Marking the third promotional campaign to feature Rock Band downloadable content this week, developer Harmonix and fast-food eatery McDonald's have teamed up to offer cheaper downloads of select songs across the next month.

Beginning today, the cost of two individual Rock Band tracks will be temporarily lowered to 80 Microsoft Points ($1), down from the average asking price of 160 Microsoft Points ($2). The promotion will run for a total of four weeks, with the discounted songs changing every week.

Meant to promote the McDonald's Dollar Menu, the cheaper downloads are available for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of the multi-instrument music title.

The discount schedule and specific per-week songs are:... Read more

The August 12 release of South Park - The Complete 11th Season on DVD will include downloadable content for Harmonix and MTV Games' multi-instrument music title Rock Band, though further details are scarce.

According to TVShowsOnDVD, marketing materials sent to retailers claimed that, while supplies last, "every DVD will include a 3-song download pack for the MTV Games sensation Rock Band."

It's not the first time that Rock Band and South Park have mingled, as the game contains a track from South Park band Timmy & The Lords of the Underworld. On the flip side, the eleventh season of South Park includes an episode that lovingly mocks instrument-based games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

No specific songs or platforms were named, though only the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band support downloadable content. A similar Best Buy promotion only offers an Xbox 360 download, though the exclusive Disturbed tracks will eventually be available on both platforms.

Another Friday, another trio of songs revealed as next week's downloadable content for Harmonix's multi-instrument music title Rock Band.

This coming week will bring PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners the Scene Pack, which contains the following master track recordings:

• "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" by Fallout Boy
• "Date With The Night" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• "It Hurts" by Angels & Airwaves

The Scene Pack will be available for download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on Tuesday, May 6 and the PlayStation Store on Thursday, May 8.

Per usual, the tracks will be bundled together for 440 Microsoft Points ($4.99) and sold separately for 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99).

A bundle of three tracks from British rock group Muse will be downloadable content for Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, publisher Activision announced today.

Slated to hit the Xbox 360's online Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation 3's online PlayStation Store on May 8, the pack contains the following songs:

• "Exo-Politics"
• "Supermassive Black Hole"
• "Stockholm Syndrome"

No price point was listed, though past Guitar Hero III track packs have sold for 500 Microsoft Points ($6.25).

Harmonix's competing music title Rock Band will be receiving a sole Muse track of its own, "Hysteria," as downloadable content at some point, likely later this month.

New to the PlayStation Store this week is Sony Japan Studio's perspective puzzler echochrome, plus a fresh batch of downloadable tracks for Harmonix's Rock Band.

Inspired by the works of MC Escher, echochrome tasks the player with guiding a mannequin figure through a level by tilting and turning the environment to create a path, while breaking perspective laws to get from A to B.

Available for both the PlayStation 3 and PSP, both versions of echochrome are priced at $9.99. Both versions include 56 levels unique to their respective platform, making 112 levels in all for puzzle fanatics.

Click through for more in this week's PlayStation Store update... Read more

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that it will be adjusting the Canadian prices of items in the PlayStation 3's online PlayStation Store.

The company claimed that "the strengthening Canadian currency" was the root of the tweaks, which is a very polite way of referring to the ever-weakening US dollar.

The adjustments will occur just prior to this week's PS Store update on Thursday, May 1. No specific price changes or examples were provided, though current exchange rates show that the US and Canadian dollars are equal.

"We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PlayStation Network experience," explained PS Store senior manager Grace Chen.

How will developer Harmonix follow up after delivering the entirety of Judas Priest's "Screaming For Vengeance" album as downloadable content for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of Rock Band?

By releasing two The Mother Hips tunes and a Smashing Pumpkins track, it seems.

Beginning Tuesday, April 29, the following three Rock Band tracks will be available for purchase and download from the Xbox Live Marketplace:

• The Mother Hips "Red Tandy"
• The Mother Hips "Time Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear"
• Smashing Pumpkins "Zero"

Each master track recording will sell individually for 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99). Per usual, the songs will then be available to PlayStation 3 owners for the same price via the PlayStation Store the following Thursday, which happens to be May 1.

New to the PlayStation Store this week is a ton of downloadable content including Rock Band, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Army of Two DLC, three new demos, and a fresh addition to the PSOne Classics library. In terms of the week's downloadable content roundup, the Variety Map Pack for Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4 is up for grabs. Priced at $9.99, the Variety Map Pack includes four multiplayer maps: Creek, Broadcast, Killhouse, and Chinatown (a remake of the classic CoD map Carentan).

New content for Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock this week is the Def Leppard track pack, priced at $6.25. In addition to the band's new single "Nine Lives," the pack also includes master tracks of "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph."

Fans of Harmonix's Rock Band, meanwhile, now have access to the game's first full DLC album, Judas Priest's 1982 opus "Screaming for Vengeance." The pack is priced at $14.99 for the whole ten-track album, or $1.99 for individual ... Read more

Playable demos of SCE Studios Japan's perspective-puzzler echochrome (PSP, PS3) will be made available for both platforms in tomorrow's PlayStation Store update, the developer announced on the PlayStation Blog.

The demo will be available for both platforms via the PlayStation Store on the PS3, while the PlayStation Store for PC will offer the PSP version only. echochrome was released in Japan last month, and is being readied for a North American debut in May.

Confirming earlier reports, publisher Activision has reaffirmed that the first downloadable map pack for Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will arrive on the PlayStation 3 this Thursday, April 24.

Priced at $9.99, the Variety Map Pack includes four multiplayer maps: Creek, Broadcast, Killhouse, and Chinatown (a remake of the classic CoD map Carentan).

A code for a free download of the Variety Map Pack will be included in the upcoming Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Game of the Year Edition re-release. To commemorate today's news, a company representative sent over the accompanying loldog.

Released for the Xbox 360 version earlier this month, the Variety Map Pack went on to set a new record for the Xbox Live Marketplace, exceeding one million downloads in its first nine days of availability. A PC edition of the pack is said to be in the works.

Ending months of waiting and speculation, Rock Band developer Harmonix has announced that the first entire downloadable album will be available next week for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of the multi-instrument music title.

The entirety of Judas Priest's 1982 album "Screaming For Vengeance" will be priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($14.99). Individual tracks, such as "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" and "Electric Eye," will be priced at 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99).

"Screaming For Vengeance" will arrive in the Xbox Live Marketplace on Tuesday, April 22, with the PlayStation 3 release following on Thursday, April 24.

Additionally, Harmonix revealed that the whole of The Cars' "The Cars" and the Pixies' "Doolittle" albums are both slated to arrive as downloadable content in the future, along with the previously announced The Who's "Who's Next."

The tracklist of Judas Priest's "Screaming For Vengeance" follows:... Read more

Electronic Arts today announced that new content will be released for the co-op shooter Army of Two next Thursday. The new Security and Strategy Corporation Challenge DLC contains four maps featuring a series of obstacle courses, with the chance to join the SSC, the Private Military Corporation in Army of Two, upon completion.

"We want to support our fans with new content that delivers on the two-man gameplay but with a unique twist," said EA Montreal's Alain Tascan, adding, "The SSC Challenge gives players a chance to test their skills in a different setting while retaining the action packed co-op intensity that gamers have come to expect in Army of Two."

The SSC Challenge mode and maps will be available for $7.50 on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store.

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The first update to the PlayStation Store since the service's relaunch and new look has gone up, chock full of overdue Rock Band content, downloadable games, and more.

Polyphony Digital's preview racer Gran Turismo 5: Prologue will hit the PlayStation Store tonight at 12 AM EST, priced at $39.99. The game packs 60+ vehicles and six tracks, and is meant as a sneak peek to the eventual release of Gran Turismo 5.

A bounty of content for Harmonix's Rock Band has also been added, bringing PS3 Rock Band owners up to speed after two weeks of downtime. This week's update includes "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton available free of charge, as well as Freezepop's "Sprode", Count Zero's "Shake", and Bang Camro's "Rock Rebellion" for $0.99 a piece.

Additionally, the Classic Rock Pack—which includes "Call Me" by Blondie, "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Message in a Bottle" by the Police—is also up. The songs are priced at $1.99 a piece, or $5.49 in a bundle.

An expansion for SCEA Santa Monica's Warhawk (PS3), entitled Operation: Broken Mirror, has been added to the PlayStation Store. The booster pack ... Read more

Infinity Ward announced today that the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) Variety Map Pack will be released on North American PlayStation 3s on April 24, and in Europe a week later.

The new content, which was released on the Xbox 360 earlier this month, will be available as part of next Thursday's PlayStation Store update at a $9.99 price point.

The map pack includes four multiplayer maps: Creek, Broadcast, Killhouse, and Chinatown (a remake of the classic CoD map Carentan). For a more intimate look, scope out the recent batch of gameplay videos.

Namco Bandai yesterday announced a new downloadable game titled PowerUp Forever at its press event in San Francisco. The space shooter is set for a summer release on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

While I didn't get my hands on the Stardust HD-esque title, I did get to see an alpha version of it being played. From what I saw, I would judge it as one of the most promising titles within the Namco lineup.

Players will steer a fractal-based ship around a procedurally-generated level, firing away at various enemies. The visual style was very impressive, featuring whispy fluid dynamic-based shield effects that swished around the ship and the various enemies. Combat consists of shooting standard space shooter lasers and triple-shot guns using the right analog stick, with a full 360 degree field of fire. Nothing too exciting yet, but wait--there's more.

In a fantastic twist, as the player takes down parasitic monsters and bosses, the fractal ship grows in size. And while the ship may... Read more

As promised last week, Sony Computer Entertainment has delivered PlayStation 3 owners with updated firmware. Bringing the system up to 2.30, the downloadable update packs DTS-HD Master Audio and High Resolution Audio support for Blu-ray playback, as well as the redesigned PlayStation Store.

With the revamp of the online marketplace now complete, its weekly updates will resume this Thursday. Downloadable offerings will include Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the second Warhawk expansion pack, and the past few weeks of Rock Band content, complete with the new Motley Crue single.

To obtain the new firmware, internet-connected system owners can use the PS3's "System Update" option or check out SCEA's sluggishly-updated support page.

Developer Harmonix has announced that the new Motley Crue single "Saints of Los Angeles" will debut as a piece of Rock Band downloadable content later this week.

The track will be available for download beginning tomorrow, April 15, for the Xbox 360 version of the game, with the PlayStation 3 release following on Thursday, April 17. It will carry a price of 80 Microsoft Points / $1 for a limited time.

"Saints of Los Angeles" marks the first single to be initially released via Rock Band. Music label Mercury Records recently revealed that Def Leppard will perform a similar feat by debuting its single "Nine Lives" as downloadable content for Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock later this month.

Four new multiplayer maps are headed to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of IO Interactive's buddy-buddy shooter Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, publisher Eidos has informed Shacknews.

Set to be released as a free download via the online PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace on April 17, The Dope Bag map pack will feature four Fragile Alliance multiplayer maps, each with its own unique objective.

Content plans for the PC edition of Kane & Lynch have yet to be specified, though Shacknews has asked Eidos for more information.

Developer Harmonix has announced that Jonathan Coulton's surprisingly catchy track "Still Alive" will be this week's sole piece of downloadable content for its multi-instrument music title Rock Band.

Originally recorded as the ending theme for Valve's wit-driven puzzle shooter Portal (PC, PS3, X360), "Still Alive" quickly became an internet phenomenon, most commonly referenced by the phrase "I'm making a note here, huge success."

The first Rock Band song to be given away for free, "Still Alive" will be available for the Xbox 360 edition of Rock Band beginning tomorrow, April 1. Xbox 360 owners will be able to download the track from either the Xbox Live Marketplace or the recently-added in-game music store.

Due to Sony's redesign of the PlayStation Store, the track will not be available for the PlayStation 3 version until the PlayStation Store relaunches in mid-April, though Harmonix was adamant that it will still be free at that time.

Update: Sony Computer Entertainment has confirmed that, as a result of the redesign, the North American PlayStation Store will not receive any new content or updates until April 17.

Upon its relaunch on that day, new items in the PlayStation Store will include Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the Warhawk expansion pack Broken Mirror, and the past two week's of Rock Band tracks.

Original Story: Due to an upcoming redesign, the PlayStation 3's online PlayStation Store will not receive any new content for the next two weeks, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced.

While SCEE's announcement only applied to Europe's PlayStation... Read more