Posts Tagged ‘sale’

Over on Xbox Live guru Major Nelson’s blog yesterday, he let the gaming world know what Xbox Live content will be discounted from July 5th through July 11th. Among content from other games, it appears that the DLC album from Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” will be seeing a temporary 25% drop in price (from 1,600 MSP down to 1,200 MSP) starting next Tuesday.

It was one of my favorite albums growing up, so I was pretty excited when it was initially announced in late 2008. This DLC pack features arguably the most heavily censored song in the Rock Band library (“Sir Psycho Sexy“), but if you’ve heard the song uncensored, this probably wouldn’t surprise you. Also, since Rock Band 3 came out, there were some issues with the inclusion of legacy disc-based Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks, almost definitely related to licensing exclusivity subsequently arranged by the now dormant Guitar Hero franchise, so unfortunately you will not be able to play this album in its entirety in the game, as “Give It Away” is not exportable from Rock Band 2. Despite these issues, I still highly recommend fans of rock music and Rock Band take advantage of this deal next week!

The tracks included in the album DLC are:

• The Power of Equality
• If You Have to Ask
• Breaking the Girl
• Funky Monks
• Suck My Kiss
• I Could Have Lied
• Mellowship Slinky in B Major
• The Righteous & the Wicked
• Blood Sugar Sex Magik
• Under the Bridge
• Naked in the Rain
• Apache Rose Peacock
• The Greeting Song
• My Lovely Man
• Sir Psycho Sexy
• They’re Red Hot

Listen to the full album below.

[Thanks, @PikminGuts92]

Yesterday we saw the discounting of select DLC packs on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 for this week, but as a few people have pointed out based on the nature of the way the sale is listed on the Xbox 360, this pricing initially appeared to be permanent. As the listing on the official PlayStation blog noted, the discount is only for this week, so a permanent drop in pricing doesn’t appear to be the case, but it does bring up an interesting discussion point.

We’re closing in fast on having 3,000 songs playable in Rock Band 3, which is a ridiculously absurd amount of music. And, when compared with every other game on the market, this is an even more ridiculous amount of DLC. With an occasional exception, every song is available individually, and most are also available in packs, so when we do reach 3,000 songs, there will be an even larger amount of available DLC (counting singles AND packs). I think @HMXHenry mentioned to me once that there are only a handful of “DLC completionists,” so the rest of us have “holes” in our DLC libraries. Here at RockBandAide, we try to encourage the exploration of older DLC for new players and for those who may have originally missed good songs through our Thursday Throwback feature. But that can only go so far.

We must not also ignore the huge “elephant in the room” fact that Rock Band (and Guitar Hero, obviously) isn’t the runaway cultural phenomenon that it used to be. It was huge when the economy was kicking ass and everyone had disposable income for a room full of plastic instruments, but that time has obviously passed. Most of the casual players have put their instruments in the closet or basement and long forgotten about weekly DLC releases. Only the most die-hard fans still wake up on Friday morning excited about the DLC announcement for next week. And shelling out 2 bucks for a song is a tougher sell than it used to be. When you compare the current Rock Band 3 DLC to older RB/RB2 legacy DLC, you get more bang for your buck now, which makes legacy DLC purchases a much less attractive proposition.

I did some quick research into it, and the ability to change pricing on existing DLC doesn’t appear to be a decision that typically rests in the hands of game developers, but rather in the hands of the respective consoles’ online stores. And based on other forms of digital music distribution, such as iTunes, this is the norm. For the most part, digital music pricing remains constant, regardless of the time since the music was originally released.

In a perfect world, DLC pricing would be something that Harmonix could change, but alas, this is not a perfect world. Ultimately it comes down to whether the discount in DLC would drive a larger volume of sales than the current DLC pricing structure, and as noted above, this decision rests in the hands of Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo. But if the price for RB/RB2 DLC songs dropped down to $.99, would you be picking up a large volume of tracks? Do you think it would be a good idea to discount existing Rock Band and Rock Band 2 DLC? Or would you feel “punished” for buying DLC years ago that others would now be able to get on the cheap?

Vote below, and let your voice be heard in the comments!

It seems like we just had a discount on DLC packs a few weeks ago, but this time country music fans are getting some love. Up for sale for (although apparently NOT the Xbox Live Deal of the Week) to Xbox Live Gold members are nearly ALL the country packs (with the exception of Toby Keith), and are listed out below…

UPDATE: Thanks to @SteveMightSay, it appears that this DLC sale is also live on the PS3. (Confirmed here.) Anyone on the Wii want to check to see if this promo is a hat-trick?

Alt Country Pack 01 680 MSP ($8.49) 440 MSP ($5.49)

• Steve Earle – Satellite Radio
• Lucinda Williams – Can’t Let Go
• Drive-By Truckers – 3 Dimes Down
• Old 97′s – Time Bomb (Live)
• Neko Case – People Got a Lotta Nerve

Going Country Pack 01 680 MSP ($8.49) 440 MSP ($5.49)

• Brad Paisley – Mud on the Tires
• Brooks & Dunn – Hillbilly Deluxe
• Dierks Bentley – Free and Easy
• Dixie Chicks – Sin Wagon
• Miranda Lambert – Gunpowder & Lead

Going Country Pack 02 880 MSP ($10.99) 600 MSP ($7.49)

• Alan Jackson – Good Time
• Cross Canadian Ragweed – Cry Lonely
• Jason Aldean – She’s Country
• Keith Urban – I Told You So
• Kenny Rogers – The Gambler
• Martina McBride – This One’s For the Girls
• Shania Twain – Any Man of Mine

Going Country Pack 03 800 MSP ($9.99) 520 MSP ($6.49)

• Kenny Chesney – She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy
• Montgomery Gentry – Gone
• Rascal Flatts – Me and My Gang
• Sara Evans – Suds in the Bucket
• Trace Adkins – Swing
• Willie Nelson – On the Road Again

Johnny Cash Pack 01 1080 ($13.49) 720 MSP ($8.99)

• Cry, Cry, Cry
• Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
• Five Feet High and Rising
• Folsom Prison Blues
• I Got Stripes
• I Walk the Line
• Tennessee Flat Top Box
• The Ballad of Ira Hayes

Roy Orbison Pack 01 800 MSP ($9.99) 520 MSP ($6.49)

• Claudette
• In Dreams
• Mean Woman Blues
• Oh, Pretty Woman
• Ooby Dooby
• You Got It

[Thanks for the heads up, Josh CCR!]

Add some old Ozzy DLC to your new Ozzy DLC! This week sees a drop in DLC prices for some of the harder rock and metal DLC packs for Rock Band on the Xbox 360. The sale starts today and finishes up at the end of the week, so if you get in on this, don’t wait too long. See the full DLC sale selections below.

Ozzy Osbourne Pack 01 800 MSP 560 MSP

• Crazy Babies
• Diggin’ Me Down
• I Don’t Wanna Stop
• Let Me Hear You Scream
• No More Tears
• Soul Sucker

Motley Crue’s Dr Feelgood (Album) 1280 MSP 880 MSP

• Dr. Feelgood
• Slice of Your Pie
• Rattlesnake Shake
• Kickstart My Heart
• Without You
• Same Ol’ Situation
• Sticky Sweet
• She Goes Down
• Don’t Go Away Mad
• Time for Change

Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance (Album) 1200 MSP 800 MSP

• (Take These) Chains
• Bloodstone
• Devil’s Child
• Fever
• The Hellion/Electric Eye
• Pain and Pleasure
• Riding on the Wind
• Screaming for Vengeance
• You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’

Avenged Sevenfold Pack 01 440 MSP 320 MSP

• Nightmare
• Scream
• Seize the Day

All That Remains Pack 01 440 MSP 320 MSP

• Chiron
• This Calling
• Two Weeks

[Thanks for the heads up, Rick!]

Remember all the knuckleheads (excuse my language) on message boards, forums, and Twitter who said “Harmonix was sold for only $50? I could have bought them!” As I originally stated in the initial announcement, this “$50 price tag” did not include the tax benefit realized by Viacom, as well as the relief of all related outstanding liabilities. The wording of the sale per the contract probably states something to the effect of “$50 and other valuable consideration.” Fundamental principles of contract law require each of the parties to exchange something of value, and there can be no enforceable agreement without that exchange, so the arbitrary amount of $50 was chosen.

In Viacom’s latest quarterly financial statement, we now know how much the tax benefit was for Viacom. According to their 10-Q statement:

“For tax purposes, the disposal generated a tax benefit of approximately $115 million, of which approximately $45 million is expected to be realized as a cash refund of taxes previously paid on capital gains and the remaining $70 million benefit will be available to offset qualifying future cash taxes.”

So I guess the revised price tag that responsible journalists would now report is that the price tag for Harmonix was $115,000,050. And even that is lowballing it, too. This new price tag doesn’t include the value of outstanding liabilities that Viacom offloaded as well, which are difficult to estimate, but one could only assume are also significant.

[via Gamasutra]

I haven’t seen any announcement come through from any source, but it appears that Rush’s “Moving Pictures” and The Cars’ self titled debut “The Cars” albums are currently on sale over on Xbox.com.

“Moving Pictures” is typically priced 880 MSP ($10.99), but is currently marked down to 440 MSP ($5.50), and contains the following songs:

• The Camera Eye
• Limelight (Original Version)
• Red Barchetta
• Tom Sawyer (Original Version)
• Vital Signs
• Witch Hunt
• YYZ

“The Cars” is typically priced 1,200 MSP ($14.99), but is currently marked down to 680 MSP ($8.50), and contains the following songs:

• All Mixed Up
• Bye Bye Love
• Don’t Cha Stop
• Good Times Roll
• I’m in Touch with Your World
• Just What I Needed
• Moving in Stereo
• My Best Friend’s Girl
• You’re All I’ve Got Tonight

Update 1: Looks like there are quite a bit more packs that are also on sale…

Update 2: Official word from Rock Band now explains the sale, which runs through January 11th on the Xbox 360, and from January 11th through January 25th for the PS3.

Nine Inch Nails Pack 01 – 240 MSP

• March of the Pigs
• The Collector
• The Perfect Drug

Oasis Pack 01 – 240 MSP

• Don’t Look Back in Anger
• Live Forever
• Wonderwall

Weezer Pack 02 – 240 MSP

• My Name Is Jonas
• Pork and Beans
• Undone (The Sweater Song)

Evanescence Pack 01 – 240 MSP

• Bring Me to Life
• Call Me When You’re Sober
• Weight of the World

The Police Pack 01 – 240 MSP

• Can’t Stand Losing You
• Roxanne
• Synchronicity II

Jimmy Buffet Pack 01 – 240 MSP

• Volcano
• Margaritaville
• Cheeseburger in Paradise

All That Remains Pack 01 – 240 MSP

• Chiron
• This Calling
• Two Weeks

If you’re interested, I wouldn’t wait too long. Unexplained discounts like these usually don’t last too long.