Time for another update on what's new on the U.S. PlayStation Store. The good news? The July 2008 episode of Qore is now available along with more downloadable tracks for Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. The bad news? No demos. At all. The complete list of new content is available in the full article.

Master Chief isn't the only Spartan who's got a gig in Guitar Hero 3. Activision's Chuck Park has unveiled some new details regarding the upcoming God of War track being readied for GH3 on the PlayStation 3. There's an accompanying trailer too, available for viewing over in the full article.

Guitar Hero World Tour finally gets tagged with a price, as listed on GameStop, with various bundles across the platform versions. The complete band kit includes the game, the guitar peripheral, drums, and microphone.

And since it's a weekend, we've included something special for the American Idol fans: as seen in the finale, David Cook and David Archuleta are advertising for Guitar Hero... in their undies. Wait. What?!

Clamoring for more guitar legends in Guitar Hero? Well, Ted "Motor City Madman" Nugent has just confirmed during a podcast interview that he will be involved in a future installment of the Guitar Hero franchise.

When bands leave their managers, there's usually a bitter aftertaste involved. In the case of old partners Harmonix and Activision, a similar predicament has risen. A royalty dispute concerning Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, PC) was taken to court but was quickly withdrawn. Details follow right after the jump.

Though Activision thinks that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii) may not be able to meet demand come holiday season, they're not shying away from improving the gameplay experience even more. Increasing the game's fan appeal, the publisher has just announced that two new downloadable packs will hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 soon.

Check out the Velvet Revolver Track Pack and the Foo Fighters Track Pack in the full article.

Despite Activision's optimistic US$ 250 million sales estimate for the end of Q3 for fiscal year 2007, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter seems to think that the Santa Monica-based publisher's projections were a bit modest. In fact, Pachter believes that with last quarter's spillover success of Transformers: The Game and RedOctane's Guitar Hero II, Activision should expect to net a whole lot more.

A note entitled Encore: Activision Rocks the Quarter, Again authored by Pachter ran numbers for Guitar Hero II's sales estimates, and the guitar rhythm title has already gained a consolidated 3.5 million unit sales on both the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox 360, leading to at least US$ 270 million in gross sales.

Pachter does admit that the publisher's lineup has but a few big titles that could have warranted the throttled projection, but he does acknowledge that id Software's Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and RedOctane's Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s would have uplifted the performance by some degree. Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Microsoft Windows PC) has yet to make landfall in North America, so it would contribute to Activision's Q4 sales.

Overall, the analyst pegs a more optimistic target of US$ 300 million (59% increase from last year's quarter performance) to be nabbed in sales for this quarter, due to a predicted 122% increase in sales for the publisher's current products. In a short note, Pachter added, "We think guidance is extremely conservative and recommend that investors opportunistically add to positions."

Looks like his confidence is placed, but investors may still have to ponder this one out.

Think those snazzy Gibson and special Kramer wireless guitars are the only heavy-hitting names making their way into Guitar Hero III for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii? Activision is sending out word that even GHIII's in-game characters are going to be packing branded gear, courtesy of several partnerships they're establishing with companies within the musical instrument industry. Here's a shortlist of the product names you'll be seeing in-game:

• Gibson
• Guitar Center
• Audio-Technica
• Crate
• Ernie Ball
• Krank
• Line 6
• Mackie
• Zildjian
• Alternative Press
• Decibel
• Guitar Player
• Kerrang
• Paste magazines
• Pontiac
• Axe

In line with this announcement, Activision's senior director of business development Dave Anderson had this to say:

By forging exclusive relationships with key companies in the music and consumer packaged goods industries we are able to bring an even greater depth of realism to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. From venues like Pontiac Garage, to customized guitars from Axe, the game delivers the ultimate rock and roll experience.

RedOctane and Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will be launching this October 28. Aside from the launch, the guys may want to take part in the upcoming Play and Win Sweepstakes Microsoft has lined up for GHIII's 360 port for this November 2 to 4. 

Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (PS3)]
Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Wii)]

In an official statement, Activision said that fans in Europe will have to wait until November 23 to get their hands on the game.

Despite this almost one-month gap between the North American and European launches of the game, RedOctane Europe General Manager Zach Fountain still sounded optimistic about the launch. He said:

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first time the franchise has released simultaneously across multiple formats, so we're delighted to be able to confirm a single street date for all home consoles. The game introduces a host of innovations on each format - no matter what your console of choice.

Speaking of features, it was announced a couple of weeks ago that all guitar peripherals for Guitar Hero III are going to be wireless. The one for the Nintendo Wii is somewhat different compared to others though, as the Wiimote should be inserted inside the guitar. Aside from that, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock also sports co-op career mode, battle mode and a wide array of characters.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will be available in North America this coming October 28 on the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC platforms.

We're all hyped for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane's sequel to the massively-successful series that lets players rock out to classic tunes with the Guitar Controller. And with all three next gen consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) getting a version of their own, it's going to be a console-wide thing.

However, there's something that sets apart the Sony PS3 version from the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 versions - and that's the dongle that you need to plug into the PlayStation 3 for the guitar controller to work wirelessly.

While this in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing - the dongle itself is shaped like a pick, with the game's logo printed upon it, so it doesn't look out-of-place at all. However, we have to wonder why this extra step for the PlayStation 3 was included, since all three consoles support some sort of wireless controller technology in one form or another (read: Bluetooth).

Red Octane was asked about this, and their response? It was because that Sony's developer tools only currently provide support for the SIXAXIS. Thus, the developers had to think up of an alternative solution in time for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's release, and thus the dangling dongle was born.

And it seems that Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360), Harmonix's four-player game of multi-instrument mayhem, will be getting the same dangly bits come the game's release. This comes from a statement made by a Harmonix PR representative:

Our first and ideal choice is to utilize Sony's tools for 3rd party use of their PS3's Bluetooth functionality, however our development schedule timing for Rock Band did not coincide for this to be an option for the first generation of Rock Band guitars.

When asked about the issue itself, Sony kept mum, choosing not to comment nor to give any hint that they're working on a dongle-less solution for both games in the near future. Strange, but at the very least, we can take solace at the fact that all versions will have wireless play - even if it means sticking a dongle into your PS3's USB port. Updates as we get them, and you can check out the entire article that discusses the dongles in question via the read link below.