RB Makes Front Page of Wired

[Thrashdragon]

I didn't see this anywhere else, sorry if anyone else has posted it already:

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/15-10/mf_harmonix?currentPage=1

and

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/15-10/mf_harmonix_sb

both main stories on the front page of Wired.com. Nice exposure.

[Apples]

http://www.wired.com/imageviewer/?imagePath=/images/article/magazine/1510/mf_harmonix_f.jpg&imageCaption=Eran+Egozy%2C+Eric+Brosius%2C+Helen+M cWilliams%2C++Greg+LoPiccolo%2C+and+Alex+Rigopulos +%28from+left%29+demo+the+controllers+for+their++n ew+game%2C+%3Ccite%3ERock+Band%3C%2Fcite%3E.&imageCredit=Alyson+Aliano

Click on the first picture in the article. NOT a flattering picture for anyone involved. :D

Alex looks like he just sniffed rotten eggs. ;)

[Bakkster]

"The instruments are plastic facsimiles festooned with brightly colored buttons."

Where?

This is why I don't like Wired anymore, especially for game news. Otherwise, pretty interesting.

Edit: I love this quote:

It's also a completely new way to experience music. "I've always thought of the song ?Highway Star' as kind of a B, B+; it's just OK," Rigopulos says. "But then you're in the game, playing these crazy eighth-note bass lines, and it's like, holy **** this is fun! Those are the moments that I love."
Highway Star FTW!

And more ominously:

"They're reluctant to pay $20 for a CD that has one song they like. Now, with Rock Band, they'll be happy to pay a couple of bucks for a song they interact with repeatedly and get scored on their performance in."

[masterx1918]

awesome article as well as some nice screens of enter sandman being played and player creation

[Bakkster]

The game ships with a variety of clothing options, but Harmonix also plans to add an online store where virtual merchandise licensed from popular rocker clothing and accessory brands is sold for real money.

More ominous quotes. I hope they aren't skimping on options just to make them DLC. Only virtual clothing I'd pay real money for are Chuck Taylors.

Oh, and noting that the New York venue is Heebie Jeebie's, an obvious nod to CBGBs.

[Sons_of_Kyuss]

Nothing is making you buy the clothing available through DLC, and I doubt they will skimp on the options shipped with the CD. I don't really care anything at all about he visual representation of my musician in the game. I couldn't care less about that. It's all about the music, to me.

[TheTogfather]

Great article, some good stuff there. I'd glady play 2 bucks for a DLC song, as long as we have the option to buy seperately...then I'll pick and choose as desired, and I'll be likely to buy a lot of them at that price. Good to finally confirm they have other DLC ideas than songs, though dunno if I'll get into that or not...perhaps.

[Eman311]

2 bucks for one song is too steep for me, unless it's a song I absolutely love.

[ZkDotNet]

2 bucks for one song is too steep for me, unless it's a song I absolutely love.
I have a feeling it'll be close to that, except for maybe indie bands. Everyone complained about the GH2 DLC prices, but they still sold quite a bit... even though they were just either GH1 songs or MCR.

[monoxidehektik]

http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1510/mf_harmonix7_f.jpg

Enter Sandman!!!

[TheTogfather]

One of the sections of that article is about the instruments and has a real good close-up shot of all three together, with each feature labeled. It says to scroll over each label to find out more, but nothing is coming up for me...anyone getting it?

[mobhit101]

Definitely was a good read. Really cool pics of the character creation as well! Nice find!


---On a side note, I would gladly pay $2 for a Rock Band song. For GH it seemed a little steep but for Rock Band you're getting two more instruments to play on. I'm down for paying 2 bucks... gladly!

[sushi111]

Definitely was a good read. Really cool pics of the character creation as well! Nice find!


---On a side note, I would gladly pay $2 for a Rock Band song. For GH it seemed a little steep but for Rock Band you're getting two more instruments to play on. I'm down for paying 2 bucks... gladly!

Especially since we can choose the songs we want. $2 isnt too much at all.
Great article too.

[AVC808]

great read, thanks for the link.

[espher]

I was actually thinking about it yesterday, and $0.50/instrument is a decent price for the DLC.

[Brock_Landers]

More ominous quotes. I hope they aren't skimping on options just to make them DLC. Only virtual clothing I'd pay real money for are Chuck Taylors.


I'd buy more hairstyles.. as there never seem to be many I want included in any game's create-a-character.. probably more pre-made heads as well (depending what they're like), just to cut down the odds of being in a band where everyone has picked "awesome scarred face" or something :P

But I am a bit of a whore with character customization in games

[Phrank-E]

I have a feeling it'll be close to that, except for maybe indie bands. Everyone complained about the GH2 DLC prices, but they still sold quite a bit... even though they were just either GH1 songs or MCR.


Selling "quite a bit", and selling "assloads" are two different things. The more they charge the pickier people will be.

I would rather sell a million of something at 1 buck each, than 200,000 of something at 2 bucks each.

We'll see....

[Brock_Landers]

If only we could kick all the different company's lawyers, accountants, and egos involved in this process and have you take their place eh :D

Would make things so much simpler

[Redebo]

People buy assloads of songs from iTunes for 99 cents and all you can do is listen to those. You get to PLAY these!!!

[skeltonath]

http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1510/mf_harmonix13_f.jpg

Since we can put tattoos on our characters, do you think we'll be able to put Sean's on one of our virtual rockers?

[JimNasium]

Looks like the $200 price is confirmed. In other unfortunate news, "a couple of bucks" for a downloadable song :( Why can't companies figure out cheaper prices = more downloads? You guys are going to get some bad press with this (Like GH)

[sushi111]

Looks like the $200 price is confirmed. In other unfortunate news, "a couple of bucks" for a downloadable song :( Why can't companies figure out cheaper prices = more downloads? You guys are going to get some bad press with this (Like GH)


The main problem with GH2 was this:

- You could not download the songs you wanted individually
- It has less than half RBs note charts
- It doesnt have to have all the neato features like solo sections, lip sync, and all taht cool stuff Harmonix works oh so hard on.

[Magnet]

Also, one central problem with GH2 DLC was that it was all either old material from GH1 or My Chemical Romance. Rock Band's DLC is already featuring a pretty amazing line-up. I think people would be much more likely to pay $6 for 3 personally selected Metallica songs with 4 playable parts each than $6 for a set pack of certain My Chemical Romance songs with 2 playable parts.

Looking at the bigger picture, $2 per song is not that bad of a deal with Rock Band if they do the extensive DLC that they're planning. There may even be discounts for buying groups of songs together (paying $1.75 or $1.50 per song by buying a whole album would be awesome). Back in either June or July, I suggested in that stickied "How much should DLC songs cost?" topic that I thought the most fair price for a downloadable song in Rock Band would be $2 considering all licensing, work needed to put it in the game, and just how much you really get out of the song when you're playing it in all its dimensions. I don't think I was far off.