CONFIRMED: Rock Band 3 To Feature Piano

Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

UPDATED: Well, that didn't take long. Mere hours after our story went up, The USA Today put up a feature showing off all the new features, and yes, it includes keyboards. The midi accessory has 25 keys, and is a real, functioning instrument that can be connected to a computer.

The other big addition is a Pro mode that removes the coloured notes and places actual musical symbols. Tying into this mode are a couple of new guitar controllers that feature actual strings. They'll make musicians out of you yet. And of course, there are the expected interface tweaks, like the ability to drop in and out of songs and change instruments from within a track. We can expect to see more at E3 next week, so stay tuned.

There have been a few titbits of information about the upcoming Rock Band 3 floating about. We've known for a few months that the game would feature vocal harmonies after an employee accidentally revealed it during a PAX Panel. Now, following the release of a Green Day: Rock Band demo (historians agree that Green Day is second to only The Beatles when it comes to musical significance), we have another clue. On conclusion of the demo, the attached logo appears.

That's unmistakably a keyboard, and that's unmistakably awesome. The only way it could be cooler would be, as Joystiq suggests, if it were actually a Keytar.