PreGameLobby

Serren · 04-11-2007, 09:57 AM

Activision has debuted the first song packs for Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360's Marketplace, with three downloadable sets of 3-song packs from the original Guitar Hero costing 500 Microsoft points ($6.25) each.

Specifically, as revealed by Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb on his official Microsoft weblog, the following debuted in all territories except Asia for digital download:

Guitar Hero Track Pack 1
"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."

Guitar Hero Track Pack 2
"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."

Guitar Hero Track Pack 3
"Higher Ground as made famous by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infected as made famous by Bad Religon, Stellar as made famous by Incubus."

Initial reaction to the pricing has been mixed, with Major Nelson reader 'Xaos' commenting: "The current 3 packs contain songs that are from the original Guitar Hero, of which there are 47 total playable songs (including lesser known ones), and at 500 MSP per 3 songs, that equates to roughly 8000 MSP total ($99.96 US, £68.00, $132.00 AUD) for just the GH1 songs."

Several other users expressed concern over pricing, to which Hryb noted: "Remember, these song packs contain licensed songs. Licensing songs gets pretty expensive, and complicated when you involve other countries. Anyone who knows a little bit about the music industry and publishing can tell you that it's not a walk in the park to secure content and the proper distribution licenses for songs."

Crippler · 04-11-2007, 10:01 AM

I already posted some thoughts here, but I'll copy up my words here to:

Why not offer up a few FREE song packs first? I understand this is business. But, come on, all this nickel and dime stuff is gonna put a very sour taste in gamers mouths when it comes to Marketplace. I know it already has for me. Then MS is gonna have a hell of a time changing gamers minds about it. I just watched a GH2 video where the dev stated that the song packs were gonna be free. What happened? At least show the Gold members some love with some meaningful free shit here and there. Throw us a bone. Sorry, I'm a tad bitter about Epic wanting to offer new Gears maps for free (like they have always done for their community) and then MS forces a price upon those maps (publisher). Some good FREE content here and there isn't gonna put anyone out of business. It may actually help people stomach paying for additional content later. Frustrating to see this whole Marketplace concept get polluted.

Disappointing to say the least. I totally enjoyed the game and was actually considering buying it knowing more songs were coming. Now, with these prices, GH2 is no longer a buy. Not gonna do it.

Jon Liu · 04-11-2007, 10:35 AM

yeah, 500 points is pretty steep for 3 songs... If it were 500 for all 9 songs, then it would be a lot better to me.

D_Litch · 04-11-2007, 10:35 AM

I remember these were supposed to be free. I probably won't buy any of these(maybe the one with Ace of Spades). The others don't have any songs that interest me. And $5 for 3 songs is ridiculous.

dmiller68 · 04-11-2007, 10:46 AM

I also posted where Crippler did... If Apple can sell them for $.99 why can't these guys. I bought this with the upstanding that I would be able to grow the song collection reasonably this isn't that model.

AZRaiderH8r · 04-11-2007, 11:04 AM

Yeah, that sux. After throwing down 90 bucks for this, I'm not exactly in a hurry to spend even more money for a pack of 3 songs (with each pack having at least one song that I could care less about). I'd like to see them somehow put a bunch of songs out there and let us create our "own" packs of 3, 5, whatever. I'd be much more likely to buy if I got a say in things.

Jon Liu · 04-11-2007, 11:04 AM

Exactly. Why is it that it ends up being a couple dollars for virtual songs that I can't even listen outside of this game?

Crippler · 04-11-2007, 11:51 AM

This was the best response to this that I have read so far:

Quote:

I think we've found the answer to the question "How could they possibly ruin guitar hero?"

^^ from a Digg comment

Gordon · 04-11-2007, 12:03 PM

Hmm... I sort of see it as a ratio towards what the previous Guitar Hero game cost and how many songs it offered verses the price that they are selling them for. The last game would be what? $60.00 without guitar and it offered 47 songs. That makes each song worth about $1.28 if there were an option to purchase them separately. There may have been some type of problem for them to take the same coding from Guitar Hero 1 on the PS2 to move it onto the Xbox 360, which could explain for the increase. Of course the disk fees would be a bit lower because of digital distribution, but at the same time you are paying for some of the top games of Guitar Hero.

I personally will not be getting either Guitar Hero 2 on the Xbox 360 or the downloadable songs because I have the game on the PS2. Overall I really just like the music of Guitar Hero 1 but the modified presentation of Guitar Hero 2. I do see how this would allow me to have the better songs on Guitar Hero 2… but I already have it on 1 so I will just pop in that game.

But yes I do agree that it would have been great for them to release them for free, but there are a few licensing issues I assume. Perhaps Microsoft is forcing them to charge for the extra content, which was the rumoured reason why some of the Bullet Witch content also had a nominal fee. After all the internets did not grow on tree, and it does still cost a bit of money to get them up as downloads on the Xbox marketplace, and maybe even a bit more for fees from the ISP. But for $5.00 I would just buy TMNT or save up a bit more for Castlevania since I could see myself playing them longer than 3 songs.

D_Litch · 04-11-2007, 12:04 PM

Digg commenter's come up with either the greatest retorts, or the stupidest.

Serren · 04-11-2007, 12:14 PM

I was also wishing to get more songs someday, but at the current pricing, I will NEVER buy any. I was thinking a buck a song would be reasonable, or less if you buy a bundle. But at over $2 per, and your forced to get songs you dont want, that just sucks.

I am sure this model will flop. It is the horse armor again. They learned, and had future add-ons at more reasonable prices. (Even free!)

I bet some artists would gladly allow thier music to be played on GH2. Pearl Jam might! Let's email them!

I wish we had an MVP to voice our concerns... :-)

D_Litch · 04-11-2007, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serren

I wish we had an MVP to voice our concerns... :-)

He's too busy using the Spring update already.

Peench · 04-11-2007, 03:37 PM

You guys. You don't think Major Nelson hasn't read all the comments on his site about this? I'll poke around and point MS in the direction of this thread but this does seem very odd.

I could have seen something like the razor blade business model (give the holders away for free and charge an arm and a leg for the actual razors), but its not like the guitar and game were cheap.

I was interested in buying Guitar Hero II, but given the problems with the guitar and the crazy priced add-ons, I'm not sure I will now. I guess I could simply play the songs in the game itself, but the negativity surrounding this decision (and so early after release) will definitely cost them in sales. It is very disappointing.

Quo · 04-11-2007, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peench

I was interested in buying Guitar Hero II, but given the problems with the guitar and the crazy priced add-ons, I'm not sure I will now. I guess I could simply play the songs in the game itself, but the negativity surrounding this decision (and so early after release) will definitely cost them in sales. It is very disappointing.

Ditto. I'm waiting. Too big an investment in one game -- a game that's not even online co-op or vs, right?

I love the idea of this game. But the songs whould be priced at 0.99 each. You can't tell me they have that much invested in creating new tracks other than the rights to the songs and a few hours of programming.

Jon Liu · 04-11-2007, 05:24 PM

It will hurt their bottom line, that's for sure. I don't think you should disregard the game just because of it. The game itself, with it's 70 songs is still great.

lovekeiiy · 04-11-2007, 05:37 PM

The cost for those song packs stinks. Gee, 9 songs for $18.75. That's almost a third of the cost of brand new game without any special controller. If I had the game, I would not be getting any of those song packs.

That said, I can see where there could be a cost. There are probably some royalities that have to be paid. And the normal cost of putting stuff on XBL servers that MS may charge.

I wonder it if is possible to download the content onto a PC, and then transfer to a 360 via a USB card, similar to the PS3 update system. Then the companies that don't want to charge to content and MS wants to force the issue, could have another option.

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