New 360 Update Prepares for Rock Band and Guitar Hero III

[Xzyliac]

Brought to you by the guys that effed up my Kicked the Bucket acievement todays auto-update adds support for wireless guitars.

http://www.gametab.com/news/996441/

[Electric_Zen]

After all of the ruckus and misdirection about wireless guitars for Guitar Hero II, I guess it can finally be put to rest that the whole thing was Microsoft's fault. They had to do a system software update just to support the puppies.

[ThePaska]

This was posted already, its about two posts down from yours no less :p
http://www.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=2757

Yea its interesting, some peopel are speculating that this means that Rock Band will definately have wireless guitars on the 360. I'm still a bit skeptical however.

[Xzyliac]

Yeah I didn't see that til after the fact. With that title I couldn't have known. Whatever I just woke up so can't get all up tight yet. Too early.

[Apples]

I seriously doubt the only effect of the patch was guitar compatibility. Microsoft has a long-standing tradition of the "trojan horse" mentality in their 360 updates. (ie: undocumented and under-handed changes disguised as "improvments")

Initial reports of today's patch mention that the disc-reading functionality has been changed or tweaked... precisely what part of reading a DVD is anywhere near related to wireless guitar controllers?

[Eman311]

Major nelson has specifically said the ONLY reason for today's patch was for the wireless guitars on their way. where did you get that it was disc-drive related?

[Brad_Lee]

Just to note... Major Nelson links to the Guitar Hero III wireless guitar and not Rock Band.

[Eman311]

Yea, I personally didn't think this was any proof whatsoever towards a RB wireless 360 controller.

[PinkFloyd]

Major nelson has specifically said the ONLY reason for today's patch was for the wireless guitars on their way. where did you get that it was disc-drive related?

Major Nelson also said that the huge fees that had to be paid for GH2 DLC were the reason for the absurd pricing on those packages. Which makes no to little sense since they are a) covers, b) already paid for on PS2, c) downloading all GH1-songs would cost about 30 bucks more than the GH1-game.
So I'd take Major Nelson's word with a grain of salt the size of Kentucky.

[Keebler]

Major Nelson also said that the huge fees that had to be paid for GH2 DLC were the reason for the absurd pricing on those packages. Which makes no to little sense since they are a) covers, b) already paid for on PS2, c) downloading all GH1-songs would cost about 30 bucks more than the GH1-game.
So I'd take Major Nelson's word with a grain of salt the size of Kentucky.

It doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about... Whether or not a song is a cover or the master track really means nothing because the original artist still has to OK it and get paid - and in the end, it's usually the same amount. Furthermore, any contracts that were drawn up for original GH1 songs had to be revised, since the DLC allowed the songs to be playable on an additional system (meaning the original authors should have gotten paid again - they can't just have those covers recycled without their permission).

[PinkFloyd]

It doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about... Whether or not a song is a cover or the master track really means nothing because the original artist still has to OK it and get paid - and in the end, it's usually the same amount. Furthermore, any contracts that were drawn up for original GH1 songs had to be revised, since the DLC allowed the songs to be playable on an additional system (meaning the original authors should have gotten paid again - they can't just have those covers recycled without their permission).

Makes great sense and all, but still leaves out one big questionmark I pointed out in my original post. How come the DLC is more expensive (if you were to download all the songs) than the disc release of GH1?

They went for 500 point per 3 songs, right? Guitar Hero retailed for $60, without the guitar controller, with 64 songs. Fot math's sake, let's say they leave one out, just to keep up the 3 song packages. That's 21 packages we're talking about, aka 10500 points, aka $131,25. That's over twice the price you'd pay for Guitar Hero 1, especially when you take in account that a disc release also has shipping, manufacturing, printing, and all the other costs calculated in the consumer's price. I'm not well-informed enough to go into the specifics of that calculation, so I'll leave it at that.

Any way you spin it, that DLC-price was, is, and will be ridiculous.

Now I'm not saying that a company can't make a profit, I believe in capitalism every step of the way, but those prices were downright insulting.

[Magnet]

They went for 500 point per 3 songs, right? Guitar Hero retailed for $60, without the guitar controller, with 64 songs. Fot math's sake, let's say they leave one out, just to keep up the 3 song packages. That's 21 packages we're talking about, aka 10500 points, aka $131,25. That's over twice the price you'd pay for Guitar Hero 1, especially when you take in account that a disc release also has shipping, manufacturing, printing, and all the other costs calculated in the consumer's price. I'm not well-informed enough to go into the specifics of that calculation, so I'll leave it at that.

Whoa, whoa, whoa...

Your figures are insanely wrong. Guitar Hero retailed for $50 standalone. And it only came with 47 songs. Furthermore, 17 of those were bonus songs without any real licensing issues. That makes for 10 packs of three songs each since there's no evidence they're going to do any of the bonus songs (and if they did, licensing fees wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem so they're not really applicable - they could easily be priced lower since people might not bother to buy them otherwise). At about the $6.25 per pack rate, that's $62.50 for all of them. Yeah, overpriced, but nowhere near as bad as that $131.25 figure you created. And you're getting the extra bass/rhythm track for each song that wasn't playable in the first game as well.


How come the DLC is more expensive (if you were to download all the songs) than the disc release of GH1?

Well, factor in the additional licensing fees, work that went into adding an extra playable track to each of the songs, the simple fact that the Guitar Hero name is so powerful that many idiots will buy extra songs at stupidly high prices just to play more songs, and there you go. ;)