While browsing the gamestop website for some release date info, I stumbled across this:




Rock Band Stage Kit

That's right. The first official Rock Band accessory is a Stage Kit with an "Interactive Light and Smoke Stage Show", and it's set to release on June 23rd for a hefty price of $99. Though there isn't any other information about it on the page, I assume from the fact that it says "interactive" on the box, it will react to the specific song you're playing the same way the light show in the game does which is actually kind of cool. Though $99 is pretty pricey for something so non-essential to game play, I imagine that if you walked by a room at a party with Rock band and this thing running, you'd be instantly intrigued to stop and watch.

In addition to this, Gamestop has pre-order pages for the individual instruments which lists the prices and release dates. According to them, both the Guitar and the Drums will retail for $79.99 and the Microphone will be $29.99. They'll all apparently be released on March 4th. Part of me thinks that Gamestop might be guessing about the actual prices though since $80 for the guitar is a little steep considering the Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer for Xbox 360 retails for about $60. I guess we'll see.

Also of note, they only have these items listed for Xbox 360. I'm sure they'll release them for PS3 as well but who knows if they'll be out on the same day.

So what do you think? Part of me thinks "That's retarded and unnecesary" and the other part of me wants to plug this in, turn off the lights and immerse myself in the full rock star experience.