Given Guitar Hero I and II’s huge critical acclaim and commercial success, Harmonix’s Rock Band should perform no different when it releases this Fall. Hold a minute. Just a glimpse at the buzz surrounding Rock Band is evidence enough to presume that the game will potentially outperform GH’s so-far highly successful streak. Should we then be surprised to learn that Microsoft could very well snag Rock Band right from Sony’s hands as a (timed) 360 exclusive?

As pleasing to the ears of 360 fanboys as this rumour may be, there’s arguably poor evidence to back this claim up. The source of the rumour is the invitation for the Rock Band party at E3 that Game Life has got their hands on. At first glance, it looks like any other invitation to a big party. However, when you delve deeper, you’ll notice something odd about the good deal of logos sitting at the bottom. There’s the Harmonix logo, the MTV official logo and its games division logo, the 360 logo and then the EA Games logo etc. Where the heck is the Playstation 3 logo?

The absence of the PS3 logo can be explained in a number of ways. One possibility could be that EA will be using the 360 version of the game and its respective peripherals, and consequently Sony didn’t want their logo to appear on the invitation. Another reason could be that only Microsoft was willing enough to shell out for the party so as to get their brand on the bill, and Sony wasn’t.

Alright, enough with arguments against the rumour. There are a couple of theories that are in favour of the bold claim, with one of them concerning the 360’s immense userbase. The question is as follows: Would EA actually benefit from releasing Rock Band on both Xbox 360 and PS3 when you take into account the manufacturing costs of producing three different peripherals for each platform? A quick look at the platforms’ userbases which shows that the 360’s is four times larger than the other would suggest the answer is no, at least for now.

Will only 360 users get to play on this baby this Fall?

Nonetheless, the above is just speculation and should be taken with a fist full of salt. In case there is an exclusive deal in the works with regard to Rock Band between Microsoft and EA, it’ll be most likely announced at Microsoft press conference at 4:30 am (GMT) on Wednesday for Europeans or 8:30 pm on Tuesday (PDT) for our American friends across the pond. Until then, consider this one a big fat rumour.