While the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises have seen stunning success, there’s one little issue that keeps rearing its ugly head, one that threatens to start a gaming cold war. The issue of instrument compatibility crops up time and again as a major problem with the games, with the threat of each company making their games work exclusively with their personal licensed controllers, meaning you could easily need four guitars, two drum sets and two microphones just to be able to play both games. Well, Sony isn’t having that, and they’ve hammered out an agreement amongst all rhythm game manufacturers (Konami’s Rock Revolution is even included in the deal) to ensure that all instruments receive at least a "basic level" of compatibility across all games.

The current accord applies only to the upcoming releases, so Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Revolution are all sure to be cross-compatible, but no deal has yet been worked out for products currently on the market. Sony has promised that they will have an announcement concerning that very issue "shortly," leading us to believe that it won’t be long until everything is sorted out and you are capable of playing using any instrument on any game, period.

There are two things to note about this story; as it stands now, this news only applies to PS3 versions of the games. This was an agreement worked out between Sony, Activision, Neversoft, Harmonix and Konami, and its fruits will not spill over to the Xbox 360 or the Wii... at least not yet. It would stand to reason that similar deals will be worked out with the other console manufacturers soon, but for now at least, Sony is the only company promising this functionality.

It is also important to consider the distinction of a "basic level" of functionality, which means that while any instrument will work, it still may not function as well as the competition. For example, it is unlikely you’ll be able to use the Rock Band solo buttons on Guitar Hero, and the new touch sensitive neck for World Tour likely won’t find any use on Rock Band. For those interested in Rock Revolution, this provides an even bigger issue, as the Konami drum set is arranged differently than that of its competitors, not to mention is has three more pads than the current Rock Band kit. So while it looks like all your instruments are guaranteed to work, you’re not allowed to complain when they don’t work perfectly. Personally, I think that’s a fair trade; the last thing I need are more fake instruments cluttering up my living room.