AfterDawn: News

Downloadable content sales for "Rock Band" skyrockets

According to Van Toffler, president of MTVN Music Group/Logo/Films, gamers have downloaded and purchased over 2.5 million songs for its hit game Rock Band since the game's release late last year.

"Our goal with Rock Band was to create an entirely new way for people to interact with the music they love, the incredible response to the downloadable content we've released to date motivates us even more to establish this platform as a way for people to discover new, up and coming artists through the game - in addition to delivering great game play experiences set to the music of mega-artists," Toffler explained.

Currently, the top selling download is a Metallica triple pack including their hit tracks "Ride The Lightning,” “Blackened” and “And Justice For All”. Triple-packs from other artists such as The Police, Queens of the Stone Age, and David Bowie are also selling very well, added Toffler. For singles, Foreigner's "Juke Box Hero," Weezer’s "Buddy Holly" and covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," and The Knack's "My Sharona" all sold equally as well.



The developers of the game also added that gamers can expect more songs for download every week throughout 2008 including singles, song packs and albums. The MSRP of the downloadable content will be from 0.99 to 2.99 USD per track (80 to 240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360 owners) with most selling for 1.99 USD.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Jan 2008 18:55

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• 9 comments

• gallagher

  Quote:The MSRP of the downloadable content will be from 0.99 to 2.99 USD per track (80 to 240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360 owners) with most selling for 1.99 USD. How is it an MSRP? It is not like there is competition where prices are recommended or "suggested" by the publisher or Microsoft. The MSRP is in reality the MANDATORY price.
  
  I enjoy Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but this just goes to show that without competition, music songs would be much more than the .99 we see now.
  
  Reminds me of the scumbag cable companies. Even with satellite and phone companies, the prices are a rip-off. And now they are going to be shooting us back 10 years to the pay by minute or content. That is a monopoly that needs to be broken up.
  
  It would be awesome if I could actually choose which stations I wanted from Comcast. Then I could choose maybe 10 of the good ones and not get ripped off by the overcharges brought on by certain stations like the sports networks.
  
  All I want is choice.

  18.1.2008 19:18 #1

• snowlock

  Sounds like they're going to have a serious collection of dlc for rock band, so that's really good. The price, however, is definitely way too much. Everyone's already paid almost $200 US for the game/hardware and now they have to shell out 3 bucks just for a track. Even the dollar per track seems too expensive, considering how it's already too expensive for itunes.
  
  @gallagher
  "a-la-carte" cable just isn't gonna happen because they'd have to mark it up to where those 10 stations cost $50/month to maintain ridiculous profit margins. At least that's what I've read about it. As for the cell-phone monopoly, the whole blatant lie of "$200 rebate with contract" on these phones will be busted up eventually. They say a phone costs some kinda $250 bucks so you need that contract to get that rebate, but the SAME PHONE is $50 for the pre-paid with minutes on it and the only difference is they locked it from being able to use monthly rate plans. The government stepped in and busted up the old bell phone company monopoly, and this is no different.
  /rant

  18.1.2008 23:55 #2

• vinny13

  I'm getting Rock Band. I really like how they update their downloads so often. The price is too much but I'm pretty sure they'll have some deals or something in the future...
  
  Besides, when the PS3 finally gets hacked and stuff(in my case) I'll just get whatever I want for free >:]

  19.1.2008 01:01 #3

• FlakMNKEY

  2.5 million downloads? Damn, I bet the makers of GH3 are really pissed off with themselves for not making their DLC cheaper and not having as much. Last time I checked they were content with a couple hundred thousand downloads.
  
  They figured that everyone would want their dlc no matter what the price, and didn't budge a inch on the price, and basically told their customers to go fuck themselves.
  
  I'm glad I switched to rockband, much better game, it's 4 games in one, they have much better and cheaper DLC than GH. Sorry GH im telling you to go fuck yourself now.

  20.1.2008 18:09 #4

• emugamer

  Rock Band is so much more engaging than GH. And I do love GH. I have both for the PS2, but when I get my 360 this year, I'm getting Rock Band instead of GH. I think the price for the dlc is very reasonable.

  21.1.2008 12:05 #5

• snowlock

  i obviously know nothing about dlc "pricing," but that doesn't make $1-3 per track "cheap" or "reasonable" in any way, considering just how expensive the initial purchase is. from comments on this article, it seems gh3 dlc is more expensive, which is plain nuts, but that just means i wouldn't even consider buying dlc.
  the thing is, $100 buying you game + hardware minus bonus downloads is far more reasonable than $170 buying you the same thing. rock band may contain more equipment to add different ways to play, but without expanding the library each new play-through with the next instrument would be less and less interesting. meaning it's not like one, two, three different games but more like 1, 1.5, 1.75 different games with the option to buy the other 1.25 parts.
  rock band is out of the question for me anyway, since they didn't make a wii version and i'm damn sure not buying some $160 ps2 game.
  
  all that being said...i'd pay out the nose to play that foreigner track on any of these games. =)

  21.1.2008 16:43 #6

• emugamer

  Originally posted by snowlock: i obviously know nothing about dlc "pricing," but that doesn't make $1-3 per track "cheap" or "reasonable" in any way, considering just how expensive the initial purchase is. from comments on this article, it seems gh3 dlc is more expensive, which is plain nuts, but that just means i wouldn't even consider buying dlc.
  the thing is, $100 buying you game + hardware minus bonus downloads is far more reasonable than $170 buying you the same thing. rock band may contain more equipment to add different ways to play, but without expanding the library each new play-through with the next instrument would be less and less interesting. meaning it's not like one, two, three different games but more like 1, 1.5, 1.75 different games with the option to buy the other 1.25 parts.
  rock band is out of the question for me anyway, since they didn't make a wii version and i'm damn sure not buying some $160 ps2 game.
  
  all that being said...i'd pay out the nose to play that foreigner track on any of these games. =)The cool thing about Rock Band is it's more a social game than GH. So you can play the same somg over and over agin with different people and still enjoy the different outcomes. It's a blast after a few drinks. I could easily drop $10 on some new song content, knowing that it will make a party more interesting. And the game hardware is really a one time investment. It's nice that you can purchase the instruments individually also.

  21.1.2008 21:27 #7

• snowlock

  Quote:Originally posted by snowlock: i obviously know nothing about dlc "pricing," but that doesn't make $1-3 per track "cheap" or "reasonable" in any way...gh3 dlc is more expensive...rock band is out of the question for me anyway, since they didn't make a wii version...but i'd pay out the nose to play that foreigner track on any of these games. =)The cool thing about Rock Band is it's more a social game than GH...I cold easily drop $10 on some new song content, knowing that it will make a party more interesting...It's nice that you can purchase the instruments individually also.
  yeah, i just noticed that you could actually get each instrument, so if you want just buy drums and use the gh controller (360 not ps3 or the other way around?) you can and that's pretty nifty. it would, then, make a lot of sense to give the customer incentive to purchas the entire package by including free dlc, even if only vouchers for a few tracks. guess it's just a fantasy to ever believe these companies would miss an opportunity to milk every dime out of their loyal customers.
  it's just a bad move by the publishers to have no wii version, especially because of it being such a social game and the wii being an obvious "group console". the party game thing only sells to certain consumers, because many times they're not nearly as fun (or as worthwhile) without in-person multiplayer. i personally only rent party games, considering how i don't really know a party worth of people willing to gather and play any sort of video games.

  21.1.2008 22:27 #8

• borhan9

  New initiative i like this.

  16.2.2008 18:19 #9