GH II downloadable tracks total 2 million

by Dustin Burg { Sep 11th 2007 at 1:30PM }

Today, Activision is touting the success of their Guitar Hero II downloadable content claiming to have sold 650,000 song packs via the XBLM, which totals over 2 million songs. Activision says that the "song packs are some of the most popular content on Xbox Live and are quickly becoming a very lucrative revenue stream" and announced that their latest GH II My Chemical Romance song pack has been purchased over 55,000 times. Cha-ching!

So, everything is peaches and fresh daisies over at the Activision camp as it pertains to the success of GH II's downloadable content, but we ask what happened to the community's complaints about the price? Back when the new tracks became available everyone was up in arms at the cost, refused to support the expensive content and even went as far as to create online petitions. But now it's looking like it was the vocal minority who were expressing their distaste or those who were complaining just gave in and purchased new tracks. We aren't sure if we should applaud the success of GH II's DLC or be somewhat sad that the "success" of it may just have solidified the high price point for the future. We guess we'll just have to see how it all works out when Rock Band puts its first round of content on the Marketplace.

Tags: ghii, guitarheroii, redoctane, xblm

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Leif Richardson @ Sep 11th 2007 2:26PM

I don't understand why so many people have bought these outrageously priced tracks. I still refuse to ever buy them.

DjDATZ @ Sep 11th 2007 1:38PM

Content price gouging FTW!!!

Tony @ Sep 11th 2007 1:38PM

People who complain online in general seem to be a vocal minority, for better or worse. Say, for example, I go to NeoGAF and read threads where it seems countless people are going nuts over something... it's barely reflected in the actions of the general consumer.

That said, I wish the packs were cheaper and it would have been interesting to see how many more would have been sold if they were. There could be room to argue that they'd make more money that way, but there's no real source of comparison to be sure of it.

xenocidic @ Sep 11th 2007 1:40PM

"Charge what the market will bear"

Economics 101

Neon Jebus @ Sep 11th 2007 1:44PM

There's a sucker born every minute.

derek @ Sep 11th 2007 2:39PM

As a journalist, in your article you should put the word "everyone" in quotes. It should read, "..."everyone" was up in arms at the cost..."

Just because a vocal minority creates an online petition or bitches on the X3F comment system that doesn't constitute everyone.

Nitin @ Sep 11th 2007 1:59PM

they really should be sued for false advertising. they claimed they were going to have the most dlc content on xbox live. they released 3 song packs (all over priced, yet i bought them all :sadface:)

the promise of a lot of DLC was one of the biggest reasons I bought this game because i get bored of games very quickly. I haven't pulled this game out since the my chemical romance pack.

i hope rock band actually delivers dlc on a regular basis

ericdrum @ Sep 11th 2007 2:04PM

I have 5 friends who all have the game. Between us all, only 3 packs were purchased. If the price was 99 cents per song, we would each buy every pack. So yeah, they may have had success, but there's no way to measure how many still haven't purchased at the current prices. Now it's too late as GH3 and RB are on the horizon.

HueHue @ Sep 11th 2007 2:07PM

I got drunk, had friends over, and downloaded to expand the playability. I blame Coors Light.

Scott @ Sep 11th 2007 2:25PM

What they should do is put them on sale for a week/weekend. Charge half the price like XBLA just did (I bought Small Arms at 400 and would never ever have bought it at 800). Its been awhile that the game and the DLC has been out, best way to see how many people they are missing out on would to just offer the packs at what we are saying they are worth. At the very least, it would be an interesting piece of info for all of the pricing arguments.

Mark @ Sep 11th 2007 2:28PM

So, people complained on forums and then bought them anyway. Way to vote with your dollar.

Also, Activision is happy that they made money, but they don't know how much they could have sold if they lowered the price. The maximum revenue probably isn't a price point where people complain on forums.

x silence x @ Sep 11th 2007 2:38PM

Dumbasses! Now were gonna get screwed later on this. Let's hope that Rock Band undercuts them...

Cr1ckt @ Sep 11th 2007 4:33PM

They could have sold at least six times that many if the price was low enough. Ericdrum brought up a good point about people being picky about their purchases due to the price. If Neversoft ever tries to release as much content as Harmonix is planning for Rock Band, they need to lower the price, or they'll really be losing out on revenue. As the number of songs available increase, the disparity between the actual sales and potential sales will only increase.

bigmac375 @ Sep 11th 2007 3:40PM

fuck activision, and ea will prob screw us more, cuase they're ea. fuck them both

DeadPlasmaCell @ Sep 11th 2007 3:41PM

Had the songs been $1 people still would have bitched about something, because you still have to buy 500 points to get them. So then people would bitch about them not being sold individually.. Then had they been sold individually people would complain about the choices. Then the makers would come out and say "Well we had to keep the selection limited to what we think will sell best since we have the price so low", So people would then bitch about the price being low and that they'd be happy to pay $1 more for a bigger selection and thus completes the circle of life. When people are content with paying $1 for a song and then get told they'll have to pay $2 and decide to bitch about it, you'll never make them happy.

Kizzle @ Sep 11th 2007 3:50PM

What happened? Gamers have no balls and never back up what they say on their little message boards, that's what happened. I have yet to buy ANY downloadable content for GH2 (songs or not) and I certainly don't plan to barring a price drop. Not to sound like a prick, but if more people followed that example we would have had more reasonably priced content.

Tiggle @ Sep 11th 2007 4:02PM

someone call the whaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmbulance!

Vader582 @ Sep 11th 2007 4:16PM

I think these numbers are fake. Activision is just trying to get everyone warmed-up for the DLC rip-off that Rock Band will become...

DeadPlasmaCell @ Sep 11th 2007 4:21PM

My beef with the whole thing isn't the price, it's the lack of content! We were promised DLC out the wazoo and we got bupkiss. 16oz of prime bupkiss!

bearxor @ Sep 11th 2007 4:22PM

You people are such idiots. How is $2 a track really bad? I mean, a regular song download off iTunes is $99, but you can't "play" it. There's a lot of work that went in to the track even if it was a rehash from GH1, it still had to be reworked to be put on the X360 and GH2. I think around $2 a track is a great price.

My complaint is with the bundling. All the pack have at least one song I don't like, except for the "Wanna be sedated" pack. In this case, I refused to spend money on songs I don't like and bought only the pack that had all three songs I wanted.

If you're listening Activision, You got 6.25 out of me. If they were available for download separately instead of bundled, I would have bought 8 songs instead of 3. If they were about 150p each, thats 1200p or a little more than double what I spent. I think 175p would be a good price point as well.

jkdoug @ Sep 11th 2007 4:52PM

Not to be nit-picky, but the headline should say "downloaded" and not "downloadable" as it gives the impression that there are over 2 million unique songs available on XBLM. :-P~

veto @ Sep 11th 2007 4:54PM

id love the extra tracks , just not at that price or in those pack structures . refused to buy them , altho i do look at them from time to time thinking "you moneygrabbing bastards"

dikkediv @ Sep 11th 2007 6:23PM

jeeeeeebuz! if these numbers are correct theyve hauled in over 5$ million USD.. and most likely more.. in europe and other places MS Points are more than 6$/500p..

shit - i havent even played this stupid game for 3+ months.. the lack of DLC (at a reasonable price!) is just so frustrating.. and no MCR is NOT satisfying DLC

Rab39 @ Sep 11th 2007 6:42PM

They did listen.

It wasn't just about price...it was also about content.

The first three packs contained one hit mixed with obscure songs...and different genres even.

The fourth one contained three of the most famous songs in the game - songs most people know all the lyrics to and even your mom might know - which also pretty much knocked back the hypothesis that it was individual song fees that drove up the costs of the packs....

Ryan Taylor @ Sep 11th 2007 6:39PM

@19 how are the ppl who refuse to buy idiots...because we didnt wear the same thing as you and follow you in line today? Sorry but at the price they offer for the same amount of songs doesnt compare to the price of the songs included in the original game.....and they didn't even have to make cases, manuals, discs, etc.

To whoever said they are ballooning the numbers. Agreed. They want more people to buy, and eventually there will be sale so they can squeeze that extra little bit out.

I signed a petition and refuse to buy until they are cheaper...Those who complain about how I feel and call me an idiot are sheep.