Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Beatles: Rock Band DLC Pricing

Brilliant (from 1UP):
Up next is Abbey Road, the first of three full albums scheduled for The Beatles: Rock Band this year. Beginning October 20, fans will be able to purchase the remaining 12 songs from the album that weren't included on the game's disc. As an added bonus, anyone who buys the album in its entirety (priced at 1360 Microsoft points, or $16.98) will get to play Abbey Road's 16-minute B-side medley as one continuous track.

$17 for Abbey Road? Sold and sold again.

More:
Following the release of Abbey Road is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is dated for sometime in November of this year. With four songs from the album already in the game, that leaves eight tracks for DLC. Pricing was not announced for this full album bundle or for Rubber Soul, which is coming this December.

Additionally, each of these songs will be available either packed with their original albums or individually. Single tracks from any of the above albums will go for the normal Rock Band DLC price of $1.99 (160 Microsoft points).

The only way this could've been screwed up was to price the DLC too high. And I'm sure it was tempting to try and milk this catalog for outrageous prices, but this is Harmonix we're talking about. So we get DLC from the Beatles at standard prices, and I will buy every single album.

I know that music games, particularly games that are band-based, have probably peaked. From a personal standpoint, though, I'm not sure it matters. Even if DLC dried up and died 12 months from now, I'd still have 500+ songs to play, at least, and I could easily play Rock Band for the next decade.

Sure, I'd like to see Led Zeppelin, and I'd like to see much more material from the Rolling Stones. Even without them, though, I would be happy for a long, long time.

Here's an example of how I try to manage competing obsessions. When I play Madden (as I compulsively and somewhat disturbingly continue to work on sliders), I don't control anyone on the defensive side of the ball--I just call a play and watch the results. After I make the call, I pick up a drumstick and play the snare with my left hand for 15-20 seconds until the play ends. So I'm squeezing in quite a bit of additional practice time in terms of working on my finger technique.

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