A significant to-do was made over instrument interoperability between Guitar Hero III and Rock Band last year. Yesterday, Sony took steps to alleviate those concerns by announcing that the instruments for the PlayStation 3 editions of Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Revolution, and SingStar would all be compatible with each other.

The news came in response to comments made by Neversoft director Brian Bright, who said during this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit that Guitar Hero: World Tour instruments for the Xbox 360 would be fully compatible with Rock Band 2. Naturally, Sony’s announcement begged the question of whether Microsoft had taken a similar stance with instrument interoperability for all of this next generation of rhythm games.

Responding in kind, Microsoft officially confirmed today that peripherals for upcoming Xbox 360 rhythm games from Activision Blizzard, MTV Games, and Konami would enjoy similar support. "All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible," said Microsoft online community manager Chris Paladino on the publisher’s official marketing blog.

One notable absence from Paladino’s list is the iNiS-developed Lips, a karaoke game--announced as part of Microsoft’s press event at E3--that features a motion-sensing microphone. Microsoft had not responded to requests for comment concerning the status of this game as of press time.

By Tom Magrino