Topic: Guitar Hero Franchise May Adopt DLC Subscription Model

[NWR_DrewMG]

Red Octane discusses a model that will let you be all the Hero you want to be, for a monthly fee.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=20396

 In an interview with the Seattle Times, Red Octane co-founder Kai Huang hinted that the company may be looking at a monthly subscription model for Guitar Hero DLC content in the future.  When asked about the possibility, Huang responded, "That's definitely one of the things we would love to do. There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it; I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen."    

Downloadable content for the "Hero" titles, which range from $2 per song in Guitar Hero to $6 for a 2-song pack in DJ Hero, has been a consistent revenue stream for Activision and Red Octane.  A subscription-based "all you can eat" model could potentially increase the amount of revenue that the additional content generates.

[KDR_11k]

With WoW shoveling in the millions Activision wants to turn every game into a subscription.

[Pale]

I would do this if it went along with Activision embracing the concept of DLC.

I'm sick to death of all the damn music games and the fact they they are still releasing new discs that include songs that you can't get on DLC.  Freaking ridiculous.  It's turning me off from the whole damn genre.

There is absolutely no reason that they shouldn't have made EVERY guitar hero 5 song downloadable to World Tour on the release day of GH 5.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Activision's mission is to half-ass it every step of the way, forever preventing an all-in-one solution.

Everyone should've seen this going on a mile before the GameCube was doomed.

[Flames_of_chaos]

I would do this if it went along with Activision embracing the concept of DLC.

I'm sick to death of all the damn music games and the fact they they are still releasing new discs that include songs that you can't get on DLC.  Freaking ridiculous.  It's turning me off from the whole damn genre.

There is absolutely no reason that they shouldn't have made EVERY guitar hero 5 song downloadable to World Tour on the release day of GH 5.

This is the sole reason why Rock Band succeeds. Sure there are special things like Beatles Rock Band and a family friendly Lego Rock Band but at least they aren't soulless sequels.

[Ian Sane]

The thing is Activision's blatant and intentional REFUSAL to do things in a consumer-friendly way has turned me off so much that even if they start doing it right, it's too late.  I refuse to support it on principle.  Their CEO actually publicly uses a term like "exploit" without backtracking or claiming to be misquoted.

Too bad these assholes own Blizzard.  I like Blizzard too much to be able to completely boycott Activision Blizzard.

[Stratos]

I don't like subscriptions. I prefer to pay for the few songs I want to D/L and that's it. Sometimes I go for a month or more without playing so a subscription model would cause me to stop buying new games.

[Pale]

I would do this if it went along with Activision embracing the concept of DLC.

I'm sick to death of all the damn music games and the fact they they are still releasing new discs that include songs that you can't get on DLC.  Freaking ridiculous.  It's turning me off from the whole damn genre.

There is absolutely no reason that they shouldn't have made EVERY guitar hero 5 song downloadable to World Tour on the release day of GH 5.

This is the sole reason why Rock Band succeeds. Sure there are special things like Beatles Rock Band and a family friendly Lego Rock Band but at least they aren't soulless sequels.

I see the both situations as equally bad.  If they wanted to create a platform, they should have created a damn platform.

Record labels and musicians are starving for ways to monetize their work... I don't understand why the game publishers are letting them be the bullies.  Silly Beatles don't want to play ball? Silly Beatles don't get their music in a Rock Band game... that's how it should have been.

[that Baby guy]

If the silly Beatles don't play ball, Harmonix doesn't earn the cash.

When we've seen quotes from this sector of the industry saying that musicians should pay to get their music in, that's when you know there's a problem.  This is still an industry that needs to figure out how it will handle itself in a way the consumer and their partners are all happy with.

To be honest, I don't mind buying a new disc.  In fact, most of the time, the new disc is a better value than the DLC.  What bugs me is when you can't easily play the songs from one disc on a different GH title through any simple method.  GH made an effort to become a platform, and seriously failed at transferring the bulk of their back-catalog.  Then, they made me need a booklet I threw away because I don't keep many of the boxes and pack-ins that come with most video games.

Eventually, I imagine success will be realized when other company sponsors actually pay them to deliver the content users want, but brand their names to it.  Yes, I know Coke and KFC have sponsored GH before, and I know that Harmonix has utilized assets from Viacom, as well.  And you know what?  It's worked, it's kept some prices down, and delivered some great content.  I think that's where things will probably head, and in this case, I'm all right with it.

Not gonna buy a subscription, though, because that goes down the tubes when you decide to stop paying for it.

[KDR_11k]

Too bad these assholes own Blizzard.  I like Blizzard too much to be able to completely boycott Activision Blizzard.

Don't worry, it looks like they want to turn Battle.Net into a "platform" so you'll see plenty of exploitation with Blizzard games and soon no longer desire their games that much.

[Ian Sane]

Record labels and musicians are starving for ways to monetize their work... I don't understand why the game publishers are letting them be the bullies.  Silly Beatles don't want to play ball? Silly Beatles don't get their music in a Rock Band game... that's how it should have been.

The Beatles are kind of a bad example since if any band has the clout to make such demands, it's them.  They're the biggest band of all time.  But Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen don't.

At the beginning Guitar Hero needed the bands to play ball.  Without their support the games wouldn't have taken off.  But now GH and RB are big enough that any musician that isn't in one of those games is missing out.  As a member of an obscure band that has yet to get a break the idea of having a song in either game is unbelievable.  The exposure that would provide would be invaluable, these days perhaps even more so than radio airplay.  I would give a song to those games for FREE just for the exposure.  So the ball really is in Activision's and Harmonix's court.  Unless they lost all the big acts en masse, the acts that miss out because of premadonna bullshit would suffer.

[Morari]

I think the problem is that none of these games are really the "platform" that they try to pretend to be. Rock Band certainly does a better job of it (except on the Wii), but still falls short with things like The Beatles. Likewise, for this genre to truly have lasting appeal, there needs to be interoperability. These games are all so similar that it's pretty ridiculous that I can't use one series' DLC in the other series' "platform". Of course, this isn't likely to happen due to simple greed, but it should. Then the companies could simply make the better platform, or chart their DLC better, in order to outsell the other.

Oh well, I'll just have to stick with RawkSD for the time being. It's just too bad that Rock Band doesn't support SDHC cards, or else I've have a lot more Guitar Hero music to choose from.

[KDR_11k]

From what I heard GH5 actually had some good gameplay additions, at least on the Wii (Roadie Battle, for example).

[that Baby guy]

I think the problem is that none of these games are really the "platform" that they try to pretend to be. Rock Band certainly does a better job of it (except on the Wii), but still falls short with things like The Beatles. Likewise, for this genre to truly have lasting appeal, there needs to be interoperability. These games are all so similar that it's pretty ridiculous that I can't use one series' DLC in the other series' "platform". Of course, this isn't likely to happen due to simple greed, but it should. Then the companies could simply make the better platform, or chart their DLC better, in order to outsell the other.

Oh well, I'll just have to stick with RawkSD for the time being. It's just too bad that Rock Band doesn't support SDHC cards, or else I've have a lot more Guitar Hero music to choose from.

Recheck how that works.  You can install a channel that adds in SDHC and even hard drive compatibility into the game.  It's improved, from what I've read.

[Morari]

The Wii itself will support SDHC, but the game will not.

[that Baby guy]

Ah, my mistake, the next release of the RawkSD loader is supposed to support SDHC and USB drives, not the one out right now.

[Mop it up]

Would it be beneficial to offer both the ability to buy songs individually and a subscription plan? That way the people who want just a few extra songs could pick and choose what they wanted.

[Stratos]

Well, GH5 actually supports SDHC so maybe Rock Band 3 (if it does come) will allow you to do it properly then.

I know you can easily trick Bock Band 2 to use one of those 4GB non-SDHC cards just by booting the game with a 2GB SD card with one DLC song on it and then hot-swapping that SD card with the 4GB one. After that you don't need to SD card swap anymore unless you try to use that 4GB non-SDHC card to open the Wii SD Card menu. Then you just have to do the trick again.

[Morari]

That's correct. The 4GB SD cards still aren't very big though. Not when you're talking about storing large chunks of songs from every full-band game thus released.

[Stratos]

But it sure beats using the 2GB cards.

Maybe GH5 will get hacked so RawkSD can can be used on it?

[that Baby guy]

Nope, that's definitely not going to happen any time soon... Not unless a different group of people do it.

Nintendo really should release some type of USB drive for the Wii, it would be nice for customers.  They need to realize that at this point, hackers will use what they want, anyways, so there's no point not to do it.

[TJ Spyke]

Would it be beneficial to offer both the ability to buy songs individually and a subscription plan? That way the people who want just a few extra songs could pick and choose what they wanted.

This is what they hopefully do. I hate subscription models that take away access to content if you end your subscription (i.e. Napster). This is a moot point for me though as the vast majority (I would say about 90%) of the DLC songs in both Guitar Hero and Rock Band are songs I have no interest in playing anyways.