MTV Games Exec on Pro-Guitar DLC Pricing, Availability, and More
IGN seems to be getting all the goods lately on anything Harmonix and Rock Band. They got some in depth hands-on time with the Pro Guitar, a very candid and thorough “back stage pass” at Harmonix, and now they are highlighting their interview with MTV Games Senior VP Paul DeGooyer.
IGN talks at length with Paul, so definitely head over to IGN to check out the entire four page interview, but I’ve highlighted a number of new and interesting items that Paul mentioned below.
Pro Guitar DLC Pricing
“Right now, a typical stand-alone song for us is a $1.99. If you wanted to buy Pro Mode for guitar on top of that $1.99, it would cost a buck. So it’s not going to be five bucks or anything. We think it’s a really fair price. The alternative would be of course to include it (in the regular download) and up the price for everybody, which I don’t think is really fair.”
Pro Guitar DLC Availability
“I should note that not all tracks will have pro guitar mode. (Many bands’) guitar parts wouldn’t rise to the level that they would need to have pro mode authoring associated with them.”
Upgraded DLC
“I don’t think we’re announcing anything specific yet, but we’re gonna have one major band that we’re working with that has already got some DLC out there, and we’re going to add to that DLC, and retrofit their DLC with pro mode. Then there’s a selection of other tracks in the catalog that we’ve gone back and identified, and we have suggestions as well from our community, and we’ve gone and identified those tracks. So our first announcement will actually be a pretty good cross-section. And I think that track list will help people understand the stuff that we would actually go back and retroactively put pro mode into.”
Upgraded DLC Pricing
“To be honest, we haven’t completely worked out exactly how we would be able to get it to market, in a way that recognizes people who have already purchased it, and thus be able to supply the updated file at a discount, which would be our preference.”
Non-Music DLC
“Going forward, it would be great to be able to supply our users content other than just the music. We feel like we’re really just scratching the surface of what the download stuff could mean for us.”
My Favorite Band…
“There’s stuff we could work on going forward, new stuff that hasn’t been out there before, that features all of the feature set, and my guess is you’ll see the community and our team suggesting Nine Inch Nails pretty quickly to be available for upgrade, from the catalog that’s out there.”
DLC Leader
“We are, to this point, still the absolute, undisputed number one supplier of paid downloadable content through the first parties. Who knew it would be a music game that would do that?
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I really hope that “major band” is Rush!!
Fleat Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
My bet is Queen.
Plutarch Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I’m almost positive it’s Queen…especially cause they have like 2 or 3 Queen-DLC related achievements.
Dark Archon Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Yeah, it’ll either be Queen or Pearl Jam… if the “secret Pearl Jam project” is still happening…
Adam P Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
The Who would be my guess…lots and lots of keyboards in those tunes (not that there isn’t with rush…) and the band has obviously worked with them big time
Aw Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Weird. And my first guess was Boston.
I think I would prefer The Who songs to be updated, though.
Brian Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 8:04 am
As long as it’s one of those 4 bands (Rush, Queen, Boston, or The Who), I’ll be happy.
Wow! Disappointed that it looks like they haven’t come up with a pricing structure for upgraded existing music, but the reason for it is perfectly reasonable. The extra buck for pro mode looked pretty definitive and not just one possibility. Good to know.
Think he might be talking about Pearl Jam with regards to upgrades?
Dorkmaster Flek Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Uh, no I think he’s talking about Queen. Seriously, they are the single most obvious choice, and there are DLC achievements related to them, as well as Boston and Nine Inch Nails. How anyone reads that and doesn’t immediately think Queen is beyond me.
Oh boy. This announcement is gonna be sweet.
I’m calling RB2 exported songs getting the upgrade.
Joe M. Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Oh god I hope so. I always figured that if anything were to get upgraded, it would be the disc exports first.
It would be amazing if HMX releases Arcarsenal and/or Rolodex Propaganda by At the Drive-In. I wish One Armed Scissor got more love, but opinions are opinions.
Jason R. Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
I love One Armed Scissor. I was seriously excited when it was announced for the game. GH4′s engine does not do it justice.
CircaNow Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Completely agree, especially with WT’s horrible vocal engine
MCA76 Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 10:15 am
That’s soooo right! GH vocal engine made me mad! Especially for this song.
Jason R. Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
The GH vocal engine makes puppies cry… and me not buy their games until they’re $20.
There’s a lot more in this interview. If I can get some silence around here, I may do a show tonight just based on this interview.
It’s gotta be Queen or Rush that he’s talking about as the “one major band”.
I Guranteee the band they have been working with will be either Queen or The Who, they both feature harmonies, keyboard and awesome guitar/bass for pro mode.
Loozers Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 9:37 am
If you want I can call Brian May and Roger Daltry and ask them. I got them on speed dial. Wait one minute…..dang….lost my phone.
The band is probably Queen.
I’m assuming the major band is gonna be Queen considering there’s two achievements from the rumored list that pertain to downloaded Queen songs
I reckon the “major band” is Queen or Boston.
My first thought was Boston, then Queen, but Rush and the Who are also likely contenders. The speculation is going to break the internet!
Good to hear that they’re keeping it reasonable.
A buck for the upgrade to Pro Guitar/Bass? I thought that, based on the quote of the work involved being equivalent to everything else combined, that it would be two. That’s great news!
It’s a pretty exciting bunch of quotes. Looking forward to seeing how retrofitting goes in particular: I remember Dream Theater did well, and if they can re-license Constant Motion and/or Panic Attack for an upgrade, that may well lead to getting more Dream Theater songs in general.
Thanks again RockBandAide for keeping us up to date on these things, and a HUGE thanks to IGN for the interview they got.
VERY interesting reading! The entire article is worth a read for sure!
Sans Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Ditto. Thank you.
Does that mean that not all the tracks that come on the disc have pro modes for various instruments? only the tracks that it makes sense for?
Struble Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Sounds like he means that not all future DLC will have a pro-mode option.
Dorkmaster Flek Reply:
September 29th, 2010 at 5:49 am
Exactly. Every song on the disc has pro guitar (except Imagine, which doesn’t have a guitar part). The disc songs also have specific trainers for them as well. Going forward, not all DLC will support pro guitar.
He mentioned only pro guitar as pro mode for a dollar. Does that mean pro keys and pro drums are standard?
Struble Reply:
September 27th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Yes.
“Going forward, all DLC released for Rock Band 3 will be fully Rock Band 3-compatible, which means it’ll come with Pro Mode for keyboard and drums, harmony mode, etc. The only thing that’s more difficult for us in terms of authoring time is the guitar stuff, so we’ve decided to sell Pro Mode for guitar separately.”
Xzyliac Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 9:09 am
FFFFUUUUUCCCCKKKKK YYYEEESSSS!!!!
Keys and drums are all I care about. If I wanna learn the guitar bits I’ll just download some tablature.
Dark Archon Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Yeah… way to support your favourite developer, Xzy… :/
Xzyliac Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 10:09 am
I’m not buying a Pro Guitar. I have a guitar. I know how to play guitar. It doesn’t make sense for me to buy Pro Guitar DLC. I don’t even like the system they’re using in the game.
I’ve given Harmonix at least $1000 of my money not including the keyboard/game bundle I have preordered and paid off in full.
Trust me sweetheart. I support Harmonix plenty. But I’ve got my own budget too. I’m not spending $80 + $1 each track just to give Harmonix money. That’s, frankly, stupid.
Now if Fender decides to put out a bass compatible with RB3′s Pro Bass we’ll talk.
Glad to hear it’s just a buck for the extra Guitar and Bass Pro-Mode DLC.
I’m a little surprised that not all tracks will be getting the Pro-Mode treatment. Sorta thought it would be the new standard…
Struble Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 1:14 am
I figure they’re either testing the grounds before they give a full commitment to the time that takes, or that’s an excuse for them to burn through the rest of the stuff that was actually licensed for the RB2 cycle.
Dorkmaster Flek Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 7:29 am
I’m not surprised at all. What he said is true; most songs probably don’t warrant the time it takes to author pro guitar charts. Those charts are extremely complex and time intensive, from what they’ve told us. If you get good enough to play other pro guitar songs, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to learn Blink 182 on your own, you know?
Game!Ov3r Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Yeah I think thats why we got Crazy Train and Smoke on the Water for RB3… these are a couple of songs that anyone picking up a guitar can kind of pick through in just a few minutes of being taught. One by Metallica is another one that people kinda get also, so I would like to see Metallica make their way to pro guitar.
T Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
With all of the work that goes into the charts, it’d be tough to justify charting ALL OF IT from the getgo. If people buy into it then they may ramp up production.
One question I have, and have not seen a definitive answer for is:
If I choose to pay for the Pro Guitar DLC “upgrade”, but my friends who play drum and sing choose not to (since they don’t play guitar), then if we play that song, will I still be able to choose Pro Guitar even though they don’t have it?
I would hope that the answer is yes, that only I would be required to have/pay for the Pro Guitar stuff, and we could play away. If that’s not the case, it’s really going to cut into our online time. If I pay for Pro Guitar “upgrades”, I want to be able to play them whenever that song comes up, not just when I’m on my own.
RockBandAide Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 8:45 am
I can’t answer definitively, but I don’t see why your friends would need to buy the Pro-Guitar DLC so you can all play together. At least, in theory they shouldn’t have to.
Croq Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I’m hoping you’re right, and I’m really hoping that the powers that be at Harmonix have already thought of this and taken care of it.
It all sounds fair, I wish I was getting the Pro Guitar this year, but alas I should be lucky to afford any game at all O_o
“(Many bands’) guitar parts wouldn’t rise to the level that they would need to have pro mode authoring associated with them.”
Please tell me what the hell that means somebody? Are we talking the kind of music that is basically chord after chord after chord kind of music would be left out? I don’t wanna find that if they release more dio, metallica, megadeth, deep purple that they don’t think it would meet the criteria for Pro Guitar charting >:(
Kirksplosion Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 10:10 am
What immediately came to my mind was stuff that just doesn’t fit in well, like the guitar parts in Lady Gaga songs. I really don’t know how to interpret that, though…
T Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Songs with no guitar, songs with minimal or overly simplistic guitar….multiple songs from the same artist that perhaps have the same style of guitar part.
The idea is to spread the pro-charts across all kinds of songs and artists…so you have the option to learn a variety of styles.
I think Queen, Boston, The Who, Rush, Pearl Jam, or they’re counting Dave Grohl as one band.
Sounds pretty fair, for us British to understand, is a dollar about 80 MSP? If that’s the extra charge for Pro DLC, then I have no problem with paying that… once I get hold of the Strat of course
Storm20200 Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 10:05 am
It’s likely that we’ll get charged £1.50 which would be 240MSP since they’re increasing the US price by 50% so it should be 50% for us.
Dorkmaster Flek Reply:
September 29th, 2010 at 5:52 am
80 MSP is $1 USD. If you guys are currently paying 160 MSP like the rest of us, it will be another 80 MSP for the pro guitar charts. I’m not sure what the exchange rate is for GBP to MSP, but the idea is that it will cost 50% more for the pro guitar charts.
Sigh. Still no word on Wii exportability. All that discussion and they didn’t ask about that? Ugh.
Xzyliac Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
There’s the off chance they talked about it but it was a no comment situation and it just got cut. Or it was on a list of shit HMX couldn’t discuss and it was never asked to begin with.
Or they just plain forgot.
RockBandAide Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
What are you looking for? They’ve said that the Wii will support exporting of previous titles, but no specifics of songs or pricing has occurred yet for ANY of the consoles.
I wonder what kind of DLC they would have besides songs? Clothing for the characters (not the avatars)? Could it be some kind of free goal expansions? It’s only a possibility, but it’d be nice to know that they would cater to those who want more to rock band besides the songs, not that they should focus TOO much on it.
RockBandAide Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I predicted awhile back that they’re going to come out with “Premium DLC Packs” which would replace disc-based band-centric games like Green Day. You could download characters, clothes, songs, venues, challenges for a special price. *cough* Pearl Jam Live pack via download *cough*