Publisher MTV Games and developer Harmonix announced in a statement that the sequel to their popular game Rock Band will be released first for the Xbox 360 in September. The new incarnation will feature a plethora of new instruments, songs and new online modes as well.

Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos said in an AP interview that they tried to bring innovation to the gaming world with the first Rock Band, and Rock Band 2 will bring the features in the previous games to "perfection". The game will be released for the other major gaming consoles later this year.

The developers will include in the new incarnation the ability to use songs purchased for $1.99 for the original Rock Band, marking the first time such retroactive compatibility has been introduced in a music game. Also, all instruments designed for Rock Band will work flawlessly with the new Rock Band 2.

MTV Games and Harmonix also announced that they are releasing 12 "Rock Band" songs on July 15 from The Who, at the usual $1.99 price each or for $19.99 when purchased all at once.

The game has already won over 40 awards, including Game Critics Award: Best of Show E3 2007, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, Family Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack.

Rock Band has reached late last month the six million downloads mark. Also, Harmonix has released at the time a major patch and a full-featured, in-game music store. The store has a "user-friendly interface to streamline and enhance the music shopping experience," and allows players to "view, purchase, and sort all downloadable songs tracks by Artist, Song Title, Genre, Albums, Pack," with full album art, song previews, and instrument-by-instrument difficulty levels.

Last month, Gibson Guitar filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against promoters and developers of the “Rock Band” game, namely Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts. The lawsuit was filed in the federal court in Nashville, Tennessee.

The real-guitar maker said it did make efforts to come to a patent license agreement with the defendants, but “the defendants have not responded in a timely manner with an intent to enter into negotiations for a patent license agreement,” the guitar maker said according to AP. “Gibson Guitar had no alternative but to bring the suit, and it will continue to protect its intellectual property rights against any and all infringing persons.”