MTV has announced that its Rock Band franchise has now sold more than $1 billion worth of games at retail, while also saying that it's the top-selling game of 2008.The company has also provided an update on track sales through the games' integrated download stores – it's up to 40 million paid downloads now. Small beer next to iTunes, of course, but impressive in the context of console music games.It took 15 months to pass the $1bn retail sales mark, although we wonder if the news will spur more anger at Warner Music Group, which has argued that console firms should pay more to license its music, given the huge revenues they're making from the games.

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