Discussion Thread for Releasing Blitz Tracks as Singles & Plans for Upcoming RB DLC

[SecretSelf]

I guess I don't understand why you can't hire more people to focus on keeping RB going, and put out more DLC instead of less. With the amount of money spent on DLC for this game, players with thousands of songs, I don't get why it has to die off so quickly to rush out more titles. It's a real community with a passion for music, and going to 3 songs every other week or even every week is just... sad. Hire some people and train them to get *more* DLC out every week - 10 songs, 20 songs... it's more money for the company. If games have gotten to the point where a lifespan only a few years, and then they are abandoned by the company (Lips, anyone? GH?), I have no plans on buying any more games reliant on DLC.

But it's very upsetting to see the company letting the game just fade away and leaving it up to the RBN creators, who have to pay to even get started, to provide their customers with content.

Come on, Harmonix... it's a great game and unless you're making RB4, which there have been zero indications of, I would rather keep this going, and using lack of enough employees to process the DLC as the reason doesn't seem realistic. People would kill to work at your company if given the chance, and it's a choice if you divert your resources away from this massive game and its ongoing updates after such a small amount of time. You could fill that staffing hole if you chose. There are certainly an enormous number of people playing on multiple platforms, why rush away so quickly?

I'm really, really disappointed. "The most loyal fans" may become a very small group if that's the plan.

Can you tell us *anything* that makes this less bad?

Thanks,
Karen

[bonethug0108]

so every other week will be Blitz songs?

that means we will only be getting blitz songs on my birthday

Same as me this coming week! But I was expecting something I wasn't going to like anyway given the "clue" and blitz trend.

Sad to hear things may be slowing down further, but the train is still rolling and has been for 5+ years. Thnks fr th Mmrs! I look forward to whatever else we'll be getting.

[Ultimetalhead]

Really, as long as RBN keeps pumping out awesome stuff, I'll be okay. It's a little sad to see the main DLC turn into what it is now, but whatever.

Just give us Primus already. Dear god.

[RockBandRocker]

The only question I have is why the plan to release the Blitz tracks as DLC wasn't made clearer at the start.

Don't get me wrong, Blitz can be a fun game, but I know having the knowledge that I could buy the songs I wanted and avoid the ones I didn't probably would have had an impact on my purchase of the game.

(Although with the price of the game being what it is and there being 7+ songs I would've downloaded as singles, I can look at it as paying for the songs I like and getting the ones I dislike for free.)

[GraphicMang]

still 3 songs max a week right? so many questions

[RockBandRocker]

I suppose the nice thing about this announcement is that it at least is prepping people for "the winter slowdown" that normally happens. If you look back on previous years, December - April/May has been the months with the least amount of new content.

That said, the last slowdown resulted in 3 songs a week becoming the norm again. From my understanding, 3 songs a week will still be the norm. Also, from my understanding, it seems like HMX is using the Blitz songs as a net so that they can release something while working on charting new songs.

I guess the thing I'm trying to say is I don't understand some of the doom and gloom. Although I guess doom and gloom has always been the name of the game in this section of the forums.

[runninbad]

I'm probably in the majority of those who own both RB and Blitz in that I buy DLC to play in RB with the added benefit of being able to play it in Blitz. I bought Blitz for the songs and while I enjoy the game, I couldn't see myself ever buying DLC for the sole purpose of playing it Blitz. I'd be interested to know how many people who only own Blitz are actually buying DLC. My guess is not as much as HMX would like.

[NightmareLyre]

I guess I don't understand why you can't hire more people to focus on keeping RB going, and put out more DLC instead of less. With the amount of money spent on DLC for this game, players with thousands of songs, I don't get why it has to die off so quickly to rush out more titles. It's a real community with a passion for music, and going to 3 songs every other week or even every week is just... sad. Hire some people and train them to get *more* DLC out every week - 10 songs, 20 songs... it's more money for the company. If games have gotten to the point where a lifespan only a few years, and then they are abandoned by the company (Lips, anyone? GH?), I have no plans on buying any more games reliant on DLC.

But it's very upsetting to see the company letting the game just fade away and leaving it up to the RBN creators, who have to pay to even get started, to provide their customers with content.

Come on, Harmonix... it's a great game and unless you're making RB4, which there have been zero indications of, I would rather keep this going, and using lack of enough employees to process the DLC as the reason doesn't seem realistic. People would kill to work at your company if given the chance, and it's a choice if you divert your resources away from this massive game and its ongoing updates after such a small amount of time. You could fill that staffing hole if you chose. There are certainly an enormous number of people playing on multiple platforms, why rush away so quickly?

I'm really, really disappointed. "The most loyal fans" may become a very small group if that's the plan.

Can you tell us *anything* that makes this less bad?

Thanks,
Karen

Pretty much this.

Also I would have been willing to work for HMX for a bowl of rice a day and my own private snazz parade once a year, I would even be willing to do the *censored M-rated lyric* kissing.

[hmxhenry]

Why don't you love me anymore?

We never stopped loving you, not for a second.

Does this mean that we can expect, ongoing, fewer than 3 songs, which was already pretty paltry? If so, I think I'm done with caring about weekly DLC.

The number of songs released on a weekly basis will still average around 3.

so every other week will be Blitz songs?

Correct. Next week is Week 269 of DLC and will only feature Blitz tracks. The week after, Tuesday 1/15, is Week 270 of DLC and will include new content for those that already own Blitz. The schedule will continue to alternate, with odd weeks getting Blitz singles and even weeks getting all new content.

as you've surely seen with this week, there is a much, much larger segment of the community interested in having new songs to purchase every week.... but if there IS anything you can do to add new content to those upcoming blitz weeks, like you did with the GDRB release week, i hope you will.

A negative response from the forums was fully expected, but the forums are nowhere near representative of the entirety of the RB community. The forum community is the most likely to have purchased Blitz at launch or while on sale because they are the most plugged in, they are the completionists, the ones most likely to try a new twist on the traditional RB game play. Of course forum regulars would have loved to see new content alongside the Blitz single releases, but for all the production and bandwidth reasons mentioned in the FAQ it wasn't a possibility.

But it's worth noting that there are a great many people that didn't buy Blitz, and anyone on the Wii has never had the option to purchase these songs before. The size of that addressable community alone is more than the active user base on the forums. We're not releasing Blitz tracks as singles because we are mean or lazy, it's because DLC will reach a lot of people that Blitz didn't. We've done this before with track packs and more recently with GD:RB and we have a pretty solid grasp on requests not just from the forums, but from Facebook, Twitter, PMs, emails, conventions, phone calls, and actual mail. Again, I'm not trying to convince anyone that purchased Blitz that this is for them, I just want to reiterate that the community is larger than the forums.

My question is, after the blitz singles all come out, are you going to continue to release weekly DLC? Or will it be the end of weekly DLC and start bi-weekly DLC?

As with regular DLC announcements, i.e. announcing weekly rather than monthly or announcing batches of upcoming releases all at once, we try to avoid commenting too far out because the schedule / production / testing / submission can still change. We'll have more info as we get closer to releasing all of the Blitz singles.

1. What will happen to the livestream? Will it become bi-weekly? Will you replay Blitz songs? Will you time DC3 DLC to be on the "off-weeks" of RB DLC? (IIRC DC doesn't have an as predictable release schedule compared to RB but they get DLC 2 or 3 times a month, so...)

The livestream should continue on the weekly schedule and will remain a Harmonix showcase, not a show dedicated to one specific game. We'll continue to have RB content, DC content, general discussion, Q&A, and announcements for upcoming titles once they are announced.

We're still discussing RB plans for those Blitz DLC weeks since many of the regulars may already be familiar with the charts. We may still preview them for those that didn't purchase Blitz and Wii owners, or we may supplement with Pro charts, or additional trivia, or live performances, etc. We're still discussing how the livestreams will look so feel free to post any suggestions in the official livestream discussion thread.

[illarion]

Have to say, this is disappointing. I suspect the majority of dedicated fans will already have bought Blitz for the songs, even if they aren't that thrilled by the game - that certainly applies to me.

More generally though, I'm afraid the DLC has been - well, pretty weak, for a pretty long time. I'm a pretty damn loyal customer, I downright WANT to spend money on songs for Rock Band - but I'm only going to do so for songs I at least like.

It's been a really long time since there was a DLC song I was genuinely excited about, and even "well, I kinda like that - ok I guess" songs are pretty few and far between these days. My DLC spend has dropped precipitously, and it's really down to the song selection being made available.

It really seems like the DLC has gone in a direction well away from any of the *many* (and varied) genres that excite me. So many bands I've never heard of (partly just not being American maybe?).

I've posted in suggestion threads here, I've put things in my wishlist on rockbandworld - I've never seen any result from either. It doesn't seem like we have much influence on song selection, if any.

To reiterate - when someone is trying to give you money, but can't find a product they want to buy - it may be time to rethink the product.

EDIT: Reading over that, it comes across as way more negative than intended. I love Rock Band, and I love Harmonix. It just gets a little depressing when I go to check out the new DLC and see a three pack by yet another band I've never heard of.