Rock Band is between publishers. Guitar Hero is taking a long sleep. In short, the "expensive plastic instrument" music game bubble has finally burst. Which isn't stopping Ubisoft from releasing one!

Bless the RSI-ridden hands of the Clan of the Gray Wolf, who are live-streaming their second annual Rock Band marathon, where they play 1,000 songs straight. 17 hours in (at time of writing) and they've played 205 songs.

Fender's real electric guitar that doubles as a Rock Band 3 controller is coming next year, according to the guitar maker. You'll get your hands on the Squier Stratocaster controller in March 2011... if you can pony up the cash.

Rock Band 3 is going to make tens, if not hundreds of thousands of gamers into actual guitarists. How? It cleverly shoehorns guitar lessons into a game that kids and adults both love. And this is how it looks.

With each successive version, Rock Band becomes less about pretending to play music and more about actually playing music. Hopefully this is what Rock Band 9 will be like in 20 years when we all have augmented reality contact lenses.

For years, musicians have mocked those of us holding plastic guitars. Fair enough—but we had fun! But with Rock Band 3, we learn what Harmonix was up to all along: Actually teaching us how to play real instruments.

Mad Catz is the official hardware partner for Rock Band 3, and their two new realistic instruments—pro guitar with 102 buttons, and the keyboard peripheral—are the closest you get to real instruments yet.

Rock Band 3 is going to come with a real-deal MIDI keyboard. Yes, this new music game will attempt to teach you to actually play music.