Rock Band DLC prices!

[Midnight Son]

With Rock Band set for release next Tuesday, Harmonix today finally took the wraps off its downloadable content model today. The studio has apparently heard complaints regarding the mandatory three-song bundles and $6.25 price point adopted by the Guitar Hero franchise's downloadable content, and is giving gamers a bit of a break.

Rock Band will still feature pre-selected three-song packs for download, but they will instead cost $5.49 (440 Microsoft points on Xbox 360). Songs will also be available individually for $1.99. Harmonix has said future songs will be sold individually for as little as $.99 (80 Microsoft points), and as much as $2.99 (240 points). However, "the vast majority" will come in at the standard $1.99 price point. The developer did not say how much full-album downloads would be, or when the first albums would be released.


Not too bad.

[Midnight Son]

Release schedule:

Harmonix also detailed its release schedule for the first five weeks after Rock Band launches. The opening week will be highlighted by track packs from Metallica, The Police, and Queens of the Stone Age, with individual songs from Creedence Clearwater Revival, Foreigner, T-Rex, and more. Downloaded tracks will be integrated into all of the game's modes, and will be playable online only if all players have purchased the songs.

Week of November 20, 2007: (*--asterisk denotes a cover version)
Metallica Pack
"Ride the Lightning"--Metallica
"Blackened"--Metallica
"And Justice for All"--Metallica

The Police Pack
"Can't Stand Losing You"--The Police
"Synchronicity II"--The Police
"Roxanne"--The Police

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
"3's and 7's"--Queens of the Stone Age
"Little Sister"--Queens of the Stone Age
"Sick Sick Sick"--Queens of the Stone Age

Individual Tracks
"Fortunate Son" as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival *
"Juke Box Hero" as made famous by Foreigner *
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)" as made famous by T-Rex *
"My Sharona" as made famous by The Knack *
"Cherry Bomb" as made famous by The Runaways *
"Joker & The Thief"--Wolfmother

Week of November 27, 2007
David Bowie Pack
"Moonage Daydream"--David Bowie
"Heroes" as made famous by David Bowie *
"Queen Bitch" as made famous by David Bowie *

Week of December 4, 2007
Black Sabbath Pack
"N.I.B." as made famous by Black Sabbath *
"Sweet Leaf" as made famous by Black Sabbath *
"War Pigs" as made famous by Black Sabbath *

Week of December 11, 2007
Punk Pack:
"Rockaway Beach"--Ramones
"I Fought the Law"--The Clash
"Ever Fallen In Love" as made famous by Buzzcocks *

Week of December 18, 2007
Individual Tracks
"My Iron Lung"--Radiohead
"Buddy Holly"--Weezer
"Brass in Pocket" as made famous by Pretenders *

[Rock8man]

That's pretty cool. Especially considering that the content will be integrated into all the game's modes. So even the single player campaign choices will continue to grow, and grow and grow as time goes on and you're able to buy more and more of the songs you want.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I think there should be some sort of screening for who is and isn't allowed to try their hand at singing Roxanne.

[XPav]

"Buddy Holly"--Weezer
I have loved this song since it was on the Windows 95 CD.

[Midnight Son]

I think there should be some sort of screening for who is and isn't allowed to try their hand at singing Roxanne.

Just kick 'em in the nuts first.

[Midnight Son]

I have loved this song since it was on the Windows 95 CD.

It's one of those catchy fun songs the whole family will enjoy!

[delirium]

fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

great Metallica pack!!

I wasn't sure if I was going to buy Rock Band day 1, but that alone pretty much guarantees a purchase

[Ephraim]

Ooh. I'm digging The Police download pack, and it sorely tempts me to name my band "Scrantonicity". Or perhaps "Scrantonicity II".

[Traumahound]

That's an unfortunately weak Bowie pack.

[MattKeil]

What happened to The Who?

[Wholly Schmidt]

The Who?

[Justin Fletcher]

Album DLC details are still under wraps.

[Funkula]

That release schedule suggests they won't be doing albums this year. That's unfortunate.

That said:
Metallica Pack
"Ride the Lightning"--Metallica
"Blackened"--Metallica
"And Justice for All"--Metallica

The Police Pack
"Can't Stand Losing You"--The Police
"Synchronicity II"--The Police
"Roxanne"--The Police

"Fortunate Son" as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival *
Win.

[Marcus]

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY MONEY?!

[Greedo]

Man oh man . . . I can't friggin' wait.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I'm digging the Queens of the Stone Age selections, but what they really need is the drumtastic Song for the Dead.

[Jeff Fiske]

Interesting what is covers and what is not. I guess Metallica decided if they were going to participate, no way it was going to be a cover.

(I do wonder how the behind the scenes negotiations for something like works out, in terms of monetizing this for the artists & record companies.)

[Ben Sones]

I think that's a fair price. They are really showing up Activision by coming in cheaper, even by a little. Because the RB songs also have considerably more value to begin with--tracks for four instruments instead of two, and integration into the game modes. The latter is a pretty big deal, to me. I was a bit disappointed that the DL content for in the GH games is just sort of... there. The songs are fun to play, but you don't really get anything for playing them, game-wise, so every time I load one up, I'm thinking "I could be trying to beat a score in a campaign song right now."

[MyNameIsWill]

Good that they came in cheaper and with variety in pricing.

[Reldan]

win Win WIN!

Holy shit. that's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for.

November 20 is the new Christmas.

[wumpus]

Glad I bought $62.50 worth of MS Points, because I'm gonna need 'em!

[Marcus]

So this game is gonna be expensive

MS points = 50$ (thats on the low end)
Drum Stool = 75$
Game = 170$

Total = Priceless!

You know what though? I feel its fucking worth it.

[wumpus]

So is there any way to get a discount on buying a bunch of MS points? Any deals out there?

[Wholly Schmidt]

So is there any way to get a discount on buying a bunch of MS points? Any deals out there?
Every now and then there will be sales at Circuit City or someplace on the point cards. No standard "bulk" discount through Microsoft or anything though.

[madkevin]

That's an unfortunately weak Bowie pack.

Are you shitting me? "Moonage Daydream" is great glam-era Bowie, "Heroes" allows you to live out your Robert Fripp fantasies, and "Queen Bitch" is the best Velvet Underground rip-off ever.

Speaking of which: How about some Velvet Underground? Maybe a pack with "Heroin", "European Son" and "Sister Ray". The anti-music pack, if you will.

[Kid Socrates]

This game got bumped up to a must-buy with that Police pack. Now I get to belt out "Roxanne" at the top of my lungs until I'm kicked out of my apartment. Good times!

[Ben Sones]

I guess Harmonix weren't kidding about providing a lot of DLC. They are releasing more in the first week than either GHII or III have released to date.

[Ryan Markel]

This announcement had me immediately wondering where I was going to get a couple hundred dollars in the next week.

[RickH]

Every now and then there will be sales at Circuit City or someplace on the point cards. No standard "bulk" discount through Microsoft or anything though.

The best deal is buy one 360 accessory, get one half off. The $20 cards go quick when that happens. However, you could pick up two $50 cards, or a $50 card and a 13-mo XBL card for $75.

[Rock8man]

I wonder if they're doing the right thing by releasing all this new content so soon after release? Won't people be less likely to buy it now since they've just spent a lot of money on the game itself? I guess they want to know early on if this revenue stream will work or if they should abandon the DLC model and move to making expansion packs or something that sells better.

Still, to counter my own objection, since the game integrates the downloaded content into the campaign, maybe releasing all this content early isn't such a bad idea after all. So people can add more of the music of their own liking into the campaign even on their first play-through. So for example, someone who doesn't like the Queens of the Stone Age pack can ignore, and go for the Police pack if they're big fans of that.

[Ben Sones]

I think it's smart. The DLC isn't going anywhere, so people don't have to get it now. At the same time, it does demonstrate their commitment to providing DLC regularly, right out of the gate. Hearing them say "We want to provide a ton of DLC songs" is one thing (we heard the same thing about GHII, right?). Seeing their release schedule through the end of the year is another.

[MyNameIsWill]

The only problem I see with DLC, is that with about $32 of DLC available week one, people may ask "I just spent $170 on this.. and you want me to pay another $32 to get the entire experience?" This is especially true if they like one of the week one DLC songs more than something included. *shrugs*

[delirium]

The only problem I see with DLC, is that with about $32 of DLC available week one, people may ask "I just spent $170 on this.. and you want me to pay another $32 to get the entire experience?" This is especially true if they like one of the week one DLC songs more than something included. *shrugs*

I'm sure some people will complain about it. We sure see outrage when publishers try to charge for content that only needs to be unlocked from the disc with the argument that it was ready when the game was finished so it should have been included as part of the price.

It all depends on how much value you feel like you're getting. I think most people will agree that the price point for Rock Band is fair, especially when compared next to Guitar Hero 3. They are being very smart with the pricing. The bundle looks very affordable for everything you get compared to what you're paying for a Guitar Hero game and controller. And with the DLC, they're undercutting GH by just enough while adding more content.

Before GH3 came out, I would have said I was looking forward more to that, but now I'm very close to selling the game to afford Rock Band.

[Reldan]

There's also a kind of precedent that they don't have more than one song from any single band on the disc of these games. I can buy that if you really loved Metallica (woo!) or the Police you could opt to pay more for the music you enjoy, but if you hated those bands you wouldn't want to stick people with having to play multiple songs they hate.

I also can believe that if the can do about 3 songs a week, this content may very well be stuff they've been working on since going gold. They could be tweaking on these songs right now.

[Traumahound]

Are you shitting me? "Moonage Daydream" is great glam-era Bowie, "Heroes" allows you to live out your Robert Fripp fantasies, and "Queen Bitch" is the best Velvet Underground rip-off ever.

Speaking of which: How about some Velvet Underground? Maybe a pack with "Heroin", "European Son" and "Sister Ray". The anti-music pack, if you will.

Heroes is awesome, definitely, but I was hoping for things more along the lines of Changes, Modern Love, Golden Years, Scary Monsters, Heart's Filthy Lesson, I'm Afraid of Americans...

I guess when you've released hundreds of songs, it's difficult to please everyone by releasing a pack of three songs.

[StGabe]

Unadultered awesome.

[Shadarr]

The only problem I see with DLC, is that with about $32 of DLC available week one, people may ask "I just spent $170 on this.. and you want me to pay another $32 to get the entire experience?" This is especially true if they like one of the week one DLC songs more than something included. *shrugs*
I don't think anyone's going to feel gyped by what's included on the disc, although they may still flinch at the price. It's also unlikely that anyone will like all of the DLC more than what's included. They may really really want to play the Metallica songs, but that doesn't cost $32. The producer has stated that unlike other games, Rock Band DLC is intended for people to pick and choose what they want. Rather than having to spend $32 to get the "entire experience", it's an opportunity to get a few songs you like without having to play a bunch of songs you don't like.

I would've loved it if GH2 had been released under this model; it would've cost me about $15.

[Justin Fletcher]

Speaking of which: How about some Velvet Underground? Maybe a pack with "Heroin", "European Son" and "Sister Ray".
Sister Ray could be a pack all by itself.

[Justin Fletcher]

The only problem I see with DLC, is that with about $32 of DLC available week one, people may ask "I just spent $170 on this.. and you want me to pay another $32 to get the entire experience?" This is especially true if they like one of the week one DLC songs more than something included. *shrugs*
If Harmonix released RB with less songs than they had on GH or GHII, then I might see how people could complain. But since there are already a ton of songs on the disc, the DLC definitely comes across as "extras" to me. And it shows Harmonix living up to their promise of DLC being available early and often.

I'm a little disappointed by the price (50 cents less would have been the sweet spot for me), but considering the integration, the selection, and the fact that you can buy a la carte, I'm pretty amped by this news. Especially since "Can't Stand Losing You" has never been one of my favorites.

[wonderpug]

Heroes is awesome, definitely, but I was hoping for things more along the lines of Changes, Modern Love, Golden Years, Scary Monsters, Heart's Filthy Lesson, I'm Afraid of Americans...

I guess when you've released hundreds of songs, it's difficult to please everyone by releasing a pack of three songs.

Also keep in mind that they can't just choose popular songs; they have to fit the game. The lead guitar in songs like Golden Years and Rebel Rebel seem like they'd be awfully repetitive and boring to play in a game context, and songs like Modern Love would be hard to translate unless you had the guitar and bass lines playing the piano and saxophone. Isn't Changes mostly piano as well?

[wumpus]

Yeah, it's funny how songs you think would be AWESOME to play on Guitar Hero / RB turn out just so-so.. and other songs you wouldn't even consider turn out to be quite fun to play.

In other words, beyond the issue of instrumental appropriateness wonderpug brings up, it's STILL devilishly difficult to predict what songs will rock on the plastic guitar.