It appears that Aerosmith songs will be appearing exclusively in Guitar Hero games – at least for now. This isn’t surprising with the upcoming release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, but it is definitely a worrisome occurrence. This may be the beginning of an exclusivity war between Activision and EA with regard to what bands appear in Guitar Hero and Rock Band. What will this change about each respective title, and what can gamers expect?

While having different bands available on separate titles will help each game stand out on its own, it will also force consumers to make a decision. Will we stick with one series or will we be compelled to buy into both? Is this really the direction that music games are going to begin taking? Is this good for gamers at all?

Personally, I’m not very happy about the idea of this becoming a trend. It doesn’t bode well that both publishers probably have enough money to make plenty of exclusive deals. I most certainly can see this particular exchange of cash money having a snowball effect on these games in the future.

So enjoy “Train Kept a Rollin’” on Rock Band while you can, that’s all the Steven Tyler that Harmonix is going to legally be able to give you for now.