Let's hope this is a preparatory feature leading to what really needs to happen: The creation of a much, much larger music library. As it stands now, we get an underwhelming three new songs per week (not counting the recent anomalous 6-song Grateful Dead pack). Yawn. I want an iTunes-calibre library of Rock Band-friendly songs to choose from. And I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
One would think that music labels would jump on this new distribution (and revenue-generating) opportunity. Existing songs are already selling very well even though at $1.99 they cost double what the average iTunes song costs.
Here's hoping the new store interface is a hint of vaster libraries of music to come.
3 comments:
Did you just say "vaster" in public?
If the marketers were smart, they would have released ONE Grateful Dead "song" and given it 6 different names. No one would have noticed.
This in-game music store news is brilliant, and it makes me want a PS3 even more. As I've complained about before - loudly - the Wii release of "Guitar Hero III" (not the same game, but obviously a close cousin) is the only version that does not allow for downloadable content, and that severely limits the shelf-life - especially if you're prone to a bit of music snobbery, like I'm told I am. At the end of the day, it's not all that fun to play along with songs you actively dislike.
With a game like "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" - where the entire point is the music, and the graphics and presentation mean very little - a publisher could just keep buying song rights and releasing new tracks rather than working towards developing some v2.0 that would likely only include brighter lights and louder whistles...it could make for a very long shelf life. I have to imagine that buying song rights is a lot cheaper than building a new game.
Ahh...ahh! Here's some great news!
http://wii.ign.com/articles/861/861448p1.html
This is my favorite part:
"...because the Wii's online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they've come to expect."
You...wanted to wait? For what exactly? You're going to...issue an update? Oh wait - you can't...because you're not supporting downloadable content. There's no fucking "waiting", you jackass. You didn't want to do the heavy lifting so you did a quick-and-crappy port to cash in and cut out the apparently-too-hard-to-engineer on-line component - the biggest argument for the exorbitant list price. You're not waiting for anything - that would be too imply that you'll make good at some point in the future.
My only regret is that I can't blame Nintendo for this asinine, insulting decision - at least, I don't think I can...this is a big "fuck you" from Harmonix to the Wii user base.
The joke's on you...I can't download content for my Wii version of "Guitar Hero III", so I gave up on it months ago. The only reason I ever pick it up is to...wait for it...go online! The one-player experience is over and done - for a kit that cost me $90, that's unacceptable. If it were not for the on-line battles I would have eBay-ed the whole rig weeks ago - and even with that, I grow very, very weary of the included tracks. Playing along with songs you didn't like to begin with has limited entertainment value.
"Pro Evolution Soccer: 2008" for Wii cost me $39.99, and I guarantee you that I'll be playing that until next Fall - at least, I hope that it keeps me interested that long, because I sure as hell won't be buying "Rock Band."
You won't be buying Rock Band on a Wii, that is.
I still have zero excitement about the Wii. Never had it. Never will. My brother has one. We never touch it. Wii Sports is little more than a memory of something cool we did last Summer. Like the twist.
Whenever I visit him, we bust out Rock Band. Our band "Yarn Messiah" is currently stuck around 600,000 fans due to the difficulty curve and our lack of diligence to get better at the higher difficulty levels on some songs. But we don't care. It's fuckin' fun. We do this on his 720p projector with a huge-ass 100+inch image size. Meanwhile, the Wii sits by his PS2 somewhere in his bedroom hooked up to a shitty CRT television from the early '90s. That says it all to me.
A follow-up on the in-game store. It is a great resource, but there are issues. While you can preview songs (a godsend, and I'm agnostic) and buy songs, you can't install the songs from within the game. You can't download your purchased songs while playing the game. You have to exit the game to download and install your download. So, the in-game store feels useful (song previews are good) but lacking in an important feature (ease of purchase). It's kind of Web 1.0. Think of the iTunes music store where you use iTunes to browse and purchase, but then have to quit iTunes to download and install before going back into iTunes to experience your purchase.
Yeah. Not so great.
I'm glad the store is in there, definitely. But the purchase/install process is clunky.
Next, Harmonix, for fuck's sake PLEASE enable band career mode in online play. The lack of this feature is very nearly game-breaking.
Post a Comment