Jan 20
EA wants to start selling downloadable songs in more than just Rock Band
The downloadable songs for Rock Band have definitely been successful, with 2.5 million sold already. While the Rock Band DLC should continue to come at a steady pace, now there’s the possibility of songs being sold in other games too:
What’s more, there’s no reason for “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” to be the only videogames that sell music. It’s only a matter of time before other games begin offering new downloadable soundtracks as well.
Titles like the “Madden” football series, the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise and the venerable “Grand Theft Auto” games are well known for their extensive soundtracks. Offering gamers the ability to replace their soundtracks every few months after the initial release is not only technically possible with today’s new-generation consoles, but also on the horizon.
This is incredibly stupid for a number of reasons. First of all, the songs you buy in Guitar Hero III or Rock Band are specialized for those games - they are meant to be controlled by the player, and so additions like specific buttons mapped for each instrument throughout the song make them unique. However, if you bought music for most other games, I imagine it would just be like buying it from anywhere else (like iTunes) with nothing special except for it being exclusive to one game - chances are you would only be able to use it for the specific game you bought it in. That’s fine when it’s customized like in Guitar Hero III or Rock Band, but when it’s just the normal song it doesn’t seem worth it at all.
Secondly, most games allow custom soundtracks, so it makes much more sense to buy the song elsewhere and then just listen to it in the game. The article states that the ability to replace soundtracks is “not only technically possible with today’s new-generation consoles, but also on the horizon” - fortunately for us but it seems unbeknownst to them, it’s already here. Buying music for a specific game when you could instead buy it for use anywhere, including that game, is just plain dumb. However, Electronic Arts worldwide head of music Steve Schnur seems to think it’s actually a good idea, saying “that’s certainly something we’re interested in.” Unfortunately for him, I don’t think anyone else shares that interest (unless they stand to profit).
[Reuters, via Evil Avatar]
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I totally agree with you. I can’t imagine anybody would buy these songs. Leave it to EA to come up with a hair-brained idea like this for money.
I think one of the coolest things about Rock Band is that there are so many more people interested in taking the leap to playing real instruments to experiment. There’s a new drum company launching in a few weeks called Dixon Drums and they’re making high quality, aggresive drum sets on the cheap. If you ever wanted to be a drummer, nows a good time to make the leap. Check out http://www.myspace.com/dixondrums