Activision gets BOHICA-crazy: Guitar Hero 2 DLC on marketplace (500p for 3 songs)

[Tieno]

500pts = $6.25

GH II: Song Packs (3 of 'em)

Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 1
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Bark at the Moon as made famous by Ozzy Osbourne, Hey You as made famous by The Exies, Ace of Spades as made famous by Motorhead, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.

Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 2
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Killer Queen as made famous by Queen, Take it Off as made famous by The Donnas, Frankenstein as made famous by The Edgar Winter Group, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.

Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 3
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Higher Ground as made famous by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infected as made famous by Bad Religon, Stellar as made famous by Incubus, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
Share: Digg it | del.icio.us | Reddit
Posted: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 2:05 AM by Major Nelson | 12 Comments
Filed under: In-Game Content, Marketplace
http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2...s-3-of-em.aspx


I just think this is too expensive
-Forced bundle
-GH1 songs
-At this rape (edit: slip of the tongue, I meant 'rate') it's cheaper to buy the RETAIL game in STORES with the guitar than buy DLC.
-WTF?
edit: WTF!

I was so going to buy Guitar Hero DLC, but I'm not gonna at this price.

[jet1911]

Way too expensive. :/

[Borys]

MICRORAPEMENTS*

LEARN'EM, LOVE'EM, EMBRACE'EM

* - ©, ®, ™ Microsoft Corporation

[JDSN]

Inb4 BOHICA.

They should have made a "Premium pack" with the three superior songs.

[ElyrionX]

WTF. Talk about microrapements. That's even worse than the GRAW DLC.

[plagiarize]

eh, i'll get pack two at this price, but i wouldn't touch the others at half the price.

[binary]

Well....you had to know they weren't gonna release the songs for 100 points each like every here wished they would be. This was sadly expected.

[SailorDaravon]

Maybe I will just get GH2 for PS2. I was holding out on the 360 version for DLC, but **** that.

[Syb]

Some more Maiden please.

[stewy]

wow...that's disappointing. Too expensive and forced bundles = no sale here. Give me single songs at a reasonable price, please. And give me a slight discount to download your bundles.

[spwolf]

how much money is 500p?

[Dr_Cogent]

Wow. I'm glad I didn't buy the game now. I'm not going to support this type of behavior.

500pts = $6.25

[McBacon]

30 songs on Guitar Hero (not counting indie) = 10 packs of 3

The entire package of all 30 songs will cost you £42.50 or $62.50

[painey]

I just ordered the game 10 minutes ago. Meh.

[Borys]

30 songs on Guitar Hero (not counting indie) = 10 packs of 3 The entire package of all 30 songs will cost you £42.50 or $62.50

Is the original GH (GH1) BC with 360? And does the GH2 guitar work with GH1? GH1 should be cheap by now, like $30 cheap.

[EMBee99]

"I've made a huge mistake"

[aku:jiki]

Wow. I'm glad I didn't buy the game now. I'm not going to support this type of behavior.

Well, wouldn't buying the game but not buying the DLC show your stance to MS much better than not buying the game at all?

[Dr_Cogent]

Is the original GH (GH1) BC with 360? And does the GH2 guitar work with GH1? GH1 should be cheap by now, like $30 cheap.

GH1 never came out on the Xbox

Well, wouldn't buying the game but not buying the DLC show your stance to MS much better than not buying the game at all?

Not buying the game at all further strengthens my stance. I was considering purchasing it at one point, now I am not at all. It's my right as a consumer to vote with my dollars and I can do whatever the hell I like.

[Huggy]

Someone must make a 2D accelerated Guitar Hero clone for Linux for use on the PS3.

A Dual Shock to USB converter will cost you what? 20 bucks?

[Kiriku]

So, uh, did anyone try these out yet? I want to know if they put any effort into fitting the GH1 songs into GH2 with proper co-op modes and similar? That could somewhat justify the price for me. Perhaps, for some songs. But if they haven't, I'm really, really disappointed in this.
Hopefully they'll release a bigger pack of songs that's cheaper later on.

[Borys]

GH1 never came out on the Xbox

Bah, sorry then.

[DarienA]

Is the original GH (GH1) BC with 360? And does the GH2 guitar work with GH1? GH1 should be cheap by now, like $30 cheap.

Uh GHII is the first GH to be on an MS system.

[spwolf]

wow.... more than $2 for song? Hopefully Sony doesnt look at this when they make their Singstar payment model.

Hear me Phil? No way dude.

[FFChris]

30 songs on Guitar Hero (not counting indie) = 10 packs of 3 The entire package of all 30 songs will cost you £42.50 or $62.50

Maybe they'll be nice and do a bundle pack with all the songs...for £40

[Sho Nuff]

Not available in asia? f u

[Hooker]

Like Kiriku said, GH1 style, or GH2 style songs.




And pack1 is the only one worth buying. Randy Rhoads FTW!!

[$h@d0w]

I feel kind of stupid for putting money into the 360 version now, should have bought a wireless PS2 controller instead.

[BenjaminBirdie]

So, uh, did anyone try these out yet? I want to know if they put any effort into fitting the GH1 songs into GH2 with proper co-op modes and similar? That could somewhat justify the price for me. Perhaps, for some songs. But if they haven't, I'm really, really disappointed in this. Hopefully they'll release a bigger pack of songs that's cheaper later on.

Someone mentioned that "Frankenstein" is "now playable".

Whatever that means.

:)

[Spider_Jerusalem]

300 for a pack of 3 would've been great.

Those people keep forgetting that the concept of micropayment (sell great amounts of low priced items, instead of a few of high priced ones) to work needs that the payments have to be, well, micro.

[FFChris]

The funny thing is, I'm sure Activison and MS are going to make a killing from this DLC.

[Steroyd]

Wow MS can't even get this pricing right.

a million times better if they were sold seperate than buying in packs whatever happened to "choice" ?

[Tieno]

300 for a pack of 3 would've been great. Those people keep forgetting that the concept of micropayment (sell great amounts of low priced items, instead of a few of high priced ones) to work needs that the payments have to be, well, micro.

I agree, 300pts I wouldn't mind at all. I'd have probably bought 2 if not all of the packs.

[levious]

Someone mentioned that "Frankenstein" is "now playable". Whatever that means. :)

referring to the large amount of hammer on/offs I guess... but co op I'd like to know about.

[Kiriku]

Someone mentioned that "Frankenstein" is "now playable". Whatever that means. :)

Probably easier HO/PO GH2 style, which is a good thing. But at the same time, I highly doubt that required any effort from their part. Now, being able to play co-op and bass-lines, that would be different. I'm not really expecting it though, tbh. More like wishing. :/

Anyway, I am going to pick up my copy of GH2 today and buy a song pack to investigate this further!

[aku:jiki]

Not buying the game at all further strengthens my stance.

I don't think so. You'll just be a 0 in the system now, someone who doesn't factor in the DLC equation at all. If you're a 1 but not a 2 (ie, GH2 owner that opts to not purchase the DLC), you're making more of an impact in the books over at Activision/MS.

It's my right as a consumer to vote with my dollars and I can do whatever the hell I like.

Of course you can buy whatever game you want. All I'm saying is that you're not voting against the DLC now, you're voting against GH2 in general.

[BenjaminBirdie]

Wow MS can't even get this pricing right. a million times better if they were sold seperate than buying in packs whatever happened to "choice" ?

Microtransactions Whinery Cliff Notes:

MS published Gears Of War, so when complaining about Map Packs, direct extra special waves of ire towards them, as they have an enormous role in dictating prices and distribution of the content for that game, as publisher.

MS doesn't publish Guitar Hero II. So whatever prices content for the game is released at has extraordinarily little for with them or the word choice in quotation marks.

[levious]

Microtransactions Whinery Cliff Notes:

MS doesn't have final approval in pricing and packaging for all download content?

[zesty]

Jesus tap-dancing Christ! I was pumped for DLC, but this is pretty effing pricey.

[BenjaminBirdie]

MS doesn't have final approval in pricing and packaging for all download content?

Oh, I'm sure they have approval of it, but approval is a far cry from dictation.

I'm sure they all looked at the history of marketplace and decided to release these packs in this way, make some money off the people who would inevitably buy whatever the price was (like myself), measure the steaming ire of the community (currently at about 800,457 degrees), and then change things up for the next wave.

It happened with Horse Armor.
It happened with Lumines.
I would not be surprised if it happened here.

[levious]

oh ok, so you mean this might be initial pricing, then later they might say, offer individual songs or cheaper packs?

[Gowans007]

take your 360 Ghero Controller, plug it into your PC , Mac or Linux box & now download Fret Ons Fire -
http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/uv/fretsonfire/

& play for Free!

Seriously too much for what you get

Alot of people have layed these on Ghero 2 and why make them packs? I could understand individual songs or all 3 packs here for 800points, I mean the DLC was instapurchase unless it was messed up horenusly and well guess what!

This game was made for DLC (like Rock Band & Singstar) but looks like they knew that and got greedy and wont sell as many. Hopefully the competition in Singstar & Rock Band should sort this kinda crap out, man I hope they get it right

[Vaandaviii]

Holy shit, for the price of a X360 GHII + DLC you can buy the PS2 bundle GH + GHII + 2x Guitars, and still can have something to drink

[Dot50Cal]

Oh MS, what are you doing?

Someone get Luke

[Spider_Jerusalem]

MS doesn't have final approval in pricing and packaging for all download content?

Not pricing. Infact some publishers have released free contents without any problems.

[$h@d0w]

Holy shit, for the price of a X360 GHII + DLC you can buy the PS2 bundle GH + GHII + 2x Guitars, and still can have something to drink

Or get some NEXT GEN PS2 WIRELESS guitars!

[Vaandaviii]

MS doesn't have final approval in pricing and packaging for all download content?

Yes, an increase of the final price was part of their approval

[BenjaminBirdie]

oh ok, so you mean this might be initial pricing, then later they might say, offer individual songs or cheaper packs?

That's my guess. The reaction to this batch has been swift, immediate, and pretty obvious. Every other instance of Microtransaction Haphazzardry has been met with some kind of attempt at rectification in future iterations of content.

But if anyone wants to help guarantee it, Mjolnir Nelson and Gene Simmons will be at Virgin in Times Square tomorrow from 12:30 to 2:30 promoting the game. Bring your signs and placards and I guarantee they will never release another song for over 100 points.

Or do you guys only *kind of* care about Micro"rape"(ha! rape! hilarious!)actions.

:)

[Chao]

See? See what happens?

Shame on you, microtransaction lovers. Screw you, I'm going home.

[levious]

Yes, an increase of the final price was part of their approval

that's not what I was saying

[Kosma]

Holy crap that's expensive....but I promised my GF some Incubus shit. Oh snap.