Even though Harmonix is well underway developing Green Day: Rock Band, the studio has just announced that they are also hard at work creating Rock Band 3, which should be released THIS holiday season. The news was just revealed on the official Facebook fan-page for Rock Band.

According to the simple status update on the social networking site, we should expect something new and fresh:

“Harmonix is developing Rock Band 3 for worldwide release this holiday season! The game, which will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts, will innovate and revolutionise the music genre once again, just as Harmonix did with the original Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Stay tuned for more details!”

I really hope Harmonix has something exciting up their sleeve because if they don’t, I think many gamers will be hesitant on buying the next installment of the famed music series. The music genre as a whole is really starting to take it’s course because the market was flooded with rhythm games. Sadly, I wouldn’t even blame Harmonix for the amount of titles in stores that require gamers to press colored buttons on plastic instruments. A lot of it has to do with Activision and milking their Guitar Hero franchise.

Since the first Rock Band was released in 2007, we have seen a total of three games on the home consoles with the name. However, in the same span Activision has shipped a total of NINE games under the “Hero” name.

Hopefully Activision hasn’t ruined the fun for both EA Harmonix, but again it really is up to them on bringing something new to the table. And then in a year, their competitor can steal the idea.