Rock Band 2 made many advances, including trashing solo tours that progress by difficulty and mostly letting me get online with my friends and all of us playing whatever difficulty we are comfortable with.  But yes, Harmonix has one more barrier to break down, and it's unlocking of content.  It's pointless in a game that's about the music first and gaming second.

I haven't touched any of Neversoft's Guitar Hero titles, so I have no clue how they are dealing with this.  I had no interest once I heard about "bosses" and "attacks".  I'm there to enjoy the music, not send broken fret buttons at the other players.

So, Activision's news that they intend to saturate the market is typical.  The problem is, are they creating a platform or a headache?  Do you have to say "Oh I want to play Mississippi Queen, but that's on GH3, and currently we hav GH9 in.  Oh well.  Harmonix scored a coup by allowing almost every song they've published on the RB platform to crossover into RB2.

Wow. That piece by Jonas Allen came across as petty and unprofessional. The sincerity and /or hypocrisy of Mr. Hsu may still be in question, only time will tell of course, but he DID seem to have a point about the lack of professional behavior in "Teh Gamez Journalism". Illustrated splendidly by Mr. Allen. Bravo to Mr. Allen for "Keeping it real!".