Hoping to make all their downloadable content available to everyone, Harmonix and MTV Games announced that they have released Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2, the second installment in its track pack series. It is now available for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 for $29.99.

The pack features 20 tracks ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Motley Crue to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Duran Duran. It can be played as a standalone game for all consoles. However, you will also be able to export the songs for play with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 using a free offer on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.

Can’t get enough of Rock Band? Or Energizer batteries, for that matter? The dudes at Energizer have decided to give away one piece of downloadable content with their new Advanced Lithium Batteries.

This site has more details. It is applicable to both PlayStation Store and Xbox Live.

And yet another week is coming up, prompting Harmonix to announce the coming week’s downloadable content for Rock Band. This week they are offering us three different packs and one single.

The first pack is from Dead Kennedy, which includes “Califonia Uber Alles”, “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Police Truck”. The second pack is also three songs from Mission of Burma: “Mica”, “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” and “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”. Finally, the third pack is a trio of songs from metal bands fronted by women: “Forever” by In This Moment, “Closer” and “Swamped” by Lacuna Coil. Oh, and the single is “Gone” by Crooked X.

Each pack is available for 160 points ($1.99), with the packs going for 440 points ($5.49).

MTV today announced that they will air Rock Band Battle this Saturday at 1pm ET/PT. Hosted by comedian Dan Levy with actress Carrie Keagan, the one hour special will feature five groups going head-to-head as they attempt to live out their dreams of rock n’ roll and compete for a pimped out electronics package.

The four member groups will take on their favorite song from Rock Band 2’s catalog of over 100 tracks. They will be judged on how well they play the game as well as how well they manage to impress the audience with their stage presence and rock and roll acumen.

The winning band will walk away with a big-screen LG television, Cambridge SoundWorks New theater system, Xbox 360 and a special edition bundle of Rock Band 2.

Hoping to cash in on the holiday season, Harmonix and EA have jointly announced a new Special Edition bundle for Rock Band that will be available for the PS2 and Wii starting at $99.99. It will also be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 at a starting price of $139.99.

The Special Edition bundle will feature the microphone, the guitar controller and drum controller. Gamers will be able to rock out to the game’s hundred-plus songs, most of which are available through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You will also be able to export 55 of Rock Band’s 58 songs in the game’s sequel for yet more action.

The bundle is now available.

Rock Band is surely big business, especially for Harmonix, the developers themselves, and Viacom. However, it is even bigger business for the founders of the studio – Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy – who have gotten a bonus of $150 million this year, based on the stellar sales performance of the franchise.

Even better yet (for them, anyway) is word that Viacom will be paying them even more this year as bonus. It is “expected to exceed this year’s payment,” noted Viacom, implying that it will be more than $300 million in bonuses, though how much more is yet not known.

"We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high, but it’s based on what they have achieved,” said Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew. "If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that’s OK."

MTV Games and Harmonix send word that AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack is now available in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores across the States. The game, an offshoot of Rock Band, features 18 live recordings from the popular hard rock band’s live performance at Castle Donnington.

The tracks are below:

"Thunderstruck"
"Shoot to Thrill"
"Back in Black"
"Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be"
"Heatseeker"
"Fire Your Guns"
"Jailbreak"
"The Jack"
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
"Money Talks"
"Hell’s Bells"
"High Voltage"
"Whole Lotta Rosie"
"You Shook Me All Night Long"
"T.N.T."
"Let There Be Rock”
"Highway To Hell”
"For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”

All these songs can also be played in Rock Band and its sequel by entering a special export authentication code for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

The game is available on PS3 and Xbox 360 for $40, PS2 and Wii for $30.

Following up on the full album release of Judas Priests’ “Screaming for Vengeance”, Harmonix and MTV Games today announced the second complete album for Rock Band - The Cars’ 1978 self-titled debut.

To be available starting next Tuesday on Xbox Live and Thursday on PlayStation Network, the album is hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the greats and features quite a few hit singles. The album can be bought for $14.99 (1200 Microsoft points); individual tracks can also be bought for 160 Microsoft points ($1.99) each. Below is the track listing:

“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”

Earlier this year The Romantics, a band and not a hippie group, sued Activision on the grounds that the cover of their song in Guitar Hero ’80s was a little too accurate. It has been reported that their injunction for the publisher to stop the sales of the game has been denied in a preliminary hearing.

“Activision is pleased with the ruling and thinks that the case is without merit,” the publisher stated. “The company believes video games represent a growing opportunity for the music industry to reach new audiences and a strong source of potential license revenue for both bands and music publishers.”

This week’s additions to Rock Band are three new tracks - Radiohead’s “My Iron Lung,” Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” and a cover of Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket.” The songs sell individually for 160 Microsoft points.

New tracks for Rock Band are now available for the game via Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network for their specific platforms. The three new tracks are The Clash’s “I Fought the Law,” “Rockaway Beach” by Ramones, and a cover of Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen in Love”.

They are bundled together for 400 MS points ($5.50), while each song can be purchased separately for 160 MS points ($2).

Ahead of the game’s release next month, Harmonix has announced details behind ROCKBAND.com, a website that will hook into the upcoming rhythm game’s multiplayer and band features. The social community site will launch alongside the game on November 20 and will feature in-depth leaderboards, personal and band home pages, and a “Musicians Meeting Musicians” classified section to help form bands online. The site will offer members the opportunity to message each other and blog about their musical tastes and accomplishments. Here’s the deal:

• Personal & Band Pages: ROCKBAND.com will automatically load your in-game characters and game stats from an online database so your personal profile page will always be up to date. Choose from four genres in the game to customize your profile pages with cool background skins that reflect your rock tastes.

• Band Classifieds: Find and create your own band through the ROCKBAND.com Band Classifieds page. Here you can advertise your own rocker skills or search through dozens of rocker profiles to choose band mates who share similar music tastes.

• Rock Band Leaderboards: Climb to the top of the charts as a solo artist or band! From band rankings to solo scores, the ROCKBAND.com leaderboards will earn you fame and fortune as you progress on your journey to Rock Band stardom.

• Rocker Blogs: Find out what’s happening behind the scenes with your favorite bands through their blogs. Use your blog to communicate with band mates about practice times, meet others with similar musical interests and keep your groupies in the loop with the website’s unique blogs.

• Rock Band Forums: Interact with other rockers and music lovers about anything and everything rock!

• Photo Creator: (Coming Soon!) Take the ultimate promo band or solo shot with the website’s Photo Creator. Pick a location, the right lighting, and a coordinated (or not!) pose for your band. Take it over the top cheesy or seriously intense. It’s all about your band’s total image.

I was always under the impression that the people at Rockstar were ones to embrace parody, as their games have always had bits of satire and parodies of products thrown in. Apparently, they don’t like it when someone parodies them. The upcoming Simpsons game makes fun of Grand Theft Auto and, as it turns out, people at Rockstar weren’t happy.

“I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it’s a sign of respect… If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we’re not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto… But yeah, we’ve definitely had some reactions - we’ve had to pull stuff from the game”, revealed Greg Rizzer, lead designer of The Simpsons.

However, not all companies are like that, and it appears the dudes (and dudettes) at Harmonix are cool. “I don’t know if you’ve seen Sitar Hero? We did Apu playing this 60-button controller and songs like Pour Some Curry On Me - we made this wonderful parody poster and the guys from Harmonix loved it and we sent them 20 copies of the poster. They just loved it so much.”

The much hated Guitar Hero 2 song packs are apparently popular. Activision sent out word that downloadable song packs for the game have achieved multi-platinum status with more than 650,000 downloads through Xbox Live Marketplace in less than five months. Each pack contains three individual songs, which when combined top the two million mark, making them some of the most downloaded content on the broadband network.

“Activision was the first third-party publisher to offer downloadable content via Xbox LIVE to consumers and as a result, we have tremendous insight into the types of content that consumers want,” states Dusty Welch, head of publishing, RedOctane. “The Guitar Hero II downloadable video game song packs are some of the most popular content on Xbox LIVE and are quickly becoming a very lucrative revenue stream and powerful promotional vehicle for musicians and record labels today.”

Interestingly, people are actually interested in My Chemical Romance, as the band’s song pack, which included original recordings of “Teenagers”, “Famous Last Words” and “This is How I Disappear,” had achieved over 50,000 downloads within the first week.

More big bands have joined Rock Band’s kickass lineup. As reported by 1UP, songs from KISS, Soundgarden and Red Hot Chili Peppers will appear in the game as master tracks. The songs are “Detroit Rock City” by KISS, “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden and “Dani California” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The abovementioned songs brings the game’s set list to 34 songs, ranging from the ’60s to now.