Microsoft's Major Nelson Defends Guitar Hero II Download Pricing

Is 500 MS points ($6.25) a fair price for a pack of three downloadable Guitar Hero II songs on Xbox Live? Many of you don't think so, but Major Nelson believes it's justified. In a recent interview, he explained the rationale behind the current GHII pricing structure.

[bung tickler]

I have to agree, i mean people buy songs on itunes like he syas for $1 a pop and all you can do is listen to them, these songs are ~$2 and you can interact with them... how is that a bad deal? oh and to the people that say well it would cost ~$100 to buy all the songs from GH1... um some of those songs are already in GH2 and GH2 on the 360 has like 10 extra songs over the ps2 version already... so yeah.

by the way I dont even play this game, I do own it though... for one reason, my girlfriend plays the sh!t out of it and then doesnt get mad at me when i play something like Gears, or soon Mass Effect, on the other 360 i got. (yeah i have two 50" dlps and two 360's what-of-it?)

[frostbite06]

Itune songs are the real deal, not covers

[ryanjtravis]

The licensing/royalties argument is completely ridiculous - you think iTunes doesn't have to pay royalties? Of course they do, yet they charge $1 per song AND STILL MAKE MONEY (quite a bit of money, actually).

And sure, the devs put work into making the tracks interactive, but that gives them the right to charge us $1.25 - $1.50 maximum. Sorry, but 9 songs (some of which totally suck) should not cost me $19. Red Octane is absolutely screwing us, and I'm really disappointed in them.

[Diselage]

http://www.n4g.com/NewsPend...

[TheMART]

Yeah I think this pricetag is justified. You pay royalties for the song, which cost money to the original artist.

And the replay value is great of this game and the songs

[frostbite06]

Do you pay royalties for a cover?? If so, i dont know why so many bands would choose to do them

[kmis87]

I have to agree with you on this one Mart. As a GH fan on the ps2, I would have paid $100 for the game and guitar if it had cost that much at retail because it's that good.

And licensing really is a pain in the @ss, especially when you're trying to create a profitable microtransaction system. Horse Armor is still retarded because Bethesda doesn't pay royalties to anyone. But RedOctane doesn't really have many options in this case. My advice is buy songs you like, or buy songs that look like fun on youtube. Down the line they'll probably release larger song packs, and these will likely cost less per song than the 3 song packs.

[Adamalicious]

publishing royalties - yes.

mechanical etc royalties - no.

This really depends on the deals with the publishing companies. If you license a song for a game/film you don't pay more if the game/film sells more copies, but I don't know what deal they have going here - I'm sure it's complicated.

[Boon Tarkas]

You, probably more than anyone else, as an avid gamer, must know what these micro-transactions add up to. It gets bloody exorbitant.

Now we have a great game that I dropped $160 on (2 guitars, Canadian funds), one guitar doesn't work, and the DLC is old news and over-priced.

$6.25 aint' cheap.

To justify this pricing scheme only limits your cred when you weigh in on other issues.

PS. I do typically enjoy your rants and tirades versus the Soy-Boys

[Lacarious]

we all know how it will work from here on out. The gaming exec's will sit around a big glossy oak table in their high price suits thinking of what they are going to do with their super model assistant before going home to their wrinkley wives and they will all agree that chargeable components of games be left out so they can nickel and dime us to death increasing their profits so they can sit pretty on their 3rd yacht.

[Sky Lazarus]

What a joke this guy is, he is so brainwashed by corperate america that he thinks that it is all right for us to pay 2x what the songs from GH1 cost, just so we can play them in GHII. I just lost all respect for Major Nelson, and to think that this guy used to be the coolest xbox guy in the world. Sounds like Larry Hyrb is now talking and Major Nelson is dead. Pick or choose what you are about MN, the community or the company, you can't masquerade as both, now that the mask is off you have a lot of work to do to be "cool" with us again. What a shame

[BIadestarX]

I am sure if Microsoft would to offer you the job he has or any job for that matter you would be worst than he is... too bad you probably has nothing of value that they can possibly want.

Besides this has nothing to do with microsoft, maybe it does but not as much as people think. Do microsoft owns the content? What sucks about it is not being able to compare. It goes down to this. Buy the PS2 version you get the same songs as the 360 version... you want new songs.. you have to get the 360 version and pay wherever they ask for.
I would love to see this game or for that matter all 3rd party games release downloable content in all patform... let's see if the content would be cheaper in the PS3.

[kmis87]

If, for example Singstar songs (which also include videos I think, not really a big singer) would cost less, than I'd suspect its a result of Sony being the music production company for those songs. Royalties probably have RedOctane by the balls here, so just buy the songs you want and keep rocking out. Complaining about the costs isn't going to reduce the money RedOctane has to pay to license the songs.

[Alymon]

I love when people post these prices are fair and then say they never played the game.

Calculate it out. $2.08 per song * 47 songs = about $98 (None of the songs in GH1 are in GH2 otherwise).

A game that retails for $40. And they are charging over double for minor improvements and adjustments.

There's no logical justification.

[Close_Second]

...I have to agree with the point of view that the consumer has been asked to bend over and take one right up to Nelson's elbow. $2 for a cover (a COVER!!!) that you can't then use on your MP3 player as well is plain criminal.

[CAPS LOCK]

i wonder if they will charge other formats like the ps2 version or maybe the ps3?

[Silverwolf]

6+ Dollars for two "interactive songs". That's a major rip! MS just wants to charge for every item possible. I'll believe what major says whenever I don't hear any developers claim how they wanted to offer content for free and MS made them charge.

[whengeeksgobad]

Please people the cost is only justified if the reasoning is: we want to make more money. Sure, nothing wrong with that but lets be straight up.

They have sold the same songs bundled up in the previous games for much less. If they insist on nickel-and-diming us, they should at least have a "GH1 Bundled purchase" for approx 50 bucks or something, allowing full download of the first game, OR picking 3 songs for 6 bucks. I doubt that'll happen though.

[DirtySyko]

They are taking songs from the first game and charging more money for them than what it cost to actually PURCHASE the first game. You cannot justify that. That's just like saying when games get old and go on the platinum status, they go up in price instead of down. Hey everyone,PDZ has become a platinum hit! Go get it at the retail price of $79.99!

So, let's think about it. Should I download these tracks and end up paying $62.50 for the 30 songs from the first game (excluding the 17 bonus songs.) Or should I just spend $40 for the PS2 game and get a total of 47 songs. Wow, that's a really hard decision.

My favorite line from Nelson is this, "So, let's bundle them together, and test them as a unit and drive the price down." He talks about bundling them together to drive the price down. So perhaps they should do what DDR did, and bundle ALL of the songs together. All the songs from the first game should not amount to over $30, if they do, you are not making a wise investment. And I've said this before, it's tempting to buy new songs, especially if you haven't played the first game, like me. I would love to play Bark at the Moon... But no friggin way am I going to let myself get pimped by some bogus price tag.

[Silver360]

If you don't buy them they will lower the price. That is the only language they understand. I don't really care about Guitar Hero but the whining is so insufferable.

[fenderputty]

I pay a dolloar a song for the REAL song. It's get to go on my Ipod and my computer. 2 dollars for an interactive/cover of a song is a load of crap. I hope singstar isn't this much. They use real songs too.

[whengeeksgobad]

yes but whining about whining is still A-OK obviously. You're right though, and I have no intention of buying the game now, or of course, the downloadable content. Nice avatar though! Moving along...

[MikeGdaGod]

never played this game outside BestBuy, but this sounds a little steep

[sajj316]

and your still going to pay, if you want the content. Folks, you haven't even begun to see the power of microtransactions. I don't like them, but it is what it is.

Your going to see alot more in-game ads. Your going to get hit up on microtransactions. Xbox users are already paying for online gaming. You don't think MS and its partners are banking on Video MarketPlace. And yes, I do think Sony will be a huge proponent of this also.

[Kastrol]

Why the Fock would you listen to major nielson obviously his gonna defend Microsoft by chatting his SH1T

if you think it’s a ripp off you decide but obviously

major nielson has his balls clamped by MS so you know what his thoughts are

[weekapaugh]

gawd MS likes to milk peeps...

[outofstep]

all they are is over prices ports from the first game, i mean they could have at least put some effort in it and made all new songs, then maybe just maybe it wouldn't be as bad, but it's just ports of cover bands, drop the price and make some new songs available.... shouldn't try to make a gallon of lemoande with only half a lemon........ come on guys where is the flavor???

[Leathersoup]

Please release Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360. I will pay for the songs then, and only then.

Thank you.

[lilwingman]

I've said it before... please give me the full game right off the bat. Don't jerk me around and give me part of a game when I am paying for the entire thing. I would rather developers pour everything they have into a game, release it, and then move on and work on future titles.

Understandably, expansions packs (ie. Shivering Isles) are excempted from my criticisms because they contribute to the campaign storyline, and add significantly to the overall experience of the game.

[davidadrake]

The retail price for the guitar alone is $59.99, that makes the game itself only $30.00. Even if they were only charging for the licensing fees and not even the game itself, it would still be about $0.43 per song for the 70 included songs. I would have been happy to download the song packs if they had been a reasonable price, and I assume the true is same with the majority of people who have this title. I would be interested to see how the ratio of retail sales to this downloadable content stacks up against other games.

I think we will see more downloadable content at a premium price far above what it should be, then a price reduction when people stop buying it. It is their way of maximizing profits by gouging those who choose buy immediately, and giving the normal expected price to those who wait for it. This way, those who want the packs get them at the price they are willing to pay.

[highps3]

When they originally started to do this I wondered if they would charge. After all why would they when you already pay an xbox live fee.

However once you figure into the cost of the studio, the artist, the talent, the producers, etc you start to really put things together and say hey, thats not much.

Now if you think about what the Ps3 is doing its totally wrong because they dont even have this game so its totally wrong.

However back to this article and how it affected my life. The words popped out of the page like corn popping. POP.

Seriously GREAT article about the declining loss of what could be called the Live community econmoics and misunderstanding how it creates one nation under the xbox 360.

For real though its not that bad and truthfully xbox users should fork it over because really they dont deserve to have this free. It would be a bad bussiness model if they decided to just include these with the games. Not only would it make gamers happy but it makes the company not happy which is a big no no.

GH is just starting out so they obviously need the extra money for developing the next GH 3. So if you want GH3 to be good please sell some lemonade, stay an extra hour, run that extra mile so you can afford to buy some extra songs. On top of it all is whip creme and a cherry!

[makingdamage]

What he should do is defending that not-so-cordless-guitar. What is this, 1999?
All the new consoles come with cordless controllers and so should this game. It´s a shame really microsoft.