DLC Quick Comparison

[Electric_Zen]

Announced DLC songs before GH2 launch: 0

Announced DLC songs before GH3 launch: 0 (I guess 3 if you count that weak soundtrack promotion)

Announced DLC songs before Rock Band launch: At least 46

That's right. Harmonix has already confirmed more DLC tracks than main setlist tracks. And we are over a week from launch.

I think we can accept Harmonix's assurances that over the next year, they are going to have DLC under control.

[ThePaska]

Definitely, I can't wait to see how much more DLC ends up coming out. Rock Band is going to put a nice dent in my wallet if it keeps up with all these good DLC songs, especially if there are 100s of songs as promised.

[milkman4591]

Interesting article, kind of burns GH3 in the DLC category, who promised as much DLC as Rock Band.

[Eman311]

Yea that's pretty ridiculous

[Reaper0563]

and rockband is going to allow single song downloads for those in the track packs, which is awesome. Don't know if you guys know this but GH3 launched its first two track packs this week, a foo fighters track pack and a velvet revolver track pack. There was only one song in each that I liked The pretender and Slither . . . sounds like they're up to their old tricks alread :(

[xxjoesusxx]

personally, though i am a huge fan of the DLC, which will be turning our beloved rock band into an ever evolving itunes, i find that its damn rediculous that they already have this many songs planned, and didnt ship them on disc.

As much as dlc helps next gen games expand and stay fresh after release, its being taken too far. I hate when games (like Gears of War and Halo 3) are developed with DLC in mind. Gears of War had new maps being made for it during the development process, maps they could of included in game but waited to charge you for them.

If Harmonix has 45 more songs coming, why didnt they just include half of them on disc, and make the retail version more impressive ? i know some of them arent done yet, but some are...we all know Rockaway Beach by the Ramones is done and was at one point in the shipping game, why did they take that out ? So they could charge us for it later.

Thanks for the expansions harmonix, but seriously, its rediculous if you leave stuff out just to make us pay later !!!

[Reaper0563]

personally, though i am a huge fan of the DLC, which will be turning our beloved rock band into an ever evolving itunes, i find that its damn rediculous that they already have this many songs planned, and didnt ship them on disc.

As much as dlc helps next gen games expand and stay fresh after release, its being taken too far. I hate when games (like Gears of War and Halo 3) are developed with DLC in mind. Gears of War had new maps being made for it during the development process, maps they could of included in game but waited to charge you for them.

If Harmonix has 45 more songs coming, why didnt they just include half of them on disc, and make the retail version more impressive ? i know some of them arent done yet, but some are...we all know Rockaway Beach by the Ramones is done and was at one point in the shipping game, why did they take that out ? So they could charge us for it later.

Thanks for the expansions harmonix, but seriously, its rediculous if you leave stuff out just to make us pay later !!!

i know what you mean, but they probably couldn't put in any more masters without making the expense of the game go above their projected sales. That is the cost of masters. It's not a terrible thing either, while i don't hate all the dlc announced, i don't really want all of them either.

[MeleeMan]

i know what you mean, but they probably couldn't put in any more masters without making the expense of the game go above their projected sales. That is the cost of masters. It's not a terrible thing either, while i don't hate all the dlc announced, i don't really want all of them either.

According to Rock Band, I can't fear you so......




Sorry, I had to!

[Reaper0563]

According to Rock Band, I can't fear you so......




Sorry, I had to!

hehehe, thats my motto in my XBLive account

[tbradshaw]

i find that its damn rediculous that they already have this many songs planned, and didnt ship them on disc.

I think that it's primarily the royalty costs. With too many tracks on the main disk, the game itself would be too expensive.

Update: Yeah, what reaper said.

[Bakkster]

If Harmonix has 45 more songs coming, why didnt they just include half of them on disc, and make the retail version more impressive ?

Because they also make the game more expensive. This isn't like a map or something where the only cost is in development, the RB DLC costs the licensing fees as well. Sure, they could have had 150 songs on the disc, but then it would cost $200+ AND we wouldn't like a lot of the songs added (not everyone wants an entire Who album).

Besides, there are already more songs on the RB disc than the GH3 disc, and individual downloads. If you really want, then feel free to wait for the RB "Ultra Edition" with 100 songs, only 20 of which you like. I'll take my DLC, thank you very much.

[xxjoesusxx]

i understand that. But seriously, with certain songs already coded, charted, finished, before the game went gold, its wrong for them not to be in there, dlc is to EXPAND a game, you dont make the dlc before the game even comes out. In the case of who's next, this makes sense, but individual tracks, that doesnt make any sense, they are just trying to get more money.

i'm aware of license fee's, but im not talking a whole album, im talking the list of individual songs they already had completed before the game went gold. They've already payed those licensing fee's and finished the songs.

This is just a concern of mine in games to come. Guitar Hero 3 didnt have many songs and the dlc is way overpriced. Im worried that dlc is going to cause developers to leave good features out of games, and make you pay for them later after you've already bought the game. This game is freaking 170 dollars. That more than makes up for whatever licensing fee's are left from that last couple of individual songs. And dont start throwing the BS about the instruments, cuz they're plastic, mass produced, and do NOT cost 100 dollars to make. With how fast this game already sold out in pre-orders, and how much its still going to sell, harmonix does not have to worry about profits, it just seems wrong to leave finished content out of a game.

[BathTub]

We have no idea what DLC is ready to go, the only date we have is that Who's Next is supposed to be ready to go at launch.

Why does size never enter in to it? Couldn't it be that the DVD is essentially full?

Harmonix has stated what is in the game, and what price the game is, if you don't think the value is there, you don't buy it, it's that simple.

[Ultrace]

If Harmonix has 45 more songs coming, why didnt they just include half of them on disc, and make the retail version more impressive ? i know some of them arent done yet, but some are...we all know Rockaway Beach by the Ramones is done and was at one point in the shipping game, why did they take that out ? So they could charge us for it later.

Thanks for the expansions harmonix, but seriously, its rediculous if you leave stuff out just to make us pay later !!!
A) A lot of the announced DLC is from artists already in the game. I like that the game (much like the GH games before it) only ships with one song from any given group. That way if I want more than one song from that group, I can choose it.

B) If you consider Rock Band to be worth the purchase with the 45+13 songs that ship with it, then this is an invalid argument. Of course they can always include more to begin with. The same goes for any media you see--CDs, movies, games, etc. The important point is whether what they are shipping is worth the asking cost. If it is, then this isn't a concern.

C) They took Rockaway Beach out in favor of a different Ramones song. See A above. And no one is making you pay for anything later. You make a choice (voluntary) to expand the initial game which, even on its own merits, sports a pretty impressive array of songs.

As you might have guessed, I don't have a problem with this DLC strategy, especially since there are a lot of really good songs in the initial release of the game. Now if Highway Star, Foreplay/Long Time, Won't Get Fooled Again, Don't Fear the Reaper, etc. were all DLC instead of with the game, then yes, there would be a definite problem here. As it stands, the game offers plenty, and you can go for more at your own pace. :)

[xxjoesusxx]

im getting flamed...ouch.

but you guys are missing the main point of my argument, which is not against rock band exactly, but more-so against dlc.

My argument is that i just have a concern that developers are going to take advantage of it, in a bad way. Games already cost alot, think about the 70 dollars you spent on GOW and then the extra money thrown into the new maps that you cant play ranked games without.

[nicko68]

Guitar Hero 3 didnt have many songs

Huh? GHIII has more songs than GH and GHII.

[xxjoesusxx]

my bad, i forgot all about the bonus tracks...i didnt find any of them really worth playing

[MrNazraq]

i understand that. But seriously, with certain songs already coded, charted, finished, before the game went gold, its wrong for them not to be in there, dlc is to EXPAND a game, you dont make the dlc before the game even comes out. In the case of who's next, this makes sense, but individual tracks, that doesnt make any sense, they are just trying to get more money.

Isn't that why a corporation goes ahead and makes a game, or anything else, for that matter? Do you think the casinos in Las Vegas are there just to hand out billions upon billions of dollars a day? There has to be something in it for the corporation. Sad to say, but they aren't going to do it for free.

I understand why you think they're just trying to rip us off (which, in part, they may be), but you have to give them something for their effort.

Take the case of the music industry in China. I lived there for 5 years. Music CD's cost, literally, 50 cents. Movie DVDs and video games cost $1. No kidding. They're all pirated. You can't find any legal copies of music or movies anywhere in the country.

Do you think there are record labels willing to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to sell a record in China? How much money do you think musicians make if they put out an album? They make movies and music for the pure fun of it, and they get paid crap, if anything at all. China's film and music industries are seriously crippled because of this. ALL of their great movie directors (Zhang YiMou, Chen KaiGe,...), actors (Jet Li, Zhang ZiYi,...), and musicians have to move abroad if they have ANY hope of at least eke-ing (sp?) out a living with their skills.

When I first got to China, I was so stoked that I bought up as many CDs and DVDs as I could. Then I noticed how few famous Chinese musicians there were, aside from Hong Kong and Taiwan (since they have copyright protection in place). I now understand why it's so important to give royalties and licensing fees and be able to make money off of your work. Otherwise, there's just no progress with anything, and great musicians end up being waiters or taxi drivers for the rest of their lives.

Give credit where credit is due. In this case, credit in the form of money.

[King_Nuthin]

I will admit that I do kind of wish that some of the bands announced as DLC that aren't in the retail package at all would have made the retail package, but by the same token I am extremely glad that there are no repeats on the retail disc but we have that option if we want it. I'm all for keeping the initial cost down and then basing further purchases on how much it costs and how much I like the song.

[undertow]

As Ultrace put it, which you seem to be ignoring or didn't read in full... do you believe that the 58 total songs in Rock Band along with the Guitar, Drums and Mic and add on top of that the Deep Career Mode, Online Play, Single Tour, etc we are getting is worth $169.99? ... or $149.99 if you buy it at Sams Club?

If the answer is no, then of course your argument can stand.

If the answer is yes, then the DLC makes sense, because any additional song they would add would only increase the price of the retail disc. It's much better have a retail disc priced agressively for the general public and those who can/want to afford the additional songs, expansion packs, add-ons can do so through DLC.

I can't help but presume the only reason you're even bringing this up, is because you are stretching yourself to afford Rock Band alone. Which I can understand some people are not of age, or do not have jobs, but you must look at it from a companies stand point and not a personal desire. Lastly, you cannot expect the Game to revolve around your current financial state. If Rock Band and it's DLC is too expensive for you, save and wait.

As for the songs already being ready, this is a smart company move and one you should applaud and not question. Would you rather them wait to see if enough people are interested in Rock Band and then decide to begin creating songs?

If this were the case, news songs may not come for 2-3 or more months after release. Additionally, if they felt the game wasn't popular enough, they may not even make additional songs for it and suppose you were one of the few who really wanted new songs, but they thought the game wasn't popular enough, you'd be assed out because of their decision to not make any songs.

[battle_axe_of_doom]

just saw the new DLC packs that were announced and all i have to say is

sabbath + bowie + qotsa = rapage of the universe

though some more rush would have made me a little happier :)

[TreoRock_]

Some of you are acting like jerks. Hey, HMX told us how many songs we were going to get with the game. Now, why are you guys are making such a big deal of the annonched DLC??? They are just telling us what is coming on DLC so that we know what we should expect. Now, you are asking HMX to include everything they could possible have in the same game fro $179. So if they start saying that they will be getting all the Beatle albums on DLC are you going to demand HMX include them on the same disc????

[Chris_Gonzalez]

Some of you are acting like jerks. Hey, HMX told us how many songs we were going to get with the game. Now, why are you guys are making such a big deal of the annonched DLC??? They are just telling us what is coming on DLC so that we know what we should expect. Now, you are asking HMX to include everything they could possible have in the same game fro $179. So if they start saying that they will be getting all the Beatle albums on DLC are you going to demand HMX include them on the same disc????

Yo, dude, calm down. They mean that because GH3 had 70 songs on disc, why couldn't Rock Band use some of what is now DLC to be put on disc to match GH3's 70 songs? But it doesn't really matter now, because they're not on disc and they will be for DLC and we will have to pay for them, so no use arguing over it.

[visualdeity]

Interesting article, kind of burns GH3 in the DLC category, who promised as much DLC as Rock Band.

I don't think it's fair to say that, especially because we have no idea what Harmonix's release schedule for DLC is like. For all we know, GH3 has just as much planned, but they haven't announced it yet (as far as I know, they didn't announce the DLC they've already put up ahead of time). This in no way diminishes from Rock Band's awesome DLC, we just have to be fair here, and not draw conclusions without necessarily knowing all the factors.

[Chris_Gonzalez]

We know there'll be new DLC every week. Just not <i>which</i> DLC every week.

[visualdeity]

We know there'll be new DLC every week. Just not <i>which</i> DLC every week.

Precisely my point. Odds are, it'll probably average out to something like 5 or 6 songs, or more, each week. But knowing that we'll see some new stuff each week doesn't tell us a whole lot, since for all we know, it'll be one song every week (obviously I have more faith in Harmonix than this, but it *is* possible given the "new DLC every week" promise, and nothing more).

I just hope they release all the stuff I want first! The rest of you can wait! ;)

[Patch_]

Here's the number 1 thing about DLC.

People want DLC but complain about it when it's announced. Like this
1. Lets say 3 weeks went by without a word of DLC, people would complain because it was said that we'd get weekly DLC.
2. They announce songs 2 weeks before release people complain because it should have been on disc.

Myself I'm happy with what we're getting, 58 songs, drums, guitar, mic for $169.99
DLC every week or every 2 weeks will also be great and worth the money to get new songs for rock band. They really couldn't put 80 something songs on the disc and have the gear all for 169.99
I do understand the point of view but I just don't agree with it.

[Bakkster]

Precisely my point. Odds are, it'll probably average out to something like 5 or 6 songs, or more, each week. But knowing that we'll see some new stuff each week doesn't tell us a whole lot, since for all we know, it'll be one song every week (obviously I have more faith in Harmonix than this, but it *is* possible given the "new DLC every week" promise, and nothing more).

It was also promised we would have "hundreds" of songs within the first year. I expect we will see multiple songs every week.

[Patch_]

It was also promised we would have "hundreds" of songs within the first year. I expect we will see multiple songs every week.

Hundreds ? Wow, I had no idea that was said, that's some great news, hard to believe but good news.

[Bakkster]

Hundreds ? Wow, I had no idea that was said, that's some great news, hard to believe but good news.

Well, considering they have 50+ in the first few months, if they keep that kate they'll easily hit 100.

[visualdeity]

It was also promised we would have "hundreds" of songs within the first year. I expect we will see multiple songs every week.

Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt it. I'm playing devil's advocate here, and pointing out that a) we know nothing about what GH3 has lined up, and b) tons of DLC announced for Rock Band doesn't mean that all those will be available right away.

I do actually fully expect a good number of songs for download each week, averaging out to probably 5 or 6 songs a week, if not more (some weeks are bound to be slow weeks, after all).

[battle_axe_of_doom]

Hundreds ? Wow, I had no idea that was said, that's some great news, hard to believe but good news.

i hope your avy loses after throwing 4 INTs :)

[JohnnyFAS]

personally, though i am a huge fan of the DLC, which will be turning our beloved rock band into an ever evolving itunes, i find that its damn rediculous that they already have this many songs planned, and didnt ship them on disc.

As much as dlc helps next gen games expand and stay fresh after release, its being taken too far. I hate when games (like Gears of War and Halo 3) are developed with DLC in mind. Gears of War had new maps being made for it during the development process, maps they could of included in game but waited to charge you for them.

If Harmonix has 45 more songs coming, why didnt they just include half of them on disc, and make the retail version more impressive ? i know some of them arent done yet, but some are...we all know Rockaway Beach by the Ramones is done and was at one point in the shipping game, why did they take that out ? So they could charge us for it later.

Thanks for the expansions harmonix, but seriously, its rediculous if you leave stuff out just to make us pay later !!!

Well, they wouldn't want to put two tracks from the Ramones on the disk. Blitzkrieg Bop is more well known, so it is more likely to sell disks.

[jq71586]

Rock Band DLC wins for two main reasons.

Full Album downloads. The Who FTW!

But, here is the main reason, you can buy individual songs. I don't care having to pay $2 (roughly) for a song for Rock Band when I'm FORCED to buy a three song pack from GH3 for $6.25 Those packs are always made to make you want one song and to settle for the other two.

Thats why Rock Band wins.

[fried_blowney]

Rock Band DLC wins for two main reasons.

Full Album downloads. The Who FTW!

But, here is the main reason, you can buy individual songs. I don't care having to pay $2 (roughly) for a song for Rock Band when I'm FORCED to buy a three song pack from GH3 for $6.25 Those packs are always made to make you want one song and to settle for the other two.

Thats why Rock Band wins.

Quoted for Truth.