Cars debut exclusive to Rock Band, single tracks may appear in competing titles

Speaking with Newsweek's Ashley Harris, a Rhino Records spokesperson confirmed that the self-titled debut The Cars album which was recently made available as downloadable content for Rock Band will be exclusive for that title. 

"The deal we made for The Cars is a full album game download and Rock Band is the only game title out there putting full albums up as downloadable content," said spokesperson Jason Elzy. "Having said this, we would not license the full album out for a similar use."

Elzy points out that in the future, they "can and will (when the opportunity presents itself) license single tracks from this album for other games. This means, of course, it's possible we'll see "Let the Good Times Roll" in Guitar Hero World Tour, Dance Dance Revolution, or Singstar: Rocks the 80s II: Rockin' the 80s in Space. 

As Level Up's N'Gai Croal points out, these exclusives are becoming far less of an issue as instrument compatibility begins to smooth itself out. It's been confirmed that Rock Band instruments would be compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour; if the same holds true for World Tour instruments with Rock Band 2, the library of playable songs on fake, plastic instruments becomes frightening. 

But will both games be able to coexist at retail?