THE NUMBERS AREN'T THERE, i.e., Here's why there won't be any more Beatles DLC:

[gdBOOM]

Okay, first of all, I don't come to the forums very often. When I do, it's usually because I'm looking for something specific. But, I play this game for hours on end nearly every day. I've got around 1,250 songs on RB3, but I play TB:RB way more than RB3. I'm excited about the new 2112 DLC, but I still love this Beatles game. Like so many others, I've been hoping that we'd eventually get some new Beatles DLC, but as my rankings improve on each song, it's becoming apparent to me that the numbers aren't there to sustain any new content.

I'm currently ranked 172 in the solo Drum Career leaderboards on X-Box, with a score of 5,010,000. I've got #1 rankings on 18 songs right now, and this is where it becomes painfully clear how few of us there actually are. For example, I recently became the 139th person to achieve the #1 ranking on I Am The Walrus. Now, really, that song is part of the game disc, and based on difficulty it seems to me that number is way low. In contrast, I long ago became the 2,019th person to achieve #1 on Michelle, which WAS DLC. Sure, it's an easier song, but SO easy that this number should be WAY higher, if there were that many people who bought it. A month or two ago, I became the 21st person to hit #1 on Lovely Rita. These kinds of numbers make me understand why Viacom was so disappointed that they wanted out! And these numbers tell me that Harmonix is not lying when they say they don't see any profit potential in future Beatles DLC. Bummer!!!

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Um...except for the scores you posted, pretty much everything about that post was wrong. In particular

And these numbers tell me that Harmonix is not lying when they say they don't see any profit potential in future Beatles DLC. Bummer!!!

Link? Because I'm pretty sure the exact opposite was said, that HMX would love to do more Beatles DLC, but it's not something they can just do at the drop of a hat. There are a myriad of legal and technical concerns, not the least of which is releasing DLC for a 4-instrument game a year-plus after only Pro-enabled DLC has come out. And releasing DLC for a two-going on-three-year old title. And....a bunch of other stuff.

The Beatles are the highest selling DLC band in HMX history, and it's not even close. Sales don't have nothing to do with it, and maybe Apple Records feels that the sales are below their requirements (but that again would seem to fall under "other considerations"), but that's not the first, second, or twentieth reason. The sales have been good.

[SirDavidTLynch]

If The Beatles DLC flopped, so did the entire Rock Band catalog.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Why is he using people who get FCs on Expert as an example of a lack of an audience? I don't see the connection.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Why is he using people who get FCs on Expert as an example of a lack of an audience? I don't see the connection.

Yup, that's the classic "everybody must play on expert~!" fallacy. I didn't bother to bring up the fact that the overwhelming majority of people who play Rock Band play on Medium, and in an arguably even more "casual gamer" friendly title like TB:RB, drum #1's (expert FC's with the optimal path) are even more meaningless.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Plus, drums aren't even the biggest instrument crowd.

[DemonUnicorns]

I'd like to point out that, while I disagree with the OP and agree with all the replies, actually what I was going to say would be quite obvious.

Any Beatles DLC would sell better if it were compatible with Rock Band 3 - duh. Infact, that is what has kept me from buying any Beatles DLC, because I don't normally play the game because I'm lazy and hate switching discs. Do want me some more Beatles, though.

[nascarfan19]

Why is he using people who get FCs on Expert as an example of a lack of an audience? I don't see the connection.

Exactly. There could be 2 people with an FC and 20,000 with 99%. You can't expect everyone to be amazing.

[SwordofWhedon]

There's a huge difference in expense for doing Beatles DLC

1- All Beatles has to be in Beatles: Rock Band contractually
2- That requires the "experience" of custom animations to be retained
3- In order to do a beatles track, they have to fly over and put up programmers and engineers, because they can only work with the master stems at Abby Road (which also means very expensive studio time )

So a Beatles DLC requires probably 5-10x the average expense of a normal DLC track

That being said, McCartney covers a lot of the missing tunes, like Hey Jude in his shows, and those CAN appear in RB3. So that's a much more realistic goal.

[GNFfhqwhgads]

That being said, McCartney covers a lot of the missing tunes, like Hey Jude in his shows, and those CAN appear in RB3. So that's a much more realistic goal.

No, they can't. Covers have to be cleared with Apple Corp.