The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments.

Rock Band 2 software was released in North America for the Xbox 360 on September 14, 2008, along with individual instrument peripherals, and later for the PlayStation 3 on October 19, 2008.

[5] Rock Band 2 received highly positive reviews from critics upon release and sold 1.7 million copies through the end of 2008.

During song performances, the game displays up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass.

For lead and bass guitar, players play their notes by holding down colored fret buttons on the guitar peripheral and pushing the controller's strum bar; for drums, players must strike the matching colored drumhead, or step on the pedal to simulate playing bass drum notes.

This allows players to strategically use Overdrive to raise the Band Meter and pass portions of a song they otherwise might have failed.

If a player does not play well enough and falls to the bottom of the Band Meter, they will fail out of the song and their instrument will be muted from the audio mix.

Players can earn Overdrive bonuses from "Unison Phrases" and extra points from a "Big Rock Ending."

Improvements to the new guitar include a sunburst paint job, a more reliable strum bar and Overdrive accelerometer, a self-timing calibration, and quieter fret buttons.

Sony originally announced that instrument peripherals would be universally compatible on the PlayStation 3;[13] and on November 24, 2008, a patch was released to allow the Guitar Hero: World Tour drums to be properly recognized by Rock Band 2.

This mode is composed of limited-time online tournaments created by Harmonix, with approximately five to ten challenges available any time.

Challenges participated in and the corresponding scores will be tracked as part of the band's history, with this information also being made available through the game's website.

[21] The "Score Duel", "Tug of War", "Quickplay", and "Tutorial" modes from the original Rock Band are also retained.

[10] As with the original Rock Band, players can create and customize their own in-game character, complete with adjustable hair, body physique, clothing, tattoos, piercings, onstage movements, and instruments.

Any pictures taken could be used to order custom merchandise, including T-shirts, posters, keychains, and stickers; however, this service was discontinued on March 30, 2010.

[25] A sequel to Rock Band had been reported as in development for release in late 2008 in a Wired blog by Chris Kohler.

Kohler's piece also stated that the game would likely include similar features as announced for Guitar Hero World Tour, also planned for release in late 2008.

[27] Eric Brosius, Harmonix's Audio Director, described the process of selecting songs for Rock Band 2 as organic, allowing the set list to grow as needed with influence from fans' reaction to the first game but without any specific vision of the final list, and knowing that tracks that failed to make the main disc content would end up as content for download.

at the Disco, Dashboard Confessional, Plain White T's and The Cab, as well as local acts selected by radio promotions, contests, and on-site at each show.

[37] Mark Burnett, along with MTV, sponsored an "Ultimate Rock Band Experience" in Los Angeles, California, for the launch of Rock Band 2, offering the chance for any four-member set of players to participate in the competition;[38] it was speculated that this would be the basis for a new reality television show,[39] although no such show was produced.

An early public showing/demo of Rock Band 2 attended by lead designer Dan Teasdale and other Harmonix Music Systems personnel took place on September 2, 2008,[40] at Ground Kontrol, a video arcade in Portland, Oregon, that puts on weekly "Rock Band Tuesdays" events.

Featured songs include "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead, "Any Way You Want It" by Journey, "Everlong" by Foo Fighters, "Let There Be Rock" by AC/DC, "My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit, "Pinball Wizard" by The Who, "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads, "Spoonman" by Soundgarden, and "White Wedding" by Billy Idol.

[11][47][48] The disc export feature was made available on the Xbox 360 version of the original Rock Band via a title update on September 4, 2008, with a cost of 400 MS Points (US$4.99) required to purchase a transfer license.

Support for new downloadable content ended with the launch of Rock Band 3 on October 26, 2010, due to changes in the songs' file format.

The Rock Band Network store was launched on March 4, 2010, for the Xbox 360 for users in US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Singapore.

[61] RBN songs were directly released to the in-game music store on the Wii since the console does not support title patches.

[64][65] 1UP.com likened it to a "system update" rather than an entirely new game, describing it as "a collection of interface tweaks and non-earth-shattering new features designed to make the Rock Band experience more enjoyable and less frustrating".

[71] The Xbox 360 version of Rock Band 2 was the third best-selling game in North America during September 2008, selling 363,000 copies.

[75] Rock Band 2 sold 1.7 million units across all platforms in North America in 2008, about half as many as Guitar Hero World Tour.

[76] IGN praised the Wii version for including features like online play and downloadable content that were missing from the platform's edition of the first Rock Band, saying "the sequel more than makes up for the original's problems.