Issues with pricing during 1st day of RB DLC sale?

[hmxhenry]

Just wanted to update that we had a meeting about this first thing this morning. We're still waiting on additional info from Microsoft, but we've confirmed that prices are still updating on a rolling schedule, just slower than expected. The hope is to now have all content priced correctly in the store, in the confirmation screen and at purchase by the end of the day today. We worked closely with Microsoft on prepping this, but with a sale including 1,100 pieces of content, there's no precedent and no way to test everything, but we'll work to course correct as quickly as possible.

As of right now, roughly 40% of all tracks should be listed, priced and charging as intended. If you stumble across an offer that is not yet correct, sit tight and it should be updated quickly. Don't rush in and purchase blindly unless you want to have to contact Microsoft to sort out pricing and refund details after the fact. We'll see if we can get an escalation path for refunds for affected users, but in the meantime the usual support channels seem to be doing the trick.

Thanks to all for your patience!

Just letting ye guy know, that with PS3 EU (Ireland in my case) there has been no budge on the price of any of the songs from what I cant see, whether on the displayed price or when you go to checkout. Checked the PSN store and the sales tab on both RB3 and Blitz. Not really surprised tbh, I would have been more surprised if Sony EU didn't make a hash of it.

As per the original announcement, the expectation has been that SCEE would update later today when the DLC usually goes live, so it's not too surprising that prices haven't been updated yet. I'll give SCEE until the end of the day to start their roll out, but the Sony America launch went very smoothly so that's a good sign.

[LAKUWAVE]

I just noticed also that pricing was different in rock band store view and live marketplace. I got a bit scared because i had by then purchased 10 songs, but when i checked my xbox live account billing information, it showed that correct amount of points were taken from my account.

[THEELIMINATOR]

As per the original announcement, the expectation has been that SCEE would update later today when the DLC usually goes live, so it's not too surprising that prices haven't been updated yet. I'll give SCEE until the end of the day to start their roll out, but the Sony America launch went very smoothly so that's a good sign.

Thanks for the quick replay. The store already updated when I posted originally but just checked now and the discount does seems to have applied now. Looking forward to breaking the old credit card now :-)

[chuftybadge]

hmxhenry... There is a simple way to test the system, just try and purchase some songs yourself then await the outcome. I know there are a lot of songs and prices to adjust but you would have thought that Microsoft would been aware of your changes to prices before you made it public knowledge so they could of start to work on the change in prices and tested it before hand. It's not as if you rang them up 2 days ago and said " Can you change the prices on the following 1000+ items please, and thank you mr microsoft man "

Don't take this as a dig at the harmonix team because the games are great, but i do think that a bit more thought and testing needs to go into something like this rather than thinking " I know how can we make a quick few bucks in a short space of time "

[Blasteroids]

Looks like the 40% of stuff that's changed is not the packs I'm looking to purchase. Just tried all these and no reduction even at the confirmation screen. This is using the online marketplace since I'm not able to jump onto the xbox at the momemt.

Alice Cooper : 800
Punk Pack 01 : 440
Foo Fighters 01 : 440
Foo Fighters 02 : 440
Foo Fighters 03 : 560
Foreigner 01 : 440
KISS Pack 01 : 440
Maroon 5 01 : 440
Thin Lizzy 01 : 440
Weezer 01 : 440
Weezer 03 : 440
Night Ranger 01 : 440

--
Punk 01 & Weezer 01 finally updated!

[originalvonster]

The UK store has been updated with the new pricing but for the single tracks I can confirm that there has only been a 35% discount, not a 50% like first announced!

[hmxhenry]

hmxhenry... There is a simple way to test the system, just try and purchase some songs yourself then await the outcome.

Don't take this as a dig at the harmonix team because the games are great, but i do think that a bit more thought and testing needs to go into something like this rather than thinking " I know how can we make a quick few bucks in a short space of time "

I don't know if you've read any of our other commentary on the work that went into the sale, either in other posts here on the forums, on Twitter or on the livestream, but this is something that we've been talking with Microsoft about for the last year and something that's actively been in the works for the last 6 months. In that time, we've both done extensive rounds of testing, but dropping prices on 1,100 pieces of content worldwide is absolutely unprecedented. It's like saying "Hey NASA, your recent shuttle launch is delayed 24 hours? Why didn't you just practice DEFYING THE IMMUTABLE LAWS OF GRAVITY AND TOUCHING THE FACE OF GOD FIRST, you dummies!"

So yeah, we've done testing. We've done random sampling, followed up on all tracks and packs people have called out specifically and we're in touch with Microsoft to resolve ASAP. This isn't something that could have been resolved with more testing, since it's not actually an issue with the content in the store. What happened is that Microsoft has a script to update the pricing on these 1,100 pieces of content, and the script was expected to update over a span of 12 hours. The script ended up running slower than expected, so the rolling change will end up taking full effect closer to the 36 hour mark.

Considering this is a brief delay on one console (PS3 and Wii sale updates went off nearly without a hitch, mind you), we've been messaging updates as quickly as possible and Microsoft has been extremely diligent in refunding the (few) people who have been charged the incorrect amount. Hopefully that sheds a bit more light on the process and highlights that this was substantially more than the half baked cash grab you seem to think it is.

The UK store has been updated with the new pricing but for the single tracks I can confirm that there has only been a 35% discount, not a 50% like first announced!

We're touching bases with SCEE about this and the initial response has been that local market conditions will vary, but there will still be substantial savings worldwide. Italy, for example, should have the intended 50% discount from what we've been told, but other countries in Europe are affected differently. We don't have complete control over pricing, especially internationally, where conversion rates can change drastically from dollars to pounds to Euro to local currency. We'll reach out for more info, but it's unlikely that SCEE will be able to change their entire conversion and pricing structure, which affects all DLC across all titles.

[Brown-x360a]

It's not a clean 50% for some items. Some of the albums are in the 40-45% range. I'm in the states, but it sounds like it's worse for you.

EDIT: Well, nevermind. I just got worked...

[heatDrive88]

I just noticed also that pricing was different in rock band store view and live marketplace. I got a bit scared because i had by then purchased 10 songs, but when i checked my xbox live account billing information, it showed that correct amount of points were taken from my account.

I can second this as of today.

I just checked my Microsoft points balance right now, and while I mistakenly made the hasty purchase in excitement for the Alice Cooper 01 pack and was originally charged 800 MS points, my points balance statement now lists that only 400 MS points were rightfully charged.

So I'm guessing if you were over-charged the opening day of the sale, you should have been refunded the difference of the sale price by now.

Thanks again to hmxhenry for the quick updates.

[jargonfacer]

As long as I don't run out of time to throw my money at the DLC before it goes back to regular price, I'm fine with waiting a bit longer.