their weekly downloadable tracks for Rock Band. Often, their sales numbers are matched up against those of Guitar Hero III, where tracks are more seldom, but also sell like diamond-encrusted hotcakes. As enjoyable as these track packs are, we've yet to see any comparison between them and actual music retailers, digital or otherwise -- that is, until Mötley Crüe's new single simultaneously rocked the faces off of music downloaders and DLC collectors alike.

The song, "Saints of Los Angeles", came from the glam-band's upcoming album, and dropped onto iTunes, Zune, Amazon, and the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band on April 15. In it's first week of availability, digital distributors sold 10,000 copies of the single, but dedicated faux-rockers downloaded 47,000 copies of the track from the 360 Rock Band Music Store, according to Reuters. Could this inspire more record labels to debut new albums and singles on Harmonix's golden goose title? We certainly hope so.

[Via Evil Avatar]

Hopefully, people have been brushing up on their non-English. This week's Rock Band Weekly brings us the songs packaged with the European release of Rock Band. We've known for a while these tracks were coming as DLC, and Harmonix has seen fit to do it the week of Rock Band's European release. Also, all DLC available in North America should be available in Europe beginning May 20.

Individual songs

• "Beetlebum" - Blur (Cover, 160 MS Points / $2)
• "Hier Kommt Alex" - Die Toten Hosen (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Countdown to Insanity" - H-BlockX (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Perfekte Welle" - Juli (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Manu Chao" - Les Wampas (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Hysteria" - Muse (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Rock N Roll Star" - Oasis (160 MS Points / $2)
• "New Wave" - Pleymo (160 MS Points / $2)
• "Monsoon" - Tokio Hotel (160 MS Points / $2)

Le sigh, videos for all of next week's tracks can be found after the break. The DLC will be available next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

Harmonix's grand-parent company, Viacom, announced today as part of its Q1 earnings that Rock Band has shipped three million "bundled units." GameDaily reports that the company also stated that Harmonix has had over 10 million songs downloaded for the game.

The last report we had was that Harmonix hit the six million DLC song mark in mid-March, which means the new music store apparently did help accelerate sales. Viacom's CEO said that Rock Band is emerging as a valuable long-term franchise and he expects further success from the Wii and European launches.

The Rock Band store gets its first full album this week with Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance. The Rock Band forums also mention that The Cars' The Cars and the Pixies' Doolittle are coming in the "near future." The Who's Who's Next is still on the docket, but apparently isn't what's next.

Screaming for Vengeance album (1200 MS points / $15) -- All songs are also sold individually (160 MS Points / $2), except "The Hellion" and "Electric Eye," which are bundled at the price of one track.

• "The Hellion"
• "Electric Eye"
• "Riding on the Wind"
• "Bloodstone"
• "(Take These) Chains"
• "Pain and Pleasure"
• "Screaming for Vengeance"
• "You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
• "Fever"
• "Devil's Child"

The videos for this week's Rock Band DLC are after the break ... and sweet mercy, it'd better be appreciated this week. Screaming for Vengeance will be available today on Xbox 360 and Thursday for the PS3.

"Bonus" means different things to different people. Harmonix has revealed the Wii's additional Rock Band tracks, and they're a collection of songs you might have already downloaded on the 360 and PS3. There's nothing wrong with that, but why all the secrecy and hype? Here's the list of the five tracks that supplement the original roster:

• "Dirty Little Secret" - The All American Rejects
• "Don't Look Back in Anger" - Oasis
• "Roam" - The B-52's
• "Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones
• "Roxanne" - The Police

Coming out of nowhere, a single off of Mötley Crüe's new album will be available as Rock Band downloadable content this week. This marks the first time a brand-new song is released as a playable track in the game. Needless to say, it is a master track.

Individual song

• "Saints of Los Angeles" - Mötley Crüe (80 MS points/ $1)

We've placed what we believe is the song after the break -- we're not sure if there's an actual video yet. The rest of this week's Rock Band DLC was previously announced last Friday. The song releases tomorrow on Xbox 360 and this Thursday on the new PSN.

VideoGamer reports that EA has slated Rock Band's release on PS3, PS2 and Wii in Europe for August 29. This means the Xbox 360 will have three months of exclusivity on the exorbitantly priced enhanced cost game before it releases on other consoles.

Harmonix's PR states it has not made an official announcement on a European release for any other consoles beyond the Xbox 360. We'll update this story if things change, but for now this release date is still in the rumor territory. Either way, there's still plenty of time for non-Xbox 360 owners to sell a kidney (remember, keep at least one!) to afford the game.