DLC Question - Can we trust you?

[miketoast]

Just checking in to see if these ambitious download plans are real, set in stone or are they just wishful thinking?

I gots me a PS3 but reading the *****ing and complaining from the 360 users on the Guitar Hero forums it seems that all these promised DLC packs just haven't been coming. They claim to have been promised tons of content but have only gotten 4 downloads in the few months since the game has been out.

I just want to be sure that by February or March I'm not sitting at home staring at the screen wondering just where all these great plans and promises went.....

tia....

[Grey_Street]

I think the fact that they've allready announced the first D/Lable album, they're plans are not only good intent, but will be reality. With the strong backing from Microsoft and funding from EA and MTV, I don't seeing it coming out the same way as Guitar Hero

[TheTogfather]

Plus, IIRC, Activision and Red Octane are the ones that became ultimately responsible for GH2 DLC, which in this case we'll have EA, MTV, and HMX taking the reigns. I maintain good faith that they will come through on these promises...the official press releases are very encouraging as well.

[Ghaleon]

It is unfortunate that, for all the complaints, the GH2 song packs have sold over 300,000 downloads. This sets a precedent that people are willing to not only pay a little over $2.00 for a rerelease of a cover from a previous game, but that they're also willing to be forced into bundles of a popular song with less popular ones to drive up more revenue.

I certainly don't think this is what Harmonix would want, but I don't imagine they have much say in pricing of DLC. MTV Games and worse, EA, will likely have most of the say in pricing matters. This fills me with a sense of impending doom (above the usual level even), as EA would sell you downloadable instruction manuals instead of including them if they thought they could get away with it.

[Eman311]

EA isnt that terrible..........the stuff they try to sell you at ridiculous prices is stuff noone really wants anyways. I'm sure they realize what would happen if they try to sell DLC at absurd prices. They're a loaded company....they can sell DLC at a reasonable price and still make a good profit

[NorrenRadd]

I am more than happy to pay $2 per song for the game as long as it is a new track. Seeing as how Rock Band is the first of its kind, I fail to see how any content couldn't be new.

I will not however, pay $2 per song for a re-release of a cover of a song that was in a previous iteration of the game.

If some songs from the previous versions of other games were to be ported to Rock Band, and still had a price tag of $2 I would be more inclined to buy them if there was other NEW material out for Rock Band as well.

[Eman311]

Do you mean guitar hero songs? I'm curious if Rock Band used a song that had been in guitar hero 1 or 2 would the note charts be the same?

I also would buy a song from another game simply because of the addition of vocals and drums

[TheTogfather]

Do you mean guitar hero songs? I'm curious if Rock Band used a song that had been in guitar hero 1 or 2 would the note charts be the same?


I would hope so. As far as I'm concerned, that's how those songs are played. Like, if you went out and bought the sheet music for that song, as played in a simulated video game fashion, those note charts are what you would see.

[Eman311]

That makes sense. I doubt however that they would even bother to cross that bridge. Why bother using old material when theres so much good music out there? I hope we see a lot of variety in the rock band dlc

[Ghaleon]

I certainly agree that $2.00 for a single is not unreasonable, depending on the song.

The point I was trying to make is that, as it stands now, it's $6.25 for 3 songs, only 1 of which you might have really wanted at that $2.00 price. From the perspective of the publisher(s), Activision and Red Octane in this case, DLC is selling just fine at that price, and it would be easy for EA and MTV Games to reach the same conclusion.

Pricing for such things has got to be difficult, as there are a lot of parties involved who all want a cut of whatever profit is to be made. Harmonix, EA, MTV, and the RIAA/artist are all due their share; but as the end customer it's hard to look at it from any angle other than how it compares to aquiring the same song elsewhere; whether it be online, a CD, or compared to other music games.

[NorrenRadd]

Do you mean guitar hero songs? I'm curious if Rock Band used a song that had been in guitar hero 1 or 2 would the note charts be the same?

I also would buy a song from another game simply because of the addition of vocals and drums

Yes I am talking about releasing GH I and II on Rock Band.

I would assume the note charts would be similar? Same guys made all of them, so I would think that even if they tried to make them different, they would still end up being similar via human nature.

There is plenty of more material for Rock Band to release than the Guitar Hero songs for sure.

[TheTogfather]

Oh, I heartily agree that we should have the option of buying songs individually. That kinda worries me w/ the full Album deal and the Metallica cereer spanning song pack or whatever it's gonna be. I don't even really care if it costs a bit more to buy them individually, I just want the option to do so. That would have solved the entire issue w/ the GH2 DLC...

[Grey_Street]

I would like to see it work as my one of my favorite liquor stores does. They provide the option for a 'build your own six pack', in which you can take any 6 beers from their wide array of choices and mix and match as you wish. I'd be much more inclined to buy a song pack if I got to fill them with the songs I wanted.

Say, an individual song is $2, but a six pack of songs is $10. Or a precompiled six pack is $8, but you can build your own for $10. Then if you happen to like the premade pack you can get an even greater discount.

[NorrenRadd]

I would like to see it work as my one of my favorite liquor stores does. They provide the option for a 'build your own six pack', in which you can take any 6 beers from their wide array of choices and mix and match as you wish. I'd be much more inclined to buy a song pack if I got to fill them with the songs I wanted.

Say, an individual song is $2, but a six pack of songs is $10. Or a precompiled six pack is $8, but you can build your own for $10. Then if you happen to like the premade pack you can get an even greater discount.

That's a great idea too. This functionality would have to be built by M$oft though.

[sushi111]

Ill just be happy if we can download individual songs from whole albums. I just want the interface to be clean and unconfusing. Like Itunes, except with 10 songs.

[Angry_Games]

I'm hoping it is just like it is for DDR...the songs are 100 points each or 800 points for 10-pack (ie $10 for the 10 song pack)

I'm one of those extremely angry customers that refuses to purchase GH DLC because of the insane price for a cover that has already had 90% of the work already done. It's rape though you can call it any name you want.

I'm hopeful that Harmonix is going to keep their word. I wouldn't mind paying $2 either for a brand new song that has guitar/bass/drum/vocals data as long as it is a master track, not a cover.

However I'd buy a LOT more (probably EVERY dang song that shows up as DLC) if they are only $1.25 each, or 10-for-$10.

[NorrenRadd]

However I'd buy a LOT more (probably EVERY dang song that shows up as DLC) if they are only $1.25 each, or 10-for-$10.

That's a very good point. I would likely buy every song at $1-$1.25.

On another note, my academic year 2007-2008 is shaping up to look very bad :(

[Batman2372]

It is unfortunate that, for all the complaints, the GH2 song packs have sold over 300,000 downloads. This sets a precedent that people are willing to not only pay a little over $2.00 for a rerelease of a cover from a previous game, but that they're also willing to be forced into bundles of a popular song with less popular ones to drive up more revenue.


You are aware that 300,000 downloads still was only a 15% attach rate. Maybe I'm naive, but I would want a better return on my investment.

[Keebler]

On another note, my academic year 2007-2008 is shaping up to look very bad :(

Ha, you're telling me. I have 3 friends at school that would play nothing but Guitar Hero and Wii on the weekends with me. We'll be lucky if we don't flunk out of school this year.

[Quastor]

Oh, I heartily agree that we should have the option of buying songs individually. That kinda worries me w/ the full Album deal and the Metallica cereer spanning song pack or whatever it's gonna be. I don't even really care if it costs a bit more to buy them individually, I just want the option to do so. That would have solved the entire issue w/ the GH2 DLC...

I worry about the feasibility of individual tracks. Don't get me wrong, I think this is absolutely needed, and I certainly like the idea of "create your own packs" that was suggested earlier in the thread. However, there's one thing that everything hinges on: Live.

Just thinking about the amount of content that could be offered and the way Live currently organizes in-game downloads, I think shopping for songs can quickly become a huge burden. What if I want to see all the songs available by a particular artist? Is there currently a way to search or filter Live's content this way? Not to my knowledge. What if a song is available as a single track at first, then later in an album/track pack. Will Live be able to tell I already bought the song as a single track, and only charge/download the songs I don't have from the album?

When I think about these potential situations, I honestly hope Harmonix has a custom solution that hooks into Live's payment system and API's (if there are any).

[Angry_Games]

I worry about the feasibility of individual tracks. Don't get me wrong, I think this is absolutely needed, and I certainly like the idea of "create your own packs" that was suggested earlier in the thread. However, there's one thing that everything hinges on: Live.

Just thinking about the amount of content that could be offered and the way Live currently organizes in-game downloads, I think shopping for songs can quickly become a huge burden. What if I want to see all the songs available by a particular artist? Is there currently a way to search or filter Live's content this way? Not to my knowledge. What if a song is available as a single track at first, then later in an album/track pack. Will Live be able to tell I already bought the song as a single track, and only charge/download the songs I don't have from the album?

When I think about these potential situations, I honestly hope Harmonix has a custom solution that hooks into Live's payment system and API's (if there are any).

hopefully they'll break down the DLC based on genre, like Live already does with games, game video, Video Marketplace, etc.

It would be a heck of a lot easier this way (though some would probably whine about this band or that band that was put in some genre instead of another...but people love to complain).

Go a step further and have the genres broken up into either decades, or maybe better yet, since full albums will be available, break them into sub-lists by band name.

Band name sub-listing might not be so great for bands that have say 1 or 2 excellent songs but nothing really else to offer (there's plenty of one-hit wonders I'd like to play lol), but for bands like Metallica, AC/DC, The Who, Beatles, whatever, it would be a cinch to sort through to buy what you want.

Maybe we could even buy songs individually, or create custom packs (if I want Metallica's Seek & Destroy, but nothing else, maybe $1.25-$2.00, but if I added it in with 9 other tunes, I'd get the pack discount)?

something something, I'm still thinking, something. heh.

[Sonofmogh]

The reason that there hasn't been much DLC on 360 is that Harmonix left the GH franchise to do Rock Band and now they don't want to put out DLC and waste time...Neversoft is busy working on GH3 so they don't want to waste time on DLC and Red Octane isn't a developer so they don't have anybody who can program DLC....so there. It isn't because "nobody bought their overpriced track packs" A lot of people did! over 300000 including myself.

[Grey_Street]

A lot of people did! over 300000 including myself.

Actually there wasn't 300,000 people that downloaded it. There were 300,000 downloads, which was probably and average of 3-4 downloads per person. Which is more like 75000 to 100,000 people...

[Sonofmogh]

Actually there wasn't 300,000 people that downloaded it. There were 300,000 downloads, which was probably and average of 3-4 downloads per person. Which is more like 75000 to 100,000 people... Ok, I'll buy that explaination...I really don't know.

[Brock_Landers]

I worry about the feasibility of individual tracks. Don't get me wrong, I think this is absolutely needed, and I certainly like the idea of "create your own packs" that was suggested earlier in the thread. However, there's one thing that everything hinges on: Live.

Just thinking about the amount of content that could be offered and the way Live currently organizes in-game downloads, I think shopping for songs can quickly become a huge burden. What if I want to see all the songs available by a particular artist? Is there currently a way to search or filter Live's content this way? Not to my knowledge. What if a song is available as a single track at first, then later in an album/track pack. Will Live be able to tell I already bought the song as a single track, and only charge/download the songs I don't have from the album?

When I think about these potential situations, I honestly hope Harmonix has a custom solution that hooks into Live's payment system and API's (if there are any).

Quote For Truth

It'd be nice if it could all be done from within RB somehow

[bchaps]

It will suck when Rock Band 2 comes out, if it does, for one reason. They will stop making downloadable songs once they start working on RB2

[StevoM]

I'm thinking of registering for the Playstation Network for the PS3 soon and I'm in the UK I got a question do you have to pay to get DLC in the PS Network or not because I've heard that extra games such as Calling All Cars and Gripshift are free would it be the same for Rock Band DLC Albums

[Quastor]

I'm thinking of registering for the Playstation Network for the PS3 soon and I'm in the UK I got a question do you have to pay to get DLC in the PS Network or not because I've heard that extra games such as Calling All Cars and Gripshift are free would it be the same for Rock Band DLC Albums

Then you've been lied to. The downloadable games on the PSN cost money just like they do on XBL.

As for in-game DLC, there hasn't been much on the PSN for in-game content, and much of it to my knowledge has been free. However, figuring that Harmonix will have licensing and development costs around putting out the new tracks and albums, plus having to deal with the RIAA, it's a pipe dream to think that they'll be offered for free.