Despite the Internet (including myself) having a kitten over the pricing and delivery of Guitar Hero II downloadable content for the Xbox 360, Activision is pleased to announce that they're rich.
In a press release sent out this morning, the publisher reveals that the Xbox 360 song packs have had over 650,000 downloads through Xbox LIVE Marketplace in less than five months. By RIAA standards, that's defined as "multi-platinum" status, almost assuring that downloadable song content for future Guitar Hero titles will be delivered in a similar fashion, and at the same price (if not more). The music industry is pleased, indeed.
"We have been working very closely with Activision to make our catalog available for download for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II," said Rod Kotler, Director of Music Service for EMI Music Publishing, "The results we have seem from download sales to date have been very impressive. This partnership is providing EMI Music Publishing and its songwriters with a valuable new source of revenue, and at the same time giving us the opportunity to exploit portions of our catalog that might otherwise not get such high-profile exposure."
Like My Chemical Romance for instance, a band that no one has ever heard of -- their song pack (the only "new" playable songs released for the 360 version of Guitar Hero II) had 50,000 downloads in its first week. Activision hopes to continue this profitable relationship well into the imminent success of Guitar Hero III -- prepare your wallets accordingly.
Contest:
8:28 AM on 09.11.2007
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You're buttholes.
And yes, I know even alot of you dtoiders bought these. Buttholes.
At least the Live download service is doing well. That makes me happy.
Bwahahah awesome. That would be the easiest press release ever.
lulz
I WISH.
Really, it rolls back to the same old point, Activison did not hold a gun to anybodies head and force them to buy them. Instead people who actually wanted to play them bought them. And the pricing really isn't that extreme, there are far worse example on XBox Marketplace, i.e. anything for oblivion (they all should have been half their price), 80 points for 1 car in Forza 2, Uno theme decks... You get the picture...
Your Daddy´s VISA.
The sales have obviously trailed off significantly too. They had 500K downloads of the first 3 song packs before they released any others. If the MCR song pack sold 50K on it's own then that's less than 100K downloads of the other new packs (because since they've been released the older packs have surely gotten some downloads as well).
What sucks is when people shell out for overpriced crap like this it encourages them to put out *less* content. The more that's available the less people will be willing to pay for it because they'll pick and choose.
Hopefully Rock Band having dozens of tracks available through full albums will light a fire under Activision to actually release content regularly. They boasted that GHII would have more content than any other Live title ever and that, so far, has been BS.
The big question also is, will the old downloads work from within GHIII?
I know even with Rock Band I'm concerned about compatibility with the inevitable Rock Band 2.
I bought an MCR song pack. And it was worth every penny.
Now, back to the post, thanks everyone. Thanks for letting the happy people over at Activision and Microsoft that you'll gladly suck up every last bit of nut they jerk out of their window.
Everybody's heard of MCR
and I'm hoping you were being sarcastic
And yes, Husky, he was being sarcastic. 99.9999998% probability.
I was hoping for more new stuff that doesn't suck. Looks like I'll be disappointed. I can't imagine them working very hard on new content for GH2 when GH3 is right around the corner.
Fuck em, anyway. Not getting any more money from me for Guitar Hero. That itch has been scratched, and I can always return to it and try to beat hard/expert.
Rock Band looks interesting, but it would take a lot of peer pressure for me to get it, and I ain't got no friends. So fuck that, too.
Do you not understand what it does to Marketplace if people continue to buy over priced crap or shit that has a catch to it. It ruins everything else. Soon will have to buy Halo maps with a purchase of a six pack of Mountain Dew along with the 1,000 points they'll sell it for. It's ass.
@Mogambi:
If people aren't getting what they want, they have a right to speak out about it. Not buying what they feel is overpriced content is a good first step. Attempting to persuade others of the validity of their own opinions is another valid method. The "I hate all you assholes who bought this shit" sentiment may be a bit harsh, but telling people to shut up because they have genuine concerns that the potential of the market is being wasted isn't the way to go about things.
If people aren't getting what they want, they have a right to speak out about it. Not buying what they feel is overpriced content is a good first step. Attempting to persuade others of the validity of their own opinions is another valid method. The "I hate all you assholes who bought this shit" sentiment may be a bit harsh, but telling people to shut up because they have genuine concerns that the potential of the market is being wasted isn't the way to go about things.
I never told anyone to "shut up"....My point was if you don't want it don't buy it! I would rather have the option to buy it, than no option at all. If you don't want to pay what they are charging, then don't buy it. Oh yeah by the way, I purchased one of the packs, and I felt like it was a good value.
As to the news, I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I am certainly disgusted. It’s not like we didn’t all know this already, but this country is full of morons. Morons with money, apparently...
When you factor in song licensing PLUS the fact that someone still has to make those little coloured circles match up with the notes in the song (and they do this for a job that they need to get PAID for), you become a sensible person instead of someone who decries anything that isn't free.