Why only 1 song pack (DLC) a week?

[LZ_Reborn]

Surely you can do better HMX! or whoever is in charge of DLC. I'm not complaining about the choices for DLC, but the small amount of them. I mean when RB launched there was over 15 songs available for DLC. So I thought: "Hey if this is what I can expect each week, it's gona be awsome!" but the subsequent weeks have been a different story.

I remember in at least one interview, Alex Rigopoulos mentioned that "by next year (2008) there would literally hundreds of songs avialable for DLC" but at this rate (3 songs a week) I'm intrigued to see how you are gona pull that off.

Of course if this only the begining, and in the next weeks we will see more and more songs released at one time, than everythings cool. I just hope that you are able to confirm that now.

[Abaddon]

Surely you can do better HMX! or whoever is in charge of DLC. I'm not complaining about the choices for DLC, but the small amount of them. I mean when RB launched there was over 15 songs available for DLC. So I thought: "Hey if this is what I can expect each week, it's gona be awsome!" but the subsequent weeks have been a different story.I think it likely takes a lot of work to create new song charts, playtest them, fine-tune them, etc, to make sure they are of a quality level at least the same as those included with the game. The reason there were so many at launch? Most likely because they didn't narrow down their setlist until late in development, and the songs that got cut from the disc were the initial DLC.

I'd much rather have a smaller number of DLC songs of the consistent high quality they are hitting (IMHO) then have them rush out more stuff. Imagine how big the library will get when they start doing the whole album releases! It gives me shivers :-)

[Ultrace]

3 songs per week is 156 songs per year... Toss in entire albums which will eventually be available for download and it's quite likely that even with the current schedule there will be 200 songs available by the end of 2008.

I'm fine with the current schedule and pacing. Perhaps because I'm comparing it to the competition. RB has released as much downloadable content for one game in a month and a half as all of the GH games combined have in eight months... And with better selections, at a lower price.

The current pacing is definitely adequate, although I do expect it to speed up in the future. The mantra should definitely continue to be quality over quantity, however. I'll take three quality charted songs any week over ten shoddy ones, regardless of what the songs themselves are.

[Loozinit]

I'd much rather have a smaller number of DLC songs of the consistent high quality they are hitting (IMHO) then have them rush out more stuff. Imagine how big the library will get when they start doing the whole album releases! It gives me shivers :-)
exactly.....

[SoulScreme]

Wow, this is inane. I am irked by many things about Harmonix right now, but this is ridiculous. What other game has new DLC every week? The fact that they've stuck to the weekly DCL is amazing and much appreciated.

[MF-PO'd]

1 song pack a week is still a crapload more than GH3 is offering.

[evilzom]

Christ!

some people are just impossible to please... shut the ever-living **** up... 1 DLC pack a week is a huge gift.

[LZ_Reborn]

1 song pack a week is still a crapload more than GH3 is offering.

Agreed, and that's one of the reasons I don't have GH3.

But what I am trying to say is, that if we ever gona have many of the bands that we want to see available for RB, then HMX needs to pick up the pace, I know something like this is a big task but for example I work for a big manufacturing company and I am in the production planning department, and when the customer demand is high, we allocate the proper resources (manpower, equipment, etc.) to meet that demand. I'm sure HMX can do the same.

[ThePaska]

1 song pack a week is still a crapload more than GH3 is offering.

Very true.

I also think you can expect certain weeks like the first week with about 15 songs being released and in between those there will be 3 song packs released most every week. I have a feeling next year we will see an increase in the songs released as well. Along with many full albums.

I mean they have promised us hundreds of songs, so that means there are going to have to be weeks where there are more than 3 songs released.

I'm very pleased with how it has been so far, I just hope they keep it up!

[LZ_Reborn]

Christ!

some people are just impossible to please... shut the ever-living **** up... 1 DLC pack a week is a huge gift.

Why should we (the customers) shut up!?? It's a legitimate request. HMX is commited to their customers, and I'm certain that suggestions like these never go unnoticed.

[Grey_Street]

Christ!

some people are just impossible to please... shut the ever-living **** up... 1 DLC pack a week is a huge gift.

It's not a gift...we pay for them ;)

I agree w/ the original poster to a point. I was nearly decapitated for posting something similar. And, I don't think it's that either of us think what they are putting out isn't impressive or revolutionary. It just doesn't quite live up to the hype just yet. I have confidence that it will pick up soon, but it is a little discouraging that we haven't heard when album releases are coming since Who's Next was originally going to be released w/in 1 week of launch. I just hope that their plans aren't having trouble coming to friution for some reason or another.

[zerogeo3]

Why should we (the customers) shut up!?? It's a legitimate request. HMX is commited to their customers, and I'm certain that suggestions like these never go unnoticed.

Yea but most of us relize that DLC even 3 songs a week, is alot more than what us the customer base is used to. It is huge they are going this far this fast with the DLC they are releasing. I swear, people are so friken demanding over the smallest things. Be happy with what you are getting as a certain other game, besides 2 DLC packs has offerd 1 download for the PS3 and one for the 360, since its release. 3 songs a week, and they are good DLC packs to boot. I will take that anyday. So maybe you could look at it as the glass is half full and not half empty...:D:eek:

[terRize]

I like the one pack a week.

Spending 5.50 a week on DLC is easy to justify, for me. If they started putting out 2 or 3 packs a week however, I'd have to start deciding between packs. As it is, I'll download whatever they throw out there just to play it and if they occasionally do 2 packs or so I'll make an exception for those rare occurrences.

My 2 cents worth =)

[Ultrace]

And, I don't think it's that either of us think what they are putting out isn't impressive or revolutionary. It just doesn't quite live up to the hype just yet. I have confidence that it will pick up soon, but it is a little discouraging that we haven't heard when album releases are coming since Who's Next was originally going to be released w/in 1 week of launch.
I admit I'm still awaiting news on the albums as well, especially since I think there was an indication that Who's Next would be available at launch or shortly thereafter.

But so far, the DLC absolutely lives up to the hype. I don't think there's another game out there that has as much DLC already available and scheduled as RB, which hasn't even been out for a month (Don't know where I got my month and a half from earlier)--it is impressive and revolutionary as you put it. No one said or even hinted that there would be hundreds of songs available in three weeks. What we have so far absolutely lives up to the hype as far as I can tell, especially with the choice selection of songs available... (Anyone up for measly Foo Fighters and Velvet Revolver 3-packs?)

[logicalnoise]

It's not a gift...we pay for them ;)

I agree w/ the original poster to a point. I was nearly decapitated for posting something similar. And, I don't think it's that either of us think what they are putting out isn't impressive or revolutionary. It just doesn't quite live up to the hype just yet. I have confidence that it will pick up soon, but it is a little discouraging that we haven't heard when album releases are coming since Who's Next was originally going to be released w/in 1 week of launch. I just hope that their plans aren't having trouble coming to friution for some reason or another.

well what happened when oliver asked for some more? he he got lol'd by the entire orphanage and pimp smacked for his trouble. History repeats itself.....jk

in seriousness I'd say it has to do with the 2 launches they've had to prepare for. The scedule only goes to dec.18th and it's very likely that we'll ahve some big news around then.

[LZ_Reborn]

I like the one pack a week.

Spending 5.50 a week on DLC is easy to justify, for me. If they started putting out 2 or 3 packs a week however, I'd have to start deciding between packs. As it is, I'll download whatever they throw out there just to play it and if they occasionally do 2 packs or so I'll make an exception for those rare occurrences.

My 2 cents worth =)

Yes!! Yes!!! that's what I am saying, this is about having options to choose from, that's all nothing more.

I'm not being ungrateful of HMX's effort so far. But like someone said, this stuff aint free! and I am willing to pay for extra DLC, there's money to be made here, so why not put out more songs, right?

[Superfro]

I like the one pack a week.

Spending 5.50 a week on DLC is easy to justify, for me. If they started putting out 2 or 3 packs a week however, I'd have to start deciding between packs. As it is, I'll download whatever they throw out there just to play it and if they occasionally do 2 packs or so I'll make an exception for those rare occurrences.

My 2 cents worth =)

Exactly. And this has to be one of the biggest points. A lot of stuff would get lost in the shuffle if they put out 200 songs at once. The 1 pack a week (occasionally probably more) method seems the smartest to me on many different levels.

[SpikeX]

Yeah, guys... I don't think you realize how much hard work is put into hand-making these note charts (x4). New stuff every week is AMAZING considering the amount of work that's put into it. Think about it... $2.00 per song, right? Now, you have to pay Harmonix for making the note charts, testing it, and reeasing it, Sony might want royalties in every purchase, and EA might possibly want some, too. That's spread out pretty thinly IMO.

They really can't go any faster. Once a week is plenty fine. Stop being impatient demanding bastards. :P

[tmanrocks]

1 pack a week is fine I guess I mean its way better than GH3 is doing (Whats their rate now? 1 pack every ... 2 months? lol)

But they need to stop making crap decisions on what should be DLC

So far they have released about 90% old songs and most of them are covers

I donno about the rest of you but I don't want anymore covers of 20 year old songs as DLC

I went ahead and bought the black sabbath pack and I gotta say that was a waste of money

I would also call the QOTSA pack a waste of money... they are one of the most boring/dull modern bands out there

So far the only DLC I think was even truly worth a single cent is the Metallica pack and the wolfmother song

Black sabbath pack = Mediocre fun on every instrument

QOTSA pack = Boring guitar , and frustratingly stupid patterned drums that aren't fun

Everything else = I can tell by listening to it that it would suck ass and be a waste of money

MAKE BETTER DLC DAMMIT >:O (No more songs that are instrumentally uninteresting)
(No more covers)

Kthxbai

[Eagoyle]

Yeah, guys... I don't think you realize how much hard work is put into hand-making these note charts (x4). New stuff every week is AMAZING considering the amount of work that's put into it. Think about it... $2.00 per song, right? Now, you have to pay Harmonix for making the note charts, testing it, and reeasing it, Sony might want royalties in every purchase, and EA might possibly want some, too. That's spread out pretty thinly IMO.

They really can't go any faster. Once a week is plenty fine. Stop being impatient demanding bastards. :P

Really the lack of DLC falls completely on the shoulders of God. If t would have taken him more than 6 days, or if he would have rested more than 1, to make everything, then we would probably be seeing more DLC per week. Unfortunately, there is only so much time in a week, and all of these people have lives outside of work.

[LZ_Reborn]

Yeah, guys... I don't think you realize how much hard work is put into hand-making these note charts (x4). New stuff every week is AMAZING considering the amount of work that's put into it. Think about it... $2.00 per song, right? Now, you have to pay Harmonix for making the note charts, testing it, and reeasing it, Sony might want royalties in every purchase, and EA might possibly want some, too. That's spread out pretty thinly IMO.

They really can't go any faster. Once a week is plenty fine. Stop being impatient demanding bastards. :P

Yeah sure when you put it that way, but how many downloads do you think "Ride the lighting" has had so far (on both PSN and Xbox Live) since RB launched??! ;)

[Apples]

Personally I am overwhelmed with things to try between 3 different personal careers, BWT, online quickplay, and the songs I already have downloaded.

I think the pace is reasonable... can't have people OD'ing on awesome.

I'd rather see consistency and regularity than "too much at once" and then a drought.

[turnthree]

Just imagine if "they" had itunes like downloading. Just go to a site/marketplace, pick almost any song you could think and boom, ya got it. I'm not expecting or asking for that and I'm happy with the DLC's so far except that terrible CCR cover.

[ThePaska]

Personally I am overwhelmed with things to try between 3 different personal careers, BWT, online quickplay, and the songs I already have downloaded.

I think the pace is reasonable... can't have people OD'ing on awesome.

I'd rather see consistency and regularity than "too much at once" and then a drought.

Going along with that, it would probably be more reasonable to assume that this is the case for most people. This will most likely mean that as we get further away from the release date and people become more accomplished in the game and are looking for more and more to do, DLC will become a more prominent feature, supplying us with more songs than just 3 a week.

[terRize]

Personally I am overwhelmed with things to try between 3 different personal careers, BWT, online quickplay, and the songs I already have downloaded.

I think the pace is reasonable... can't have people OD'ing on awesome.

I'd rather see consistency and regularity than "too much at once" and then a drought.

Completely agree.

With each song there are 3 things to do in solo, and then all those plus bass in multiplayer. That's a lot of playability for 2 dollars, imo. Also, a lot of effort by developers to make sure all 4 of those aspects are right (not to mention all the other work goes into each track probably).

Plus, I much prefer a constant steady flow of DLC as it will keep me interested and thinking about the game. Whereas if it came out once a month, for example, I'd download it, play it and then set it aside until the next month. That's just how I am, not saying anyone else would do that.

Really looking forward to full album downloads. If we could get a pack a week and an album a month (or every other month) that would keep me satisfied and constantly interested.

[Grey_Street]

Going along with that, it would probably be more reasonable to assume that this is the case for most people. This will most likely mean that as we get further away from the release date and people become more accomplished in the game and are looking for more and more to do, DLC will become a more prominent feature, supplying us with more songs than just 3 a week.

This is a pretty good assumption I think. It certainly makes sense. Again, I don't think that what they are putting out is in anyway bad, it just seems like it will be difficult to reach the "hundreds" in a year at the pace of 3/week. Should it? Maybe not, but that's what was said and I don't see a problem pointing out that it may be overestimated...then it is a very short time after release and w/ some launch issues it's likely we are just seing the begining :)

[bl4ckfl4g]

Harmonix, ignore this dumb request, please.


The note charts for the dlc released thus far has been excellent. Please stick with whatever you are doin.

[DesiredFX]

If I'm Harmonix, most of my resources right now are not tied up in DLC but in making sure customers are satisfied and will continue to be satisfied with my software.

What we know right now is that between the initial release date and December 18th (20th for PS3)--just a month--there will be 27 additional songs for the game--that's almost exactly a song a day.

Obviously they intend to do a lot more--between the actual announced albums and packs (Who's Next, Nevermind, unspecified Metallica album, and 18 Grateful Dead tracks), we're already looking at somewhere around 50 more promised tracks.

The rate at which the DLC is coming out is fine, especially with all the other stuff that's up in the air about the game right now. Let Harmonix put the release issues behind them first.

[Bakkster]

The announced DLC (27 tracks) is scheduled over 5 weeks, coming out to about 5 songs per week. If people give HMX more than a month (where they're busy fixing compatibility issues and bugs) to release DLC, I think they will see the pace increase.


So far they have released about 90% old songs and most of them are covers

I donno about the rest of you but I don't want anymore covers of 20 year old songs as DLC

I went ahead and bought the black sabbath pack and I gotta say that was a waste of money

Yeah, I love the classic rock. Them being covers is unavoidalbe, and I'd rather have my War Pigs cover than no War Pigs at all :D


I think the pace is reasonable... can't have people OD'ing on awesome.

I'd rather see consistency and regularity than "too much at once" and then a drought.

QFT. I'm already trying to slow down on my DLC...

[evilzom]

So would you all be willing to pay higher prices for DLC to cover an increase in acquired resources to fulfill this request? whether it be putting more people on the project or whatever?

I doubt it...

Do peolpe ever think of this stuff before they start throwing around requests like this? nope.

cuz 99% of the gaming population is too young to have even gotten a taste of the business decision side of any business...

they just want what they want, exactly how they want it, with very little compromise.

Im 100% satisfied in the proposed DLC schedule... A very aggressive schedule that is just more than talk like we got from RedOctane... Harmonix has stayed true to the schedule they showed us so far...

[ShepardNiks]

It would imagine that with all the broken sets, and ****ed guitars that dont work, and then not being able to play on gh3 with the rock band control and all that **** that they have ****ed up on that they have to stop the leek of money they are loosing, so they have put the dlc on the back burner so they can get a decent game out first. Honestly i have never seen such a cluster **** of a release on a game which really is a shame because the idea is amazing and the execution was great, but how they ****ed over canada, and well europe always gets the shaft i guess, but they should have delayed everyone and make sure they had a solid product before they shipped. I wonder if this has turned anyone off of the rock band game and any further releases from Harmonix and MTV.

[Bakkster]

cuz 99% of the gaming population is too young to have even gotten a taste of the business decision side of any business...

Not really. Most of the senior members here are adults. It's also true of the general gamer population (google the statistics).

It's just that the majority who hang around on forums to complain are young.

[BathTub]

It would imagine that with all the broken sets, and ****ed guitars that dont work, and then not being able to play on gh3 with the rock band control and all that **** that they have ****ed up on that they have to stop the leek of money they are loosing, so they have put the dlc on the back burner so they can get a decent game out first. Honestly i have never seen such a cluster **** of a release on a game which really is a shame because the idea is amazing and the execution was great, but how they ****ed over canada, and well europe always gets the shaft i guess, but they should have delayed everyone and make sure they had a solid product before they shipped. I wonder if this has turned anyone off of the rock band game and any further releases from Harmonix and MTV.

Because the people manufacturing the guitars in china are the same ones coding the DLC right?

[pmpboarder]

RB has released as much downloadable content for one game in a month and a half as all of the GH games combined have in eight months.

A month and a half? This game came out 17 days ago, dude. That's barely over half a month! (Which is probably what you meant, I just like things being clarified.) And this even better proves your point, with which I agree. :)

EDIT: Oops, sorry. You already caught it. My apologies.