Fans revolt! GH II DLC is just too spendy
by Dustin Burg 
{ Apr 12th 2007 at 1:45AM }
Yesterday, the first batch of downloadable content for Guitar Hero II released onto the XBLM with a very negative reception from fans. Red Octane released three packs to the Marketplace each containing three songs from Guitar Hero and costing 500 Microsoft points ($6.25 US) each. And there in lies the problem ... this content is expensive! The negative buzz surrounding the new tracks has not only spilled onto Major Nelson's website sparking a 560+ comment debate, but inspired angry fans to take action. Enter an online petition aimed at getting Red Octane and Microsoft's attention to do something about the over priced DLC. The online petition has gained a bunch of steam racking up over 3,600 signatures and is sure to gain more throughout the next few days. Will Red Octane respond to fan's anger towards the DLC's pricing scheme, or will they simply turn a blind eye? Well, there's only one way to find out. If you don't agree with the pricing for Guitar Hero II's new DLC and are willing to boycott any such purchase until the price comes down, then sign the online petition. If it's one thing we've learned in the past few weeks it's that sometimes those online petitions actually do work.
[Thanks, MightyHealthy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
vid33nyc1 @ Apr 12th 2007 1:57AM
Im not into this type of game but this is happening much to often now.Kind of feels like your getting nickel and dimed after awhile.Why not just release 1 pack for 800 points.Thats what, a buck25 a song?
Ninegauger @ Apr 12th 2007 2:19AM
They've gotten nothing from me. These prices are too high... and this coming from a guy who has bought every Oblivion pack released (including the expansion but excluding the horse armor) without a second thought.
jason @ Apr 12th 2007 2:32AM
Its ludacris what they charge on xboxlive marketplace epic games wants to give out there new 4 maps for free but microsoft said they won't cuz they paid alot on marketing gear of war that was microsofts choice not epics choice, you get free upgradeson the pc usually ps3's online is free but i know its not as good as xbox livw which you pay 50 dollars fora year you should get more free or cheap downloads cuz the competitors give you free online and come with wifi even in the ds. To get all of guitar hero 1 songs its 100 dollars i don't even think it should cost as much as the game since its been out since 2005 let alone paying more then double the price of the game thats 2 years old u can buy a song on itune for $1 and listen to it on ur ipod not just on ur 360. I say 45 cents for songs from the old guitar hero and $1.00-$1.50 for new songs that were never on guiter hero before. Microsoft needs to realize to give better prices for updates,maps,songs,content and so on cuz we pay for the online service
DeadPlasmaCell @ Apr 12th 2007 3:09AM
Eh, it is a bit pricey.. I'm hoping RedOctane addresses this and doesn't use the old "Er.. it's MS that decides the prices not us.. so our hands are tied" that I've seen before.
Mike @ Apr 12th 2007 3:26AM
Stop buying it. Who am I kidding, that will never work. For everybody who takes a stand, ten people with Microsoft Points burning a whole in their virtual pocket are going to piss 'em away. Overpriced downloads are here to stay. Corporate America FTW.
Mike @ Apr 12th 2007 3:27AM
oops. hole, now whole.
Mike @ Apr 12th 2007 3:28AM
oops. not, not now. 7th post!
Eric @ Apr 12th 2007 3:48AM
A petition is a nice pipe-dream, but the only thing that will REALLY have an effect on pricing is if people don't buy it. Horse armor was too expensive. People didn't buy it. Future oblivion content was MUCH more reasonable (except shivering isles). You think it's too much (and I agree), don't buy it, no matter how much you might want it. Remember, you won't have free cards from circuit city for the other 39 songs, so unless you want to pay $100 for all the songs from GH1, DO NOT BUY THESE, or else the prices will stay the same, and that will be that.
dennis shamrock @ Apr 12th 2007 4:11AM
man fuck the police!
jason @ Apr 12th 2007 5:00AM
don't just have a petition for guitar hero songs but for xbox live marketplace pricing read below for my point
the oblivion expansion i think it is more than or exactly 30 dollars worth of marketplace points 2400points and the pc version of the expansion pack is also $30 usa real dollars and epic games said if they were to come out with there map pack at stores instead of marketplace it would be more expensive cuz of packaging which i know that is true so why is the expaansion pack for oblivion in stores the same price as marketplace Micro$oft is riping their customers off. it should should be 1600 to 2000 marketplace points not the same as the store so the songs should be the same or really should be less than $30 dollars if you can get all of them but maybe redoctane is only releasing the popular ones from guitar hero 1 so thats why they r more which is wrong
Boff @ Apr 12th 2007 5:04AM
Signed.
4223 signatures now.
Jack the Ripper @ Apr 12th 2007 5:32AM
Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours, baby.
James Sullivan @ Apr 12th 2007 6:05AM
You know, I think we should start an Online Petition to send to Konami for MGS4, and to Square Enix for FF 13.
I realize that the Xbox 360 has games like Halo 3 and Mass Effect that are considered quite a bit superior to MGS4, and games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey that are superior to FF 13, but it still wouldn't hurt to have those games available on the Xbox 360, because it would help Konami and Square-Enix generate revenue and profits for their shareholders, and it would make a certain percentage of Xbox 360 owners happier, since they have no plans to purchase the Playstaton 3, since it is such a disappointing gaming device that is so overpriced.
Jack the Ripper @ Apr 12th 2007 6:18AM
Yeah, I actually agree with you, James. I don't own a PS3, but not because I'm a Microsoft fanboy. I don't own a PS3 because there isn't a single title that would merit me spending nearly a thousand dollars on hardware and accessories just so I could play it. If any really good PS3 games decide to jump ship to the 360, I would pick them up, but I'm not going to buy a PS3 just to get in on FFXIII.
dale_furr @ Apr 12th 2007 6:59AM
I made the mistake of purchasing one of the packs.. thinking it was going to be worth it. My Bad...It sux, not the original songs, just coverbands doing the songs.. and I paid to much for the download. Didn't really pay attention to the price when i click confirm... Learned my lesson!!!
aic007 @ Apr 12th 2007 8:06AM
Didn't RO say that pricing would be similar to itunes? that would mean .99 a song not $2. I have it on the PS2 so I am in no rush to get these but would prefer to play them on the 360. unless they restructure the price they wont get a dime from me. Bad enough they screwed ps2 customers when they made it so that the ANT controllers weren't compatible with GH2 on PS2 forcing ANT to make an adapter for them.
Paul @ Apr 12th 2007 8:32AM
Averaging about 400 signatures an hour... that isnt too bad at all - i dont have hope, but this COULD send a statement...
Smacksmackums @ Apr 12th 2007 8:37AM
So for the 35 or so big artist songs from the first guitar hero, we'd end up paying over 70 dollars?
That's more than the cost of a regular game!!! GH1 for ps2 is only going for 40 dollars. That is the max price they should charge for all GH1 downloadable content. End of story.
cormier6083 @ Apr 12th 2007 8:40AM
:O Tek Jansen even signed! http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c276/Cormier6083/8ef59557.jpg
Michael @ Apr 12th 2007 8:41AM
"If it's one thing we've learned in the past few weeks it's that sometimes those online petitions actually do work."
No, they don't. Do you really think 2k Games WASN'T going to grab an opportunity to make more money? They just wanted to drum up some good publicity for their game.
I'm not saying people shouldn't complain, but internet petitions are far more ignorable than e-mailing Microsoft and Red Octane. Get up in their faces about this if you want something done.
Mighty Healthy @ Apr 12th 2007 9:13AM
@Michael:
Strength in numbers is more powerful than a few hundred well thought out e-mails that go even further ignored.
The publicity for the resistance to these prices will do far better. Look at the Lumines fiasco.
The most disgusting thing in this, as well, was how much reps from RedOctane bragged about their Marketplace offerings"
Ted Lange, on GHII DLC, a couple months ago -
"We are planning on having more online content than anyone has ever seen in a game to this date."
At the least, one would have figured the songs would be independently released...instead of in overpriced packs.
I agree with you on 2K's use of a petition as advertisement...but with 5,000 signatures in little over a day, I think a strong point is being made about GHII DLC.
Pete @ Apr 12th 2007 5:05PM
The petitition is already at 5400... we'll see....
Yeti @ Apr 12th 2007 11:24AM
Online petitions are ok I guess, but as consumers the best strategy I can offer is to SPEAK WITH YOUR WALLETS. Don't buy it. It's price gouging, and I'm tired of it. Major Nelson wants to lie and say some crap about how expensive it can be to license these songs.
10 DDR songs are sold for 800 points. The DDR songs are licensed and interactive. What's the effing difference? Is it more expensive because GH2 is the "hot" game right now?
It stinks. Tell everyone you know who has this game NOT to buy the DLC.
Tony @ Apr 12th 2007 11:41AM
Petitioning about exclusives is ridiculous. Petitioning about pricing on a game hundreds of thousands of people have already BOUGHT is a very different story. The reaction to the pricing scheme has been pretty much universally negative.
A lot of people seem to think these are simply "ported" over with no new work, but obviously bass/secondary guitar lines have to be added since GH1 didn't support those. In addition, there's also the whole better surround sound support. There's definitely work involved here.
Honestly, they could have just put out one big ass download of all the songs, charged like $45 and I doubt anyone would
I was never going to delude myself into thinking these would cost a buck, but 500 for three songs is too much. I think people would be a lot more forgiving if these were totally new songs, but they're not. The whole $100 for all the songs in GH1 idea kind of exemplifies instantly why this is a stupid pricing scheme for them.
Personally, I really don't like the groupings either. If they were going to group songs, they should have done it in groups of 5 according to their sets in the game. As it is now, the choices are totally random. I only want two of these songs, but I'd be forced to blow 1,000 points on two packs for them.
No thanks. Hopefully this will make them bring down the prices for the future or something.
3cubedminus3squared @ Apr 12th 2007 11:46AM
I signed. It was at 5722 when I did. I don't have this game but I think that it is wrong to charge so much for this stuff and if it will help lower other stuff then I'm glad I've helped.
coalhalo @ Apr 12th 2007 1:12PM
HORSE ARMOR!
That was the first thing to pop into my head when I read this. Bethesda had their first dlc overpriced as well. After the outcry over the Horse Armor, the majority of Oblivion's other dlc was reasonably priced.Six bucks for three songs is just way overpriced. Consumers are used to paying $1 to download a song. Even though the Guitar Hero II content on xblm does add "gameplay", it's still a song. And hopefully the market will show itself by not caving into Activision being greedy little bastards. Microsoft is to blame as well. How many times have we heard about developers/publishers saying they wanted to offer free content on xblm, but MS shot it down. MS should have learned from the Horse Armor controversy, and from the Lumines outrage also. But it seems that MS will keep pushing the boundry and then bring it back a little only to push it again to the point that people start to forget the initial line.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Apr 12th 2007 2:31PM
"I made the mistake of purchasing one of the packs.. thinking it was going to be worth it. My Bad...It sux, not the original songs, just coverbands doing the songs.. and I paid to much for the download."
Is this your first time playing Guitar Hero or something? I don't think any of GH1's songs were done by the original bands, save bonus songs.
Mike @ Apr 12th 2007 2:54PM
I love how the phrase "horse armor" has become the rallying cry. Imagine 30 years from now if the phrase is still in use and we have to explain to our kids the origin.
Randy @ Apr 12th 2007 4:10PM
We raged! That petition is up to over 7 thousand. Way to voice it it!
BrotherEstapol @ Apr 14th 2007 11:58AM
It's only at 9594 and:
"This petition has been closed to new signatures at the author's request."
Why on earth would you close the petition off!?
I didn't get to sign. :(
Ninegauger @ Apr 23rd 2007 9:51AM
That's weird...
ccc @ Apr 24th 2007 11:24AM
Hey Y can't I sign the petition? It says It's been locked out by the author. Did they already recieve the # of signitures they needed? I was one of the first people to email Red Octane about the bs of the price and if there is a petition then I wanna show my support for this as I too am severly outraged at the cost of these rehashed songs from Gh1. Like I said before, for the price they want for those 9 songs you could out right buy GH1 on the ps2 for cheaper used. Smells like greed to me, and the beggining of companies charging up the ying yang for downloadable content. Look at the new Rainbow 6 downloadable content. 10 bucks for a few new maps and to new modes of play. Did Epic make us pay for the new Gears Of War maps or the new update with Annex? Plus there paid by addvertisers to put crap in these games and we see none of that do we? Dosn't matter that I saw adds for Walberges Shooter movie, or Blades of glory or Axe deoderint or the Dodge whatever That game still costed me 60 dollers and now I gotta pay another ten for a few new maps?
ccc