Rock Band Launching Three Days Early, Site Promises Game/Web Integration

Rock Band developer Harmonix Music Systems has released details on the upcoming features of ROCKBAND.com, the company's official game website. The site currently features basic game details and a series of videos on taking the game on tour through a number of United States cities, but when it fully launches it will feature a number of social networking features and hooks into the game's online features. Along with the announcement came the casual mention that Rock Band will now officially go on sale November 20, rather than November 23 as previously announced. The move takes Rock Band's launch off of Black Friday, the post-Thanksgiving pseudo-holiday known as a particularly busy shopping day, and puts it onto the game industry's less exciting but more traditional Tuesday. The site itself, which will open November 20 as well, will feature personal profile pages and blogs, "band" profile pages and blogs allowing groups of friends in virtual bands to easily keep in touch, solo and band leaderboards, forums, and classified ads for individual rockers looking to join up with like-minded others.