A look at the Queen RB3 Version sales (using leaderboard data) 113,000+ sold

[powerofyates2]

Can you cite where they've said it takes the same number of resources? Because they're adding keys, pro keys and harmonies. Maybe pro guitar to a couple of them. That's leaves lead vocals, legacy guitar, legacy bass, drums and pro drums that they don't have to touch again.

Granted, that also means "is it worth buying again just for keys and harmonies if that's all we get?" Which is why I think it should be reserved for cases where the keys (We Are the Champions) or harmonies (We Will Rock You, seriously, who the f*** was complaining about this) were prominent or even legendary.

I'm in the camp of those who aren't buying older DLC that might get the RB3 update treatment, but it's less out of fear and more out of hope.

Everything gets recharted to RB3 specs. The audio has to be mixed again, due to the addition of an isolated keys track. Just the fact that Harmonix has to charge full price again to make money should be a big tipoff.

And I'm too lazy to find it, but I believe there is a post from Harmonix detailing the work they put into an upgrade.

Since it's basically the same amount of work, wouldn't you rather have a completely new song than an upgrade?

[DackAttac]

It really depends. Pro Keys is my go-to instrument. I certainly wouldn't want songs with key parts as complex as, say, Need You Tonight or Big Bang Baby getting the conversion, but there are times where I'm waiting for the band to come in on Baba O'Riley where I can't help but think of a giant missed opportunity. What a waste of a bunch of classic key and harmony parts just because they were such killer tracks that HMX corralled them onto the Rock Band Store before they fleshed out the technology to fully utilize the song.

[RycheMaidenPS3]

The Cars = would probably sell pretty well
Boston = would probably sell well
Rush = would probably sell very well

I can see HMX making some cheddar on some of these for sure.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

If 18,000 track sales is considered good , then why do people throw a fit any time a RB:A7X game gets brought up? That could sell 18,000 copies in its 1st 12 seconds on the market.........

18,000 on one song =/= 18,000 on 45 songs, venue licensing/design, band licensing/mo-cap, disc pressing, shipping.

Itd be funny to see Canada sales figures, considering you cant find any people here unless you want to pay an arm and a leg.

[BathTub]

There are lots more tracks I would buy RB3 versions of I certainly hope we do see some more down the line.

[Whizzer191]

Hmm... interesting. I just listen to all the songs that come out and buy what I want regardless of whether or not they're "hits". I guess I thought that most RB players were that way, although now that I think about the more casual players probably would go for the more popular stuff. Anyways, this is getting way off topic, so I'll stop.

I think less than 1% are openminded that way. With 3000 songs in the library, it's an overwhelming thought to listen to every single song.

Again, the upgraded songs are more well-known than some of the other songs in the pack, but all three Bon Jovi upgrades look like they are among the top 5 most downloaded songs from "Bon Jovi: Greatest Hits: Rock Band Edition" (in order, "It's My Life", "Livin' on a Prayer (RB3 version)", "You Give Love a Bad Name (RB3 version)", "Blaze of Glory", "Wanted Dead or Alive (RB3 version)").

Interesting.

Keep in mind that they all came from earlier discs, so some people may not like exporting, Wii players could not export two of them and new players wouldn't have a clue. Most of the Queen RB3 versions were earlier DLC, in comparison.

You'd have to think that any upgrades would come for songs that are in the top 50-100 in all time sales and (like Boston) would really benefit from harmonies/keys, so say nothing of pro g/b.

That being said, some of the legacy song pro g/b upgrades (Boston) that would have really benefited from an RB3 version were released w/o keys and harmonies. I wish we knew how many people, for example, bought the pro g/b upgrades for More Than a Feeling. It might give more indication of whether to expect more RB3 versions of legacy, or just pro strings upgrades. Personally, I'd probably be tempted to buy either, with a preference towards RB3 version with the g/b. It would be interesting to see how many pro g/b upgrades were purchased on those Queen and Bon Jovi songs. Does anyone have access to that data?

I can't hear much keys in 'More Than a Feeling'. Boston RB3 versions would likely be restricted to 'Foreplay/Long Time', 'Smokin'' and 'Hitch a Ride'. I doubt Harmonix will upgrade songs solely for harmonies, despite 'We Will Rock You'.

Furthermore, three upgrades are easily swallowed if they come with new songs in a big pack, say 8 or more songs.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Wii players could not export two of them

Why does that matter for Xbox sales?

[White_PawZ]

I just really hope we haven't seen the last of these RB3 versions.... But I'm afraid that we have....

[Whizzer191]

Why does that matter for Xbox sales?

It does not. But it does probably matter for Wii sales and that's something HMX would likely keep in mind.

[OSweetMrMath]

You want numbers? I've got numbers.

IMPORTANT WARNING: Leaderboard numbers mean less than they appear. Anecdotal evidence from RBN suggests that only around 50% of people who download a song ever post scores to the leaderboards. Comparing the popularity of songs based on the leaderboards to the popularity of songs on the XBox Live Marketplace shows that there can be significant differences between the popularity rankings of songs on the two locations. This is particularly true in the case of pre-RB3 songs, because the leaderboards do not provide any data at this time about the number of players in RB1 or RB2. HMX undoubtedly has much more direct access to play counts of songs than we do, and may have direct access to the raw sales data, so HMX knows much more about how well RB3 versions sell than we do.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I looked at the leaderboards data for XBox only for all Queen songs. Specifically I looked for the number of scores for every song, counting the RB2 and RB3 versions (I'm using "RB2 version" for lack of a better term to mean songs without harmonies or keys support) of songs separately, but I also looked at the number of people who have posted scores on both versions of the song. My results are below.

Song				RB2 scores	RB3 scores	Both
Another One Bites the Dust	38951	0
Bohemian Rhapsody		0	321403
Crazy Little Thing Called Love	26575	0
Fat Bottomed Girls		32748	0
Hammer to Fall			0	6529
I Want It All			15596	8734	1686
I Want To Break Free		17712	9830	1882
Keep Yourself Alive		0	4043
Killer Queen			25531	15012	2679
Now I'm Here			0	4387
One Vision			11771	7076	1215
Play the Game			0	6367
Somebody To Love		27782	15794	3258
Tenement Funster		0	3336
Tie Your Mother Down		8774	0
Under Pressure			30121	18371	3458
We Are The Champions		14697	18484	1776
We Will Rock You		17332	14011	1538

In general, among players of RB3, many more have posted scores on the RB2 versions of the songs than on the RB3 versions. The ratio varies depending on the song, but is generally between 3:2 and 2:1. In addition, the number of people who have posted scores on both is a fraction of the number who have the RB3 versions, generally around 1 in 5. I would not be surprised if this number significantly undercounts the fraction of RB3 players who got the RB2 versions of the songs and then also got the RB3 versions, because they may have chosen to never play the RB2 versions. However, the implication is that comparatively few people who have the RB2 versions have also purchased the RB3 versions.

While I'm here, I should also post results from the XBox Live Marketplace. I've been tracking the sales ranks of DLC from the beginning of the year, so here are the current ranks of all of the Queen DLC, along with the change in position since the beginning of the year.

Rank	Change	Song
175	+11	"Another One Bites the Dust"	10/20/2009
230	+4	"Under Pressure"	10/20/2009
241	-1	Queen Pack 01	10/20/2009
272	+10	"Fat Bottomed Girls"	10/20/2009
315	0	"Somebody to Love"	10/20/2009
352	+5	"Killer Queen"	10/20/2009
438	+1	"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"	10/20/2009
613	+214	"We Are the Champions (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
677	-25	"I Want It All"	10/20/2009
710	+198	"We Will Rock You (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
718	-35	"I Want To Break Free"	10/20/2009
741	+189	"Under Pressure (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
755	+110	Queen RB3 Enhanced Pack	12/7/2010
775	-53	"One Vision"	10/20/2009
830	+171	"Somebody To Love (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
902	+147	"Killer Queen (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
939	+47	Queen Extravaganza Pack 01	12/7/2010
1120	-84	"Tie Your Mother Down"	10/20/2009
1243	+31	"I Want It All (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
1258	0	"Play The Game"	12/7/2010
1304	-31	"Hammer to Fall"	12/7/2010
1305	-8	"I Want To Break Free (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
1332	-44	"Keep Yourself Alive"	12/7/2010
1373	-40	"One Vision (RB3 version)"	12/7/2010
1426	-81	"Now I'm Here"	12/7/2010
1478	-94	"Tenement Funster"	12/7/2010

The sales ranks are based on total all time sales, so it is not surprising that the RB2 songs have generally sold more than the RB3 songs. Positive changes mean that since the beginning of the year, the song has been selling more than the songs around it, while negative changes mean that the song has been selling worse. As the sales rank gets lower, negative changes tend to reflect newer releases outselling the song rather than bad performance relative to other older releases.

The striking thing to me is the performance of the RB2 versions of "Under Pressure", "Killer Queen", and "Somebody to Love". The positive changes mean that this year, these songs have continued to sell well despite the RB3 versions also being available. I don't know if that means that lots of people are still playing RB1 or RB2 and are downloading these songs, or if it means that people playing RB3 are choosing to download these songs instead of the RB3 versions, but I do find it curious.