In 2007, Harmonix brought everyone a step closer to fulfilling dreams as rock stars with Rock Band. Well, not quite everyone -- the game is only available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2. In a statement to GamePro, EA's Bryce Baer delivered absolutely no new Rock Band-related information in the form of an email.
"We have no announced any plans for a Wii version at this time," the public relations maestro wrote.
To be clear: despite the fact that many Wii owners have expressed interest in a version of Rock Band for Nintendo's system, nothing had been officially announced ... and that's still the case. GamePro does point out that Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has suggested that a Wii version is completely plausible, stating that they would like to "bring Rock Band to every [important] platform," and that the Wii remote "holds enormous promise."
Back in November when I visited Harmonix's Boston studio, the topic of a Wii version of the title had been brought up a few times. Each time we were told something very similar -- they were obviously considering all possibilities, but were focusing on the current platforms. (This was prior to Rock Band's release.)
My take? It's very likely we'll see Rock Band land on the Wii at some point in the future. Given the success of Guitar Hero III, there's clearly money to be made, and it would be foolish to ignore the platform. That said, the Wii's current lack of storage stifles one of the things that makes Rock Band such a great "platform" itself -- downloadable content. Let's hope that Harmonix will be able to tap into that "enormous promise" to deliver an experience just as compelling as it is on other consoles.
Contest:
6:07 PM on 01.02.2008
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Bullshit. The Wii supports SD cards. There is absolutely no reason why they can't be used for external storage. No, it's not as good as a hard drive, but do you REALLY think that they could fill up a 2 GB or 4 GB SD card with downloadables with extra Wii material?
Out of curiosity, how many of you guys have an SD card that you use only with your Wii?
exactly.
Also, I have an SD card that my digital camera and Wii share. The Wii akes it easy to show pictures to visitors. I'd be up for getting a Wii exclusive SD card...you know, if there were something to put on it.
Still no rock band bundle to be found around Montreal.
Also note, there were plenty of 360's that shipped without "STANDARD storage" also. There is no reason Harmonix can't have DLC for the Wii version, baring that the network itself can't support it...
@FiveStar - Activision has already announced that they are working hard to finalize and implement the Wii's DLC for GH3. Since GH3 is going to pull it off, I see no reason Rock Band can't...
True, but that's VC. It's up to each game maker to determine how external storage can be used. If the guys who make "Rock Band" want to use an external SD card, there's no reason why they can't require it for downloadable content but deny downloadable content if an SD card isn't available. They can then encrypt/decrypt based on the console identifier or by some other method for copy protection -- not that I approve of copy protection, but you know that they're going to require it.
Fortunately, I pre-ordered GHIII so I got it the day that it came out. I've put more hours into that than any other game since it came out. But the fact that it's still gone from store shelves (at least the various stores that I've been in) and that there was enough of an outcry to have it properly released for Dolby Pro Logic II tells me that the Wii customer base has once again been underestimated.
How many of you guys have an SD card that you use only with your Wii?
I personally don't. But considering the outcry when MP3 playback was disabled with the latest upgrade, clearly there are a hell of a lot of people who use the Wii for more than just Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Sports. Obviously, TheBrain also takes advantage of its ability to display photos.
Please add functionality for external Hard Drive Enclosures. It wouldn't be hard.
Love,
Oni
@Nick: I have a dedicated SD Card for my Wii, too. No reason to not have one, seeing as they're cheap as borscht.
And as far as the game goes, the ONLY thing stopping it from being put on the Wii as far as I'm concerned is the dloadable content. Once this get's figured out (I'm sure it's close) then this is an almost guarantee on the Wii. Even if the game had no dloadable content it would still sell faster than a virgin on prom night.
GH3 uses the motion-sensing, speaker, and BlueTooth connection to the Wii... but if you put a BlueTooth card in the peripheral itself, you wouldn't need the Wii-mote at all (or it could be USB hubbed like the 360 version).
There's no reason why not. Make the microphone large enough to insert the Wiimote in the base like you would a set of batteries, and just place the Wiimote in some kind of bracket on the drum set. The drum set does have legs that support it, doesn't it? ;)
Now, how to interpret vocals through the Wiimote -- that's a different issue. There'd have to be some kind of logic in the microphone to be transmitted through the nunchuck port on the bottom of the Wiimote, but I'll leave that to Harmonix's engineers.
We shouldn't be so hard on them. If history's any indication, maybe it's Nintendo that are being douchebags about the storage situation, since they themselves don't have a goddamn clue on how to handle it. How can they help Harmonix if they can't help themselves?
@Nick
I have a 2 gigs SanDisk one, but only because they were on sale at circuit city for 14 bucks.
Anyway, I did get what you're saying.
However, the Wii version will most likely just be a port of the gimped PS2 version anyway, so I stopped caring a while ago. I'll get it for 360 when I can afford one of those.