Harmonix, the developer of the ever popular Rock Band, sort of shook things up with the announcement that the next title in the Rock Band franchise would be Green Day: Rock Band. While the punk group has a strong and popular following, for sure, many expected another shocking announcement on the level of Beatles: Rock Band.

Rest assured that the company is hard at work on Rock Band 3, which will arrive at some point this year, with our sources suggesting that it will land in the early fall. Rock Band 3 will have to take the franchise in new directions if the franchise is to survive the recent downturn that has been experienced by other music games. The problem is that these games basically all do the same thing and the only thing that is unique is the music; and that will need to evolve if the franchise hopes to obtain additional momentum.

The biggest evolution will be a new Rock Band Network platform that the company is working on. While it is just entering beta now, it is expected that much of the future development will be centered on this going forward.