On Monday, Sony made an announcement that has probably brought big smiles on gamer faces all over the world. The company said all the instruments made for the PlayStation 3 versions of Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Rock Revolution and SingStar would be perfectly compatible with one another.

Yesterday, in what could be considered a response to Sony’s move, Microsoft released an official statement that said the peripherals developed for the soon to be launched Xbox 360 rhythm games (provided by Activision Blizzard, Konami and MTV Games) would also be compatible with each other. Chris Paladino, Microsoft online community manager, was the one in charge with bringing the good news; he said the instruments for Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2 and Rock Revolution would be "cross-compatible."

As it turned out, the highly anticipated karaoke game Lips was not featured in Microsoft’s compatibility list. The game, which includes a motion-sensing microphone, was first announced during the E3 Media & Business Summit this year. The company refused to reveal any information concerning the upcoming title.

Regarding the aforementioned titles, Guitar Hero: World Tour is scheduled for release on the DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 consoles later on this year.

Rock Band 2 will come as an exclusive release for the Xbox 360 in the U.S. alone in September; marketing plans for Europe have yet to be announced. As far as editions for other consoles go, it will probably take a while, as gamers are still waiting for PS2, PS3 and Wii versions of the previous Rock Band title.

Rock Revolution is completely in the dark; no information on it has been released so far.