Wii DLC from the RBN

[SheSaidSheSaid]

HMXLachesis, What about the WiiU? Its a whole new system on par specwise with the 360/ps3. Its not your grandaddys console. lol

It sort of is

please start treating WiiU users fairly now.

Going kind of far, no?

[HMXLachesis]

HMXLachesis, What about the WiiU? Its a whole new system on par specwise with the 360/ps3. Its not your grandaddys console. lol I want blitz songs not the 3 that you guys put on the wii. You guys have shown that you are able to sell RBblitz songs for the wii without a problem from nintendo so please start treating WiiU users fairly now.

I'm always kind of puzzled by people who feel "unfairly" treated because of their console of choice.

There is no console caste system here. You're not tied to the Wii, even in its new incarnation. You're a free spirit! You could own any console you want - multiple consoles, even!

If this were 2010, and you'd just picked up Rock Band 2 for the Wii, I'd be more sympathetic to your perspective. I know that it came as a shock to Wii players when we stopped releasing new RBN songs then. I wish we hadn't had to do it, but it was unavoidable. I felt terrible for the disappointed Wii players - really, I still do.

But in this case, you have all the data available. New RBN songs have been unavailable on Wii for almost two years because Wii players weren't sufficiently interested in purchasing RBN content to justify the investment on our side.

Frankly, it seems a little like complaining that wearing orange makes your skin tone look bad, but then only buying orange sweaters.

You brought up the Wii U, and you point out that the Wii U is a whole new system. Does that lower the time and energy cost of preparing and submitting content?

No, it does not. Putting RBN content out on the Wii takes a lot of time and energy, both here and at Nintendo, and that time/energy cost is the exact same for the Wii U as for the Wii. (It has to be, because there's no way Harmonix could release DLC for the Wii U only. People who only have the original Wii would be incredibly upset if we did.)

What about the return? Can we suddenly expect more RBN songs to be purchased on the Wii?

No, we can't. There's no reason to think that people will be more interested in purchasing RBN DLC on the Wii U than they were on the original Wii. Rather the opposite, in fact - because RB3 isn't available on the Wii U. (RB3 is compatible, but that's not the same thing as being released on the console, any more than a PS3 gamer is likely to play a lot of PS2 games on a brand new PS3.)

I may be missing something here, though. And I really would listen - if there's evidence to support your perspective. So what's your argument?

[Pii Three]

First I would like to thank you for responding to this issue as it is a huge one for myself and my family as we love the rockband stuff.

Secondly I have always understood the business aspect from your end in regards to your time and energy towards DLC for the basic wii. And for you looking for that to pay off. But there are so many questions that have gone unaswered when it come to the wii and wiiu. Its very different treatment when you guys respond right away to 360/ps3 issues. I am bringing up just the official responses because i agree with you about nothing will change with the returns on future dlc purchases for the wii if it is only compatible with the wiiu.

Take lego rock band for an example. I believe that wii users would buy this old game just for the excellent songs and would also pay for a code to import them to RB3. The songs are already there.
I believe your time for making that possible would pay off.

I wouldnt expect any sales jump for future DLC for the wii until RB4 is made for the 360/PS3/Wiiu. BUT also communicate to the wii community till that happens assuring them that anything the other consoles content will be the same for the wiiu.

I know im not tied to one console but I have children as you see in my profile picture a third one as of last year too hehe. I really cant see myself buying a 360/ps3 when i have 4 gaming pcs for us, it would be like getting a watered down computer basically. The wii is different, so is the wiiu. Family orientated, thats key for me.

Lastly I and my family are greatful for your companys efforts to continue to support content to the Wii system despite sales falling short of what they should be and are for other more popular consoles.

[Pii Three]

It sort of is



Going kind of far, no?

Sorry, but I stopped watching the video when they put up the picture of the man and his tastey monkey. No, i am not going to far. If you look at posts from almost every Wii user you would see they are not happy with not only the issues that have come up but also how they were handled officially, the non-official answer is always get a new console.

[Santa Claustrophobia]

Take lego rock band for an example. I believe that wii users would buy this old game just for the excellent songs and would also pay for a code to import them to RB3. The songs are already there.
I believe your time for making that possible would pay off.

This is the fallacy that makes Wii owners complain about the lack of RBN. HMX has better numbers on this stuff than we do. All we can do is make educated guesses. And those guesses are that the Wii audience for Rock Band, specifically Rock Band 3, is only a small fraction of the buying public for all three consoles.

And the problem in the quoted part specifically is that just because you would buy something doesn't mean that a significant portion of the Wii users would too. That's an example of a selection bias. And it's been seen before back when RBN was stopped for the Wii. Some people insisted, insisted that if only HMX would release more RBN DLC, that Wii owners everywhere would just gobble it up. Even better if it was stuff the poster personally liked.

The problem is that the most popular RBN song released was on all three consoles and it simply didn't sell well on the Wii. Maybe the Wii player base has different overall musical tastes, but that still doesn't explain why the same basic ratio of song purchases held out for every other RBN song released on the Wii.

The wider Wii audience was indifferent (or just largely absent) to buying RBN. So HMX stopped released that content for the Wii rather than take a significant loss on the deal. Them's the breaks.

[Mr-TyK]

There is no console caste system here. You're not tied to the Wii, even in its new incarnation. You're a free spirit! You could own any console you want - multiple consoles, even!

The main issue with changing consoles, or investing in another is the lack of available game controllers.

If this were 2010...

Even by March of 2010, The Beatles Rock Band controllers were getting hard to find. In order to find e Gretsch Dou Jet for my wife's birthday, I had to drive 250 miles one way to get it, not including the 70 miles one way the opposite direction to a store that claimed they had it and when I got there they only had one Rickenbacker in stock. (bought that as well, since the writing was on the wall)
Since TBRB, the third generation Strat was released (got one right away) and the new keyboard controller was out. (grabbed one of them too)

Right now in the new market , there are a few keyboard controllers around and the Mustang pro guitar but nothing else. So even if I desperately wanted to switch consoles, I'd never be able to get the controllers.

I'm sure its a matter of economics for the controller manufacturers as well. If there was money to be made producing controllers, someone would be doing it. Things being what they are it would seem that those of us with a Wii are stuck with the Wii.

Then there would be the matter of reinvesting all the DLC for the games on a new platform. That could require a significant amount of cash as well.

Its truly a pity really. The rock band series of games was and still is a revolutionary concept with mass appeal but, in my opinion, the short attention span and fickle buying habits of the average video game consumer make it difficult for even a revolutionary idea to keep full support on any platform.


I know I am preaching to the choir here. The steady traffic at this forum shows how many dedicated players there are for the game.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Sorry, but I stopped watching the video when they put up the picture of the man and his tastey monkey.

Sorry, I forgot about that, or I would have warned. But he goes on to make some pretty solid points.

No, i am not going to far. If you look at posts from almost every Wii user you would see they are not happy with not only the issues that have come up but also how they were handled officially, the non-official answer is always get a new console.

And if you all, collectively, were better customers, it wouldn't come down to that. At least as far as RBN goes. A lot of the rest of it boils down to the technical limitations of the Wii. It's kind of amazing HMX managed to allow RB2 and Green Day to export for the Wii, really (as it's not really a 'true' export like Xbox and PS3 have, but it gets the songs in RB3 just fine).

I wouldn't doubt HMX people sort of regret releasing the series on Wii altogether. Not that they'd ever admit that publicly.

[Pii Three]

And if you all, collectively, were better customers, it wouldn't come down to that.

Dude really? Mostly I ignore posts from people like you, but this time I will respond because I actually believe that you think your being helpful. Your not though. Can you do us wii/rockband owners a favor and say that we should buy a 360/ps3 and our problem will be solved and then how about you move on since you have no real reason to be posting in this thread. Thank you in advance. I will be waiting to read a response from HMXLachesis and wont be responding to your posts anymore. Take care.

[Catch-22]

What exactly is there left to respond to?

[Oscarvarium]

Dude really? Mostly I ignore posts from people like you, but this time I will respond because I actually believe that you think your being helpful. Your not though. Can you do us wii/rockband owners a favor and say that we should buy a 360/ps3 and our problem will be solved and then how about you move on since you have no real reason to be posting in this thread. Thank you in advance. I will be waiting to read a response from HMXLachesis and wont be responding to your posts anymore. Take care.

But they're completely right, even if they weren't exactly polite about it. Wii users as a whole bought very little from RBN, so porting songs became more work than it was worth for Harmonix. Sometimes the simple answer is the right one.

Of course the few Wii users who did buy lots of songs will be upset about it, but they can't justify keeping a costly content stream open for so few people.