Since Rock Band 1 didn’t see a local release for whatever reason, some of you might not know that, for the paltry sum of 400 Microsoft Points / $4.99 PSN US Dollar Monies you could import the entire setlist (well, minus three tracks) into Rock Band 2. With Rock Band 3 launching Friday, Harmonix has announced that a similar service will be available to bring Rock Band 2’s setlist over into the sequel’s sequel.

For 800 MSP / $10 (adjusted for inflation or the rising cost of hookers and blow or something), you can use the code printed on the back of your Rock Band 2 manual to export the song licences. Just select the “Get More Songs” option from the Rock Band 3 menu, choose “Redeem Code”, and enter it there. 

There’s a bit of a snag, though. Taking its cue, tragically enough, from Rock Band: AC/DC, it turns out the import process isn’t the obvious, practical, sensible method of simply copying the songs from the Rock Band 2 disc, but rather downloading the setlist in a 1.93GB pack. It seems, however, that this won’t be necessary for the Rock Band 1 setlist, assuming you’ve already imported it to Rock Band 2. Because this paragraph isn’t quite complicated and confusing enough already, I’ll just include the words Rock Band 3 here too.

There’s another snag too. Due to this, that, or the other thing, five songs won’t be coming across, including:

• AC/DC – Let There Be Rock

• Journey – Any Way You Want It

• Metallica – Battery

• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away

• Soundgarden – Spoonman

Presumably, all previously downloaded DLC tracks will simply carry over without any additional fiddling. Rock on.