In a nutshell, the only downloadable songs GH2 is getting are the same ones from GH1. They are releasing 3 songs per download pack (stupid idea, they should just have each song separate), but apparently I just found out GH3 is coming out soon already. So there's really no point in making new songs for this. Boooo.
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http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=...UserId=4549029
Guitar Hero sells out.
I looked out this morning, and the fun was gone
Turned on some games to start my day
And I lost six bucks on a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I blogged awaaaaaaaaaaaay...
Major Nelson reports this morning that the first DLC for Guitar Hero II (360) will be the following:
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 1
Price: 500 Points
Dash Details: Bark at the Moon as made famous by Ozzy Osbourne, Hey You as made famous by The Exies, Ace of Spades as made famous by Motorhead
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 2
Price: 500 Points
Dash Details: Killer Queen as made famous by Queen, Take it Off as made famous by The Donnas, Frankenstein as made famous by The Edgar Winter Group
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 3
Price: 500 Points
Dash Details: Higher Ground as made famous by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infected as made famous by Bad Religon, Stellar as made famous by Incubus
Looking at a Marketplace point converter, 500 points is $6.25. Divided by 3, that's a little over $2 per song.
Awesome -- I'd pay for that, and it's what a lot of people expected the cost to be. Buying a song on the iTunes Music Store costs $1, and with GH2 you're getting the ability to "play" that song (with the new GH2 features). Great.
Only that's not how much it really costs. Let's wreck some **** with math."
Musical preferences diverge wildly amongst people. Looking at those bundles, I'm personally only interested in Killer Queen, Bark at the Moon and Higher Ground. Three songs at $2 a piece should set me back $6.
Nope, sorry: $18.74 for the three songs I want and six I don't. About $6 per song, which is a pretty terrible deal.
And this is where it gets ugly: There are 30 songs in the original Guitar Hero, not counting the "bonus" songs. Divided by 3, that's 10 packs they'll eventually have available (we assume).
10 packs @ 500 points per pack = 5000 points...or $62.48.
"Well if you don't like it, don't buy..."
Stop. Not done yet: Divided by 30 songs, that breaks down to $2.08 per song. See what they're doing? The only way to get that original $2 value is if you buy every song from the original Guitar Hero (which, by the way, is only $39.99 at EB), including the ones you don't like all that much and won't play.
The only thing Activision forgot to throw in here was the Ticketmaster sponsorship.
"But what about new songs?"
Yes, the potential for downloading completely new songs to the 360 exists. But consider the following:
In April, 9 GH1 songs are released. If the pattern holds, May will see 9 more. June brings the tally to 27, and throw in the last pack of three before July.
July, August, September...that's three months to fill before "autumn," and what happens then?
Guitar Hero III. Available for your PS3, PS2, Wii, and Xbox 360. New songs, new features, and another $50 from your wallet.
Do we really expect Activision/RedOctane to go through the trouble of licensing and developing new songs for GH2 just for three months leading up to the release of GH3? Of course not, they'll save the A-list songs for the sequel, and then the effort for new DLC songs will be put into the PS3, 360 and maybe even Wii download services for GH3.
Would they really decide to make GH3 songs downloadable for GH2 360 users, when they'd have to strip the GH3 features, whatever they may be, and make them backward compatible? Of course not, make them buy the sequel.
Would they really draw attention away from GH3, when they need to be trumpeting it as the "original rock music game" as loud as they can against the coming Rock Band EA/MTV marketing machine? Of course not, they want as many people as possible buying GH3 this fall. It's a pretty smart strategy, if you look at it from a business perspective: We all know Rock Band is going to be expensive as hell, so how do you prevent people from going with EA/Harmonix? Bleed them dry before they get the chance to.
For the Xbox 360 owner, the tally comes to:
GH2 and Guitar ($90) + GH1 DLC ($63) + GH3 ($50)
= $203
So, thanks a lot guys. You took a completely awesome idea, earned heaps of critical praise, made it insanely popular among the masses...and then promptly channeled the unholy powers of the music industry. Just be aware that now you're going to suffer from the same problems they do:
"I really love the Rolling Stones, but I just can't pay $200 to see them."
Posted at Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:02:08 PDT
I looked out this morning, and the fun was gone
Turned on some games to start my day
And I lost six bucks on a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I blogged awaaaaaaaaaaaay...
Major Nelson reports this morning that the first DLC for Guitar Hero II (360) will be the following:
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 1
Price: 500 Points
Dash Details: Bark at the Moon as made famous by Ozzy Osbourne, Hey You as made famous by The Exies, Ace of Spades as made famous by Motorhead
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 2
Price: 500 Points
Dash Details: Killer Queen as made famous by Queen, Take it Off as made famous by The Donnas, Frankenstein as made famous by The Edgar Winter Group
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 3
Price: 500 Points
Dash Details: Higher Ground as made famous by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infected as made famous by Bad Religon, Stellar as made famous by Incubus
Looking at a Marketplace point converter, 500 points is $6.25. Divided by 3, that's a little over $2 per song.
Awesome -- I'd pay for that, and it's what a lot of people expected the cost to be. Buying a song on the iTunes Music Store costs $1, and with GH2 you're getting the ability to "play" that song (with the new GH2 features). Great.
Only that's not how much it really costs. Let's wreck some **** with math."
Musical preferences diverge wildly amongst people. Looking at those bundles, I'm personally only interested in Killer Queen, Bark at the Moon and Higher Ground. Three songs at $2 a piece should set me back $6.
Nope, sorry: $18.74 for the three songs I want and six I don't. About $6 per song, which is a pretty terrible deal.
And this is where it gets ugly: There are 30 songs in the original Guitar Hero, not counting the "bonus" songs. Divided by 3, that's 10 packs they'll eventually have available (we assume).
10 packs @ 500 points per pack = 5000 points...or $62.48.
"Well if you don't like it, don't buy..."
Stop. Not done yet: Divided by 30 songs, that breaks down to $2.08 per song. See what they're doing? The only way to get that original $2 value is if you buy every song from the original Guitar Hero (which, by the way, is only $39.99 at EB), including the ones you don't like all that much and won't play.
The only thing Activision forgot to throw in here was the Ticketmaster sponsorship.
"But what about new songs?"
Yes, the potential for downloading completely new songs to the 360 exists. But consider the following:
In April, 9 GH1 songs are released. If the pattern holds, May will see 9 more. June brings the tally to 27, and throw in the last pack of three before July.
July, August, September...that's three months to fill before "autumn," and what happens then?
Guitar Hero III. Available for your PS3, PS2, Wii, and Xbox 360. New songs, new features, and another $50 from your wallet.
Do we really expect Activision/RedOctane to go through the trouble of licensing and developing new songs for GH2 just for three months leading up to the release of GH3? Of course not, they'll save the A-list songs for the sequel, and then the effort for new DLC songs will be put into the PS3, 360 and maybe even Wii download services for GH3.
Would they really decide to make GH3 songs downloadable for GH2 360 users, when they'd have to strip the GH3 features, whatever they may be, and make them backward compatible? Of course not, make them buy the sequel.
Would they really draw attention away from GH3, when they need to be trumpeting it as the "original rock music game" as loud as they can against the coming Rock Band EA/MTV marketing machine? Of course not, they want as many people as possible buying GH3 this fall. It's a pretty smart strategy, if you look at it from a business perspective: We all know Rock Band is going to be expensive as hell, so how do you prevent people from going with EA/Harmonix? Bleed them dry before they get the chance to.
For the Xbox 360 owner, the tally comes to:
GH2 and Guitar ($90) + GH1 DLC ($63) + GH3 ($50)
= $203
So, thanks a lot guys. You took a completely awesome idea, earned heaps of critical praise, made it insanely popular among the masses...and then promptly channeled the unholy powers of the music industry. Just be aware that now you're going to suffer from the same problems they do:
"I really love the Rolling Stones, but I just can't pay $200 to see them."
Posted at Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:02:08 PDT
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