MTV today announced that it will start selling full albums that can be downloaded and played in its popular "Rock Band" video game. The first album coming next week is hard metal band Judas Priest's "Screaming for Vengeance" featuring their hit single 'You've Got Another Thing Comin' plus nine other tracks. The album will cost $15 with individual tracks going for $2 each, MTV said. The Judas Priest album will hit the online store for Microsoft's Xbox 360 on April 22 and that for Sony's PlayStation 3 two days later.
So far, MTV has been releasing new tunes every week for "Rock Band", typically in the form of three-song packs focused on an artist or genre. The release of an album marks a break from tradition, in a sense. Explaining the concept, Alex Rigopulos, founder of Harmonix which makes "Rock Band" said they intend covering every base, both in terms of era and every sub-genre of rock.
Incidentally, "Rock Band" has promised full albums for a while now; Judas Priest would be followed next month with the self-titled debut album of 1980s rockers, "The Cars", and in June with "Doolittle" from alternative band "The Pixies".
The game has emerged a strong competitor to Activision's "Guitar Hero" franchise that plans on a new iteration in June to focus entirely on classic rock band "Aerosmith" of the 'Jaime's Gotta Gun' fame. "Rock Band", launched in November last year, sees players strum a guitar controller, pound a drum kit, and croon into a microphone in tune with songs playing on the screen. "Guitar Hero" has all of that, except for the drum kit.
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