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Rock Band 2 screenshot

VideoGamer.com: What are the possibilities this opens up for the average player?

DT: It's essentially combining the drum trainer (another new feature in RB2) with teaching people to be drummers. So you no longer have to sit awkwardly in a room with a 60-year-old guy who teaches you drums. You can do it in your own living room, and buy a real kit and not have to have a plastic kit and a real kit. You can just play on your real kit in Rock Band. It not only makes a real drummer out of you, but fulfils that fantasy of feeling like you're on stage.

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VideoGamer.com: The game is coming exclusively to the Xbox360 for a short time. It almost feels like Rock Band's home is Xbox 360 and PS3 owners seem upset about this. What's your take on the whole thing?

DT: Our reaction on it is that we're not really delaying the other stuff. It's just that Microsoft have been such great partners, that we've been able to release it early on 360. They've helped us out massively by coming in, helping us to complete features and have given us great marketing support. So we've been able to release it relatively earlier compared to other platforms. Having said that though, the PS3 and Wii version, and all the relevant platforms will be out very soon after the 360 version, so you won't be waiting long at all.

VideoGamer.com: When you say they've helped you bring it out earlier on 360, what kind of help have they given you?

DT: We've been in contact with them all the time. They've flown out multiple times, stayed for a couple of days, helped us program some of the stuff to get it in. They've been like team members to us, so it's more like we're making a game rather than traditional console publisher/developer relationship. It's been really great having them on board.

VideoGamer.com: Do you have a message for PS3 owners who wanted the game at the same time as the 360 version?

DT: That message is that you'll get the game very soon and we're going to be including features that you didn't have in the previous version on the PS3. You're going to have voice chat, you're going to have complete integration with rockband.com, you're going to have trophies. We're going to make sure that PS3 gamers have just as great an experience.

VideoGamer.com: Rock Band 2 is almost out, it's pretty far in. What kind of things is the team thinking about? Where can you take the Rock Band experience?

DT: I'm not sure how much I can say, because a lot of it is future stuff. On the DLC front we're trying to expand the genres that we can. We're investigating country, we released Jimmy Buffett last month, which is something we totally couldn't have put on the rock band disc, but people still love. So we're expanding the music platform to cover more than rock, and encompass other stuff. In terms of gameplay, we have a cycle of innovating and perfecting. Frequency and Amplitude, and Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Rock band 2 is perfecting what we've done and innovated on previously. We're going to go through and innovate and make great new experiences. We're not going to milk the franchise essentially.

VideoGamer.com: In the UK there was a bit of controversy surrounding the price. How is it going to be sold at retail in the UK?

DT: I've got a lot of friends who are pestering me about trying to get the game. We haven't done any specifics about pricing or bundling or all that kind of stuff. It's going to be come out very soon after Rock Band 2 US release. We're doing everything possible to make it as affordable as possible. It doesn't help us if the game's to expensive for people to buy. By going through where the prices come through on that and on transformer like stuff, it very easily adds up, but we want to make it as affordable as possible. We're trying our very best to make a very affordable package for people to go in and start rocking.

VideoGamer.com: How did rock band do In the UK? Did pricing put people off?

DT: I don't have numbers on me. From what I remember it sold incredibly well. We've had a great take up in the UK. It's a universal feeling of wanting to rock out. It's not just a US centric thing.

VideoGamer.com: I get the sense that the whole team loves playing the game. What's your instrument of choice and favourite new song in Rock Band 2?

DT: I'm a bassist in real life. I love playing bass and I love playing drums as well. It's such a great tactile feeling. I have to say AC DC. I'm obliged by my citizenship to let there be rock. Even though I'm in a band called Speck and we have a track called Conventional Lover on the rock band 2 disc, I have to say AC DC.

VideoGamer.com: Thanks for your time.

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