What is the point of the GH wireless receivers?

[PurdueRy]

out of curiousity, why does the PS3 version of GH3 need wireless receivers attached to the USB ports? The controllers are normally wireless and don't need a receiver. Couple that with I believe all the buttons are mapped out the same way.

Even on the wii version the remote communicated in its normal wireless way with the console. So why are the receivers necessary?

 

[CKDragon]

EDIT: Ah, sorry. This was a GH-only question. Anyway, the wireless GH guitars for the 360 are all completely wireless, no dongles. Dongles are PS3-only. The details below still flesh out the question of "why".

The original guitar that came with the 360 version of Rock Band was wired. The new Rock Band guitar that is sold separately is completely wireless without a dongle. Microsoft requires all wireless controller/peripheral manufacturers to use the same wireless technology. This is the reason that 360 owners can use GH guitars within Rock Band, the controller standards are tighter.

Sony does not require peripheral manufacturers to use their bluetooth standard, so I suppose it was cheaper for Red Octane (GH peripheral manufacturer) and Harmonix (RB peripheral manufacturer) to make their guitar peripherals with dongles on the PS3. For Activision/Red Octane/Neversoft, this carried with it the added value of being able to completely shaft their PS3 Guitar Hero customers into not being able to use their non-standard GH peripherals with Rock Band.

 

[Schadenfroh]

It was cheaper to use the dongles than to use bluetooth.

 

[erwos]

This is why I love the 360 versions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero - I can actually use my wireless GH guitars on both games, and I don't need lame dongles. It sucks that Red Octane refuses to play nice with Harmonix, but at least I've got _something_.

But, yeah, proprietary RF is, by nature, going to be cheaper than Bluetooth, since there are no licensing fees to pay.