Song link to Xbox.com not working

[cwilbur]

No one on the Creator's side is happy about the decision either really. I wish they'd change their mind, but it doesn't look very likely.

If at all possible, I'd suggest they should set it up so the demos become available on the marketplace. I don't think I've EVER downloaded a demo through the in-game store, and I doubt I'm alone. I've also almost never downloaded an RBN song without playing the demo first (hell, I wish regular DLC had the demos). I don't think I'm representative of a large portion of the RBN buyers, but I also doubt I'm unique.

I hope when the HMX rep on Creators says they have "numbers [that] show that only a small percentage of songs are purchased through the website" they mean they have numbers that represent sales through the xbox live marketplace vs. in-game, not in-game vs. just rockband.com. I've definitely never bought an RBN song after following a link from this site. I'd hate to think they're using the latter metric to decide to shut down access for the people who buy through links from rbnreleases (or even dlcquickplay, which I've done as well).

[HMXMister_Game]

I hope when the HMX rep on Creators says they have "numbers [that] show that only a small percentage of songs are purchased through the website" they mean they have numbers that represent sales through the xbox live marketplace vs. in-game, not in-game vs. just rockband.com. I've definitely never bought an RBN song after following a link from this site. I'd hate to think they're using the latter metric to decide to shut down access for the people who buy through links from rbnreleases (or even dlcquickplay, which I've done as well).

Sales via the xbox.com marketplace, whether you get the link from error420, rockband.com, or someplace else, all count the same in our stats. And when you combine ALL the sales via both the xbox dashboard (yes, some people did that for RBN1!) and web sales together they aren't really a very significant percentage. Dare I say that it's everyone here on this forum, and a few of their close friends?

I do understand your frustration. Any time that functionality is taken away I know it seems arbitrary. As we've stated before this is actually the intended functionality for the songs, and it was really just a bug that allowed the links to be available for RBN1.

As far as downloading demos, now that you can sort by release date it should be easier to go through the new stuff and queue up all the demos in-game for downloading, instead of searching for the newest songs by name (like you had to do in RB2).

[cwilbur]

Sales via the xbox.com marketplace, whether you get the link from error420, rockband.com, or someplace else, all count the same in our stats. And when you combine ALL the sales via both the xbox dashboard (yes, some people did that for RBN1!) and web sales together they aren't really a very significant percentage. Dare I say that it's everyone here on this forum, and a few of their close friends?

It surprises me that the data isn't flawed somehow, but I guess I've always assumed everyone does it my way because it's SO much more convenient to order up demos and songs by pointing and clicking in a web browser than by bumping up and down an in-game list while hunched over my drum controller. Even at home with the game running I get up from the drums and go to the laptop to buy songs.

I do understand your frustration. Any time that functionality is taken away I know it seems arbitrary. As we've stated before this is actually the intended functionality for the songs, and it was really just a bug that allowed the links to be available for RBN1.

Is there DLC for other games that behaves this way (available only in-game)? I'm not enough of an xbox gamer to have any idea (I own a total of 7 games - 6 have "Rock Band" in the title). Unless this is a really common thing this smells more like a special case feature requested by marketing than a "bug".

Background note: If I come off as overly harsh, it's because I'm actually a software developer by day, so my distrust of software marketers is reflexive and deeply ingrained....

As far as downloading demos, now that you can sort by release date it should be easier to go through the new stuff and queue up all the demos in-game for downloading, instead of searching for the newest songs by name (like you had to do in RB2).

That will make it easier, and I'm sure I'll bite the bullet and go queue up the RBN2 songs I've been waiting to see show up on rbnreleases the next time I fire up RB3, but I have a hard time believing any in-game interface could ever be as easy as point-and-click into the xbox.com marketplace.


Now that I seem to have HMXMister_Game's attention, something from the post at Creators that's been bugging me:

unpublished songs and newly released songs can’t be purchased prior to our release. Plus, we can coordinate launch dates of multiple songs, stage PR stunts, etc.

I can see where the first part is a good thing for everyone. error420 had a big disclaimer up about buying songs that weren't in the in-game store at your own risk. I can see where the second part is nice for HMX, and maybe for the creators (being able to coordinate simultaneous release of the upcoming Pac Man Fever album tracks comes to mind).

What I don't get is why you couldn't accomplish the same goals by making sure the downloads don't appear in the xbox.com marketplace until after they appear in the in-game store. I hope this approach was at least considered and the only reason it didn't happen was due to a lack of support for such a scheme in the xbox.com marketplace...

[Kariodude]

The one thing that really gets me, is that if you get the demo from the website, play the demo, then buy it in game, that doesn't count as a website purchase. I'm willing to bet that a LOT of people do it this way, but it would be harder to track.

[Santa Claustrophobia]

Hey, here's an idea! Now that you're doing this latest silly thing, how about fixing it so that songs that can't be purchased via Xbox.com no longer show the link that says that you can purchase them via Xbox.com.

Or would that be as hard to remove as it would to add the ability to sort by release date?

And god forbid you guys release an updated version of the RB store app for the 360 so that RBN and RB3 is included. God only knows how much fun it is to have to boot the game to purchase things now. Convenience!

[HMXLachesis]

Hey, here's an idea! Now that you're doing this latest silly thing, how about fixing it so that songs that can't be purchased via Xbox.com no longer show the link that says that you can purchase them via Xbox.com.

Already working on it.

[cwilbur]

The one thing that really gets me, is that if you get the demo from the website, play the demo, then buy it in game, that doesn't count as a website purchase. I'm willing to bet that a LOT of people do it this way, but it would be harder to track.

This was exactly my original point. This is how I bought at least 90% of my RBN1 songs. I hope that in addition to checking sales stats on the full versions for the xbox.com marketplace vs. the in-game store, HMX has checked the same stats for the demos.

At this point it wouldn't surprise me to find that they have, and that even those numbers are low. It occurs to me that I encountered a long-time hardcore RB player with loads of DLC online the other day who didn't even realize RBN songs HAD demos.

Hey, here's an idea! Now that you're doing this latest silly thing, how about fixing it so that songs that can't be purchased via Xbox.com no longer show the link that says that you can purchase them via Xbox.com.

I see that my posting a link to a copy of the creators post was not enough. Here, have the whole thing (bolding mine)

DragoonXD [copied from the Creators post] at 15:40 on March 31st, 2011:

At this time (and for the foreseeable future), RBN2 songs can only be purchased in the in-game Music Store.

If you try to click through the Buy link on an RBN2 song detail page (example: http://www.rockband.com/songs/UGC_5005724) , you will receive a 404 error from Xbox.com. We will be removing those links and replacing them with a note directing users to the store later this month.

The lack of web links is intentional. They were always supposed to be hidden from both the in-game marketplace and website marketplace. When RBN2 was launched, this bug was fixed, and all new content is hidden from both. The fact that we had “Buy Now” links on the RBN song pages on rockband.com was a result of our zealous web developers making RBN consistent with DLC. Our numbers show that only a small percentage of songs are purchased through the website, and we do not expect any significant downturn in RBN sales from this change.

The upside of this from our perspective is that songs are no longer available outside of Rock Band, so unpublished songs and newly released songs can’t be purchased prior to our release. Plus, we can coordinate launch dates of multiple songs, stage PR stunts, etc.

[Groudon199]

Is there DLC for other games that behaves this way (available only in-game)? I'm not enough of an xbox gamer to have any idea (I own a total of 7 games - 6 have "Rock Band" in the title). Unless this is a really common thing this smells more like a special case feature requested by marketing than a "bug".

I know one game that does this, but only for one piece of DLC.

[Santa Claustrophobia]

I see that my posting a link to a copy of the creators post was not enough. Here, have the whole thing (bolding mine)

Why would just linking to a website unaffiliated (in a direct way) with RBN lead me to understand that I'd have to scroll down fourteen user responses until I see what is essentially a hearsay quote from a website I can't access?

[axelkothe]

I don't like it, even though I only ever bought 1 song this way. But I used error420 to keep track of the songs that passed the peer review process and to easily access information about them (price, author, genre etc) without having to boot up the game and access each song individually.