NO ROCK BAND 3 IN 2009
Which is absolutely correct. Then it started spinning out to...
ROCK BAND 3 IN 2010
Which isn't what the dude said at all. Then it got to stuff like...
PLAY GUITAR NOW ASK ME HOW
or...
ALEX RIGOPULOS STABBED A GUY IN VEGAS
...or whatever. Point being, people love to take little bits of info and telephone them as far out of context as possible, especially when they come from comments made at a trade show you aren't attending and you heard about the info in question from Geoff Keighley's Twitter feed or something.
MTV Multiplayer spoke with MTV Games and got some actual clarity on the entire situation:
“Alex was responding to a question about potential future iterations of ‘Rock Band‘ and the possibility of additional peripherals. Within the context of that question, Alex did comment that the Beatles game is the priority for MTV Games and Harmonix (but not the only project for 09 i.e. We will continue to release our weekly ‘Rock Band’ DLC, etc. etc. etc.). However, it’s important to note that he also stated to the audience that ‘Rock Band 3′ does not yet even exist as an official project.”
See? Rock Band 3 doesn't even exist right now. I actually think that's pretty cool. Harmonix said back around the release of the original game that it didn't want to get into annual sequels, and here it is, stepping out of the annual sequels picture and doing something different, while regular DLC keeps the core components moving. It'll be interesting to see how the Beatles game turns out, as well as if that "etc. etc. etc." turns out to include kid-friendly building blocks or not.