Wii, PS2 Versions of Rock Band 2 Confirmed for Dec. 18

In what must be a nice surprise for Wii and PlayStation 2 owners still eagerly anticipating Rock Band 2, Harmonix has confirmed those versions of the game will ship on December 18 -- weeks earlier than when they were originally scheduled to release in January.

A GameStop advertisement first revealed the possibility of an early release this week, and now a press release posted on the Rock Band forums verifies it (via Joystiq). The game will be available in the following options across the two platforms (standalone instruments for the PS2 are already available):

Rock Band 2 Standalone Software (Wii) $49.99 MSRP

Rock Band 2 Standalone Software (PlayStation 2 System) $49.99 MSRP

Rock Band 2 Standalone Drums (Wii) $89.99 MSRP

Rock Band 2 Standalone Guitar (Wii) $69.99 MSRP

Rock Band 2 Special Edition Bundle (Wii) $189.99 MSRP

Unlike the first Rock Band, the Wii version will support weekly downloadable song releases, starting with the 20 free bonus songs that were already released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, as well as 30 other (unspecified) previously released downloadable songs. Guitar Hero World Tour also supports song downloads on the Wii, but due to technical limitations, Wii owners can’t purchase and download songs in bundled packs. It’ll be interesting to see if Harmonix faces the same issue with their game -- those 20 free songs would be a pain to download one-by-one.