Rock Band Download Reach 12 Million!

[sidman69]

Song downloads for MTV Games and Harmonix's "Rock Band" — which allows gamers to thrash with friends both online and in-person on various faux instruments, including a drum set — recently passed the 12 million mark, according Paul DeGooyer, MTV senior vice president of electronic games and music.


Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080612/ap_on_hi_te/music_guitar_hero_effect_3

[TheCrimsonSaint]

Proof that Rock Band's DLC is obviously terrible:eek:.

[orange_black]

Proof that Rock Band's DLC is obviously terrible:eek:.

to the contrary... .imagine if it all kicked @ss!!!! :eek:

:)

[Apples]

It shows a good trend and justification to ramp up production, quantity, quality, etc.


The success of the concept is plainly visible now, but at little as six months ago the idea of weekly DLC was pretty much a black box.

[sidman69]

i have a feeling this week harmonix will redeem themselves, i'm thinking some classic stuff from stones.

[Abaddon]

This source of the info is new, but the info itself is a little old. This was actually stated well over a week ago in the Rock Band: Japan PR: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/878/878282p1.html.
Rock Band is a true music platform, with over 12 million songs sold as downloadable content since its initial release. There are currently over 140 songs available for download in the Rock Band Music Store and Harmonix continues to release new music every week.Also interesting to note that this one used the word sold while the new one uses downloaded.

[Abaddon]

It shows a good trend and justification to ramp up production, quantity, quality, etc.


The success of the concept is plainly visible now, but at little as six months ago the idea of weekly DLC was pretty much a black box.Do you remember when Harmonix said they were planning on over 200 DLC tracks in the first year and it seemed like a lot? Well, six months in, we are at 131 and the pace is increasing, and 200 doesn't seem like all that much. I think you have to take a step back and remember what it was like before Rock Band to truly appreciate just what Harmonix has done here.

[chico76]

I don't know... I'm a numbers guy...

3 million copies of the game sold
130+ songs available for DLC
12 million downloads reported

When you look at some averages, it doesn't actually speak to the DLC being some kind of life-altering success. I'm sure they've made money, which is really their ultimate goal, but I'd be less than impressed with these numbers.

4 song average per customer
92k downloads per song average

If I sold 3 million units of something and then went on to supplement it with something that only costs $1 or $2 each... I'd certainly hope for more than this...

I mean, seriously... if you had 3 million people in your customer base and you were only getting a 3% return on the supplemental product, would you call that a smashing success?

Don't flame me on this one. I know that not every person plays the game online. But haven't Microsoft and Sony both claimed to have tens of millions of registered users for their systems? I would be willing to wager that a majority of RB buyers are online... even if it's only half of them, that still only means a 6% return on the DLC from the overall customer base...

I've worked in industries where volume was key, and the volume here just doesn't speak to anything completely earth-shattering.

[Bosco32]

I've worked in industries where volume was key, and the volume here just doesn't speak to anything completely earth-shattering.

I think we'd need a lot more information that we would never be privvy to outside of the company.

Total Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware sales within the US don't seem to have reached 20M combined yet, so the number of users online is going to be a fraction of that number.

Additionally, we would need company goals or expectations, as well as industry expectations, and we certainly won't see that. The fact that Viacom would call out the number in an earnings statement leads me to believe they aren't far off those goals.

Those are just a couple of things we would need to know before we could determine the number to be mediocre or less.

[Apples]

I don't know... I'm a numbers guy...

3 million copies of the game sold
130+ songs available for DLC
12 million downloads reported

When you look at some averages, it doesn't actually speak to the DLC being some kind of life-altering success. I'm sure they've made money, which is really their ultimate goal, but I'd be less than impressed with these numbers.

4 song average per customer
92k downloads per song average

If I sold 3 million units of something and then went on to supplement it with something that only costs $1 or $2 each... I'd certainly hope for more than this...

I mean, seriously... if you had 3 million people in your customer base and you were only getting a 3% return on the supplemental product, would you call that a smashing success?

Don't flame me on this one. I know that not every person plays the game online. But haven't Microsoft and Sony both claimed to have tens of millions of registered users for their systems? I would be willing to wager that a majority of RB buyers are online... even if it's only half of them, that still only means a 6% return on the DLC from the overall customer base...

I've worked in industries where volume was key, and the volume here just doesn't speak to anything completely earth-shattering.

These are fair points.

However, your 3 million sales number around would seem to include certain demographics which would throw it askew. For example, the entire class of PS2 users without access to the download store. And a significant demographic who cannot or choose not to hook up their consoles to the internet. And a demographic of younger users who may not have financial means to participate.


For a relatively new and undefined distribution method, and a potentially niche market (next gen console users, with easy broadband access, and belonging to an age demographic with disposible income), I think the result is encouraging. (Though your analysis likely bears out there is still room for improvement.)

[Bukkethead]

I mean, seriously... if you had 3 million people in your customer base and you were only getting a 3% return on the supplemental product, would you call that a smashing success?

I think it's a matter of cost to produce over volume. If it took (disclaimer: numbers pulled out of somewhere I won't mention) say, $100k to chart the songs, and a "mere" 3% return was actually netting, say, $500k, it's still profit. Depending on how large the DLC team is, it's justified from a resources point of view.

[Han Daimond]

Rly?

Whenever I get online to play Band Quick Play I always, always, ALWAYS play with people who doesn't download anything, not even "Still Alive".

Oh! And they always select "Dani California", "Welcome Home" and "Enter Sandman". *sigh*

Lies, ALL LIES.

[Bosco32]

So I did some quick, very rough math. Mind you, math is evil and I recommend avoiding it like tomatoes.

But I took US hardware sales and worldwide XBL numbers (US-only not published) and found that (again, very roughly) ~7M XBOX owners probably subscribe to XBL. Now that doesn't take into account those who actually use it or did anything other than sign up for their silver membership. If you take that 63% and assign it to RB owners, that equals 1M or so.

Then I also assigned that number to PS3, since I am not diligent to uncover the actual numbers. That would put PS3 RB players online at around 400,000. Did I mention the unscientific nature of any of this?

So that leaves us with roughly 1.4M connected players in the US (which I'm guessing is where the DLC numbers are right now). That's about 8.5 songs per user.

Does that mean anything? Absolutely. It means I'm so against working right now that I resorted to math, and I personally find that horrifying. Otherwise, it just narrows the picture a little more.

It also comes closer to a 9% return, which in the world of add-on sales is actually quite good. Again, I don't know how this relates to the DLC model or the VG industry or HMX's goals.

disclaimer: My math is generally on the low side of poor, so at any point in this process I may have screwed something up terribly. Anyone else with Thursday afternoon fever should feel free to check and correct.

[Ragin_Caucasion]

Rly?

Whenever I get online to play Band Quick Play I always, always, ALWAYS play with people who doesn't download anything, not even "Still Alive".

Oh! And they always select "Dani California", "Welcome Home" and "Enter Sandman". *sigh*

Lies, ALL LIES.

Ya know, the number could maybe, just maybe, be skewed by the people who buy every DLC song and the 13-year olds whose parents won't let them buy songs for a game.

[jrinck]

12 million is great, but what I'd like to know is...

1. How many of those were the free song, Still Alive?

2. How many of the 3 million Rock Band bundles sold were PS2?

3. What is the average number of songs that each PS3/360 player has downloaded, NOT including Still Alive?

4. Do the $0.99 songs sell better than the $1.99 songs?

5. Are the actual bands aware that their songs are in the game as DLC? If so, do they know the download totals for each of their songs? How do they feel about this new way to market their music?

[R4di4ti0n]

whoo! HMX should throw us a PIZZA PARTY!!!

[jrinck]

whoo! HMX should throw us a PIZZA PARTY!!!

Or maybe a yearly convention, like Blizzard does for World of Warcraft.

Imagine...

"HARMONICON... Three Days of Debauchery and Music!" ;)

[Bearclaw]

Or maybe a yearly convention, like Blizzard does for World of Warcraft.

Imagine...

"HARMONICON... Three Days of Debauchery and Music!" ;)
That would be almost gasm worthy.

I can proudly say I've contributed to 80 of those downloads ^_^

[R4di4ti0n]

Or maybe a yearly convention, like Blizzard does for World of Warcraft.

Imagine...

"HARMONICON... Three Days of Debauchery and Music!" ;)

I'd go...dresses as HMXSean. Better start growing the mutton chops now, just in case...

[Apples]

whoo! HMX should throw us a PIZZA PARTY!!!

This is the first and most sensible comment I've read on the forums today!

[jrinck]

I'd go...dresses as HMXSean. Better start growing the mutton chops now, just in case...

And we can ALL be Bang Camaro! :)

[Bearclaw]

And we can ALL be Bang Camaro! :)

Congratulations sir, you have just won the thread. Please collect your prize over that cliff.

/obvious joke

[R4di4ti0n]

did my post get deleted? Do people not want people to know about the umpteen paternity suits the grouping of alcoholics collectively known as Bang Camaro has against them? OUTRAGE!

[jrinck]

Congratulations sir, you have just won the thread. Please collect your prize over that cliff.

/obvious joke

Now you tell me. :( Ouch.

[jrinck]

did my post get deleted? Do people not want people to know about the umpteen paternity suits the grouping of alcoholics collectively known as Bang Camaro has against them? OUTRAGE!

I used the term Sperm Rebellion. Maybe I unwittingly spoiled the name of their upcoming album? :confused:

[Samuel346]

Weren't claims of "12 million" made several weeks ago?

[Hysteria]

Looking at the Statosphere and realizing that the 100k songs do total more then 100k and that the chart only covers the Xbox360, but doing some quick addition on that, it seems to be less then 6mil of DLC has been downloaded. And that includes Stay Alive. Either the 12mil is really inflated or getting stats from the leaderboards is really inaccurate.

[R4di4ti0n]

Looking at the Statosphere and realizing that the 100k songs do total more then 100k and that the chart only covers the Xbox360, but doing some quick addition on that, it seems to be less then 6mil of DLC has been downloaded. And that includes Stay Alive. Either the 12mil is really inflated or getting stats from the leaderboards is really inaccurate.

me and 4 other people i know NEVER play guitar. Therefore, we wouldnt be ranked on the statosphere. There are also a ton of people who play DLC in quickplay only, and never ranked, and of course, lets not forgot that there are several songs with 100K+. I would guss its the latter, not the former.

The statosphere is good for following trends, not for exact numbers.

[Charron]

Looking at the Statosphere and realizing that the 100k songs do total more then 100k and that the chart only covers the Xbox360, but doing some quick addition on that, it seems to be less then 6mil of DLC has been downloaded. And that includes Stay Alive. Either the 12mil is really inflated or getting stats from the leaderboards is really inaccurate.

Getting stats from the leaderboards has been estimated at 30-35% inaccurate.

[Ragin_Caucasion]

Looking at the Statosphere and realizing that the 100k songs do total more then 100k and that the chart only covers the Xbox360, but doing some quick addition on that, it seems to be less then 6mil of DLC has been downloaded. And that includes Stay Alive. Either the 12mil is really inflated or getting stats from the leaderboards is really inaccurate.

The Stratosphere only accounts for guitar players on the 360 who are always connected to the internet to place on leaderboards that only go up to 100,000. Don't look too much into it.

[sandswipe]

I would totally go to Harmonicon. They could get all the HMX bands to perform, have a couple of Amplitude tournaments, where the winner gets to play Rock Band on stage with his band of choice. Special guests would include in game bands that DON'T work at HMX, like Coheed, Jimmy Buffett, or Pete Townshend. Everyone with over fifty songs downloaded gets in half price, everyone over a hundred songs gets in free.



Holy crap someone needs to start planning this thing RIGHT NAO.

[mazzy]

Looking at the Statosphere and realizing that the 100k songs do total more then 100k and that the chart only covers the Xbox360, but doing some quick addition on that, it seems to be less then 6mil of DLC has been downloaded. And that includes Stay Alive. Either the 12mil is really inflated or getting stats from the leaderboards is really inaccurate.

The stratosphere only counts rankings for people who play the songs on solo tours.... those who show up on the leader boards. I know that I have hardly played any of my songs on the solo tour.... I either play them on line in a group or with my group of friends who come over on Rock Band World Tour....

Read the disclaimer for stratosphere... it estimates that it is roughly 30-40% short of the actual number of sales. It is just a gauge to see what is selling well and what is not....

[mazzy]

Weren't claims of "12 million" made several weeks ago?

10 million was the last release, I believe.... but even if it was 12 million than that is probably what Yahoo is using for their story, but I think that 10 mil was the last that I heard.

[MrSquiggles]

Number really seams low. I bought 50 new song in the past month.