Topic: Guitar Hero World Tour to Feature Downloadable Song Tracks

[Nick DiMola]

The next major iteration of Guitar Hero will be the first Wii rhythm title to offer DLC in the form of new tracks that can be played from the SD card.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16215

 In a recent interview with Game Daily Karthik Bala, CEO of Guitar Hero World Tour developer Vicarious Visions, revealed that the Wii version of the game will feature downloadable content. Players will be able to purchase and download additional song tracks for the rhythm game in order to continually expand their selection beyond the songs that ship on the disc. No Wii game prior has featured downloadable content to this extent.    

Though this news in and of itself is fantastic, Bala revealed yet another enticing detail: players will be able to play tracks directly from an SD Card. Tracks saved directly to the SD card are referred to in-game as the Rock Archive and players can group them into a custom set and play them in any of the game's venues.    

Karthik Bala also revealed to Game Daily that the downloaded music will be stored "in a custom format for Wii so it's as compact as possible, but still sounds great."    

Guitar Hero World Tour will be available for Wii on October 21.

[Michael_82]

Not really a Guitar Hero guy, but, this sounds like a pretty good idea.  I'm glad to see developers making use of the SD card like that if the Wii's storage space is too small.

[Kairon]

Yeah, I agree.

Not to mention, it's about darn tootin' time.

[Enner]

Finally! Someone has a used their brain. What took them so long T_T

Sidenote: I hope the code isn't messy that there will be an exploit or something. Wait... is that something one should hope against?

[ShyGuy]

Yay SD cards!

Wait, we're cheering DLC here aren't we?

Oh, silly fanbois....

[Kairon]

Yay SD Cards! Boo horse armor! Yay Chime Bikinis!

... I'm... confused.

[Urkel]

I'm no fan of DLC, but at least this exposes Harmonix as the liars they are.

The reason Rock Band "couldn't" have DLC is because the graphics in the PS2/Wii version are FMV. So, yeah, technically DLC is out of the question when doing so would require you to download a big ass video file. A lazy port of a lazy port.

I think Harmonix may have ceded the music game market on Wii to Activision because of this. Since the controllers aren't compatible between the two games, I don't see many people willing to buy two sets of expensive redundant peripherals, and Activision has a big head start with millions sold on the Wii. Even if they actually put some effort into Rock Band 2, it will be too little, too late.

[Kairon]

Yeah, Rock Band on Wii looks so unimpressive next to this. It's like they're six months late but with yesterday's news.

[nickmitch]

This good because I had no plans to buy Rock Band Wii.
GH4 was still optional.

[KDR_11k]

I thought I saw some stickers claiming the GH and RB controllers are compatible...

[Tanookisuit]

I'm a big Rockband on Xbox fan, but I'm skipping it and opting for GH4. 

[BranDonk Kong]

I can't believe that Rockband on Wii uses FMVs, that's just plain stupid. That explains why you can't created characters, change venues, or download new music. What a crappy port. Supposedly the drums are rock solid though. I love Rockband (360), but GH4 sounds like it's gonna kill Rockband, something I never thought possible. The next game in each series needs to let you use either instrument set though.

[DAaaMan64]

LOL I'm hoping Rockband becomes the series to own on 360 PS3 and Guitar Hero becomes the series to own on Wii. that would be awesome.

[Morari]

I'm still curious to see what this will really mean for the game. Guitar Hero is a series where sequels are largely unnecessary and DLC is actually a good model. It's about as close as you can get to integrated expansion packs on a console, and its way better than featureless sequels. The thing is though, Guitar Hero III has almost no additionally songs to downwload on the systems that support it, so what's to change this time? Furthermore, you have Acitivision throwing out cheap band-centric games like Aerosmith and Metallica, and thus further removing the possibility of many songs being DLC. All in all, I'm not very convinced at all that DLC will matter much to Guitar Hero. What this will matter for however is all of the other developers that were too stupid to consider SD cards before.

[Ian Sane]

Rock Band can shove it, I'm buying this.  I've been reading the previews and World Tour looks like it will dwarf even the PS3/X360 version of Rock Band.  Initially I thought having these two series was going to wear out the concept but the competition is resuling in a better product.  Guitar Hero World Tour is clearly trying to one-up Rock Band and as a result it's a much fuller sequel than the "expansion pack" sequels the other Guitar Hero games were.  So now maybe Rock Band will feel the pressure to top World Tour.

The only problem is these are expensive games and if they keep introducing new hardware (World Tour has a different set of drums than Rock Band and extra features on the guitar) it's eventually going to be out of the price range for all but the most hardcore.  And that would be counter-intuitive since these games have so much casual and non-gamer appeal.  It works for me though.  I can get this and the Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 and my real life band has enough instruments to form our own virtual band.  Though I'll admit after that I probably won't buy any more hardware and will probably download songs over buying a new game.

Has anyone in Rock Band used a mic stand to sing and play guitar at the same time.  My brother theorizes this would be the ultimate way to play and would be realistic since a lot of lead singers do both.

[Morari]

Has anyone in Rock Band used a mic stand to sing and play guitar at the same time.  My brother theorizes this would be the ultimate way to play and would be realistic since a lot of lead singers do both.

I'd get a headset instead, that way you can sing while performing carefully practiced choreography!

[Kairon]

The only problem is these are expensive games and if they keep introducing new hardware (World Tour has a different set of drums than Rock Band and extra features on the guitar) it's eventually going to be out of the price range for all but the most hardcore.  And that would be counter-intuitive since these games have so much casual and non-gamer appeal.

For consumers who worry about this, there's Ultimate Band from Disney.

[decoyman]

I came to the same conclusion as Ian and others (that of Waiting for Guitar Hero: WT instead of settling for RB) after reading a few articles last week. I can't believe how much more GH is going to have, especially on Wii... the music creator alone is huge, and something that even the more fully-featured versions of RB on the 360/PS3 can't contend with.

LOL I'm hoping Rockband becomes the series to own on 360 PS3 and Guitar Hero becomes the series to own on Wii. that would be awesome.

And DaaMan, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that happened. For those who already have RB, GH:WT won't do much more for them, AND having to buy a whole new set of instruments will be prohibitive to many RB owners.

[Plugabugz]

I'm still waiting for EA's Beyonce Bootylicious Dance Sexy Class 9000.

[Kairon]

I'm still waiting for EA's Beyonce Bootylicious Dance Sexy Class 9000.

do not want.

... wait a second... I think I actually do...

[DAaaMan64]

OVER 9000!?!?!???!?

[NWR_Neal]

Now all Activision has to do is actually release DLC consistently!
Thats the one thing that Harmonix is mopping the floor with them over.