Rock Band Only Available in Bundle Form, No Seperate Instruments Until 2008?

Harmonix's musical group simulator Rock Band (PS2, PS3, X360) will only be available in bundle form this year and instruments will not be sold individually until 2008, assuming a report from thebbps is to be believed. The site claims to have spoken with a Harmonix representative, who explained that shipping the three separate instruments at launch would cause availability issues. Limited shelf space would force retailers to cut back on the stock of the overall bundle in order to carry the other components. Shacknews has attempted to verify said details with publisher EA and is expecting a final statement later today. With the bundles packing a guitar, drum kit, and microphone, gamers will still need an additional guitar to form a full band. Fortunately, owners of Harmonix's Guitar Hero II on Xbox 360 will be able to use their USB Xplorer guitar controllers with Rock Band. It is widely assumed that gamers will be able to use the wireless Guitar Hero III guitars as well, though this has yet to be confirmed. As for the bundled wired guitar of Xbox 360 edition lacking the wireless capabilities of its PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 brethren, the blame is said to fall on Microsoft's shoulders. Apparently licensing fees for Microsoft's proprietary wireless technology would have caused a significant price difference between the bundles. The representative is also purported to have said the game is complete and will ship with between 40 and 50 songs, many of which are already known. Additional tracks will be made available to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners via the console's respective online services each week. Rock Band arrives on PS3 and Xbox 360 in a $169.99 bundle on the blackest of all Fridays, November 23. The PS2 iteration, which carries a $159.99 price point and will not support downloadable content, hits December 10.