Two developers who work for Activision talked about wanting third party instruments to be able to work with future Guitar Hero games yesterday at their E3 2008 Press Conference, the most notable being Rock Band's. Two reps also confirmed that the 360 version of Guitar Hero: World Tour will be able to use all instruments for the first Rock Band game, as well as other games. One of the reps said that an update to the 360 version of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will allow gamers use to third party instruments. Activision did not say if the PS3, Wii, or PS2 versions of the game will also have the compatibility.

At Activision’s unofficial E3 press conference Tuesday evening, one of the developers of this fall’s “Guitar Hero: World Tour” made a quick comment to the crowd about the new “GH” game being compatible with non-”GH” instruments.

Later, I asked for clarification.

Two Activision representatives confirmed that the age of cross-game instrument incompatibility is nearing its end.

They explained that the Xbox 360 version of “Guitar Hero: World Tour” will indeed be compatible with the instruments for the first “Rock Band.” The “GH” developers have, for obvious reasons, not been able to test their new game with the upcoming “Rock Band 2.” Other third-party guitar and drum controllers are expected to work with “GH: World Tour” as well.

tyranitar24 via multiplayerblog.mtv.com »