Xbox users have to pay $20 more to use old instruments on Rock Band 4

Since Harmonix first announced it was bringing the Rock Band franchise to a new generation of consoles, there have been persistent questions about how the new games would support guitar and drum controllers designed for older systems. The answer to those questions comes with a price for Xbox gamers who will have to pay $20 extra if they want to use their old Xbox 360 instruments on the Xbox One.

The extra cost is to cover the inclusion of a "Legacy Game Controller Adapter," which preorder listings show coming packaged with the standalone Xbox One version of the game for $80. The $60 PlayStation 4 edition has no such adapter, since the previous PlayStation 3 instruments already required a USB dongle to support wireless play (that dongle will still be required to use old instruments on the PS4, but new PS4-specific instruments will sync directly via bluetooth).

While the price difference is a bit galling for players in Microsoft's ecosystem, it's still a much better deal than shelling out $250 for the "Band-in-a-Box" package, which includes new drum, guitar, and microphone controllers, or $120 for a package that includes a new wireless guitar controller (those prices are the same for the PS4 version as well). Activision's upcoming Guitar Hero Live won't work with old guitar controllers at all, requiring users to pay $100 for the game and a new controller with a six-button, two-row configuration.