Rock Band coming to Wii on June 22
Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 2:23pm by Press Release
PRESS RELEASE — Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks, which is a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced plans to release the award-winning music video game Rock Band on the Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo in the U.S. and Canada on June 22, 2008 for the suggested retail price of $169.99.
Rock Band for Wii will be released as a Special Edition bundle including the software, drums, microphone and a wireless guitar. Stand alone instruments will also be available on June 22nd for people who want to build their band one instrument at a time or want to play the drum versus drum game mode. The game will feature 63 songs including five bonus songs for Wii gamers to enjoy.
“The Wii’s success among casual and core gamers of all ages makes it an ideal match for the cross-generational appeal of the music featured in Rock Band,” says Bob Picunko, Vice President of Electronic Games and Interactive Products, MTV
“The social interaction and addictive nature of the Rock Band experience is a perfect fit for the Wii and will undoubtedly be fun for the entire family,” says Steve Singer, licensing VP from Nintendo.
Rock Band is an all-new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune – all while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals. Featuring the most master recordings of any music game ever by the world’s biggest rock artists, Rock Band includes tracks that span every genre of rock ranging from alternative and classic rock to heavy metal and punk. Rock Band has garnered over 40 awards this year including Game Critics Award: Best of Show E3 2007 and three awards at The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards including Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, Family Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack.
Rock Band is rated “T” for Teen (lyrics, mild suggestive themes) by the ESRB.
Rock Band is currently available on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and on the PLAYSTATION®2 computer entertainment system.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Better late than never. I hope that EA doesn’t slack off on this one and makes sure to include online play, downloadable tracks, and decent graphics.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Damn, I just sent in a mail to this effect replete with my usual diatribe. Mostly ranting about the unfair expense of our version versus the others
March 24th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
It’s on!
March 24th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
way sooner than I thought it would come out… and I guess this isn’t reggie’s big holiday announcement (I thought it would be).
March 24th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Ok…so…screenshots and word on DLC? Big items that are ‘required’ for this. If it looks like total crapola, I’m still not buying. Maybe.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
@ Necro:
I’d imagine the graphics will be more or less ported from the PS2 version. That doesn’t bother me so much as I don’t think Rock Band on 360 looks that great.
But DLC, I want it but it’s not a selling point for me. I’m buying it regardless. My friends have Rock Band on the 360 and we have bought maybe three songs via DLC. It’s a great way to keep the game fresh but it won’t prevent me from enjoying it.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I really hope they add DLC. Or even a method to sell add-on discs. Something like the same price points for the DLC tracks but in a bundle disc for say $19.99 or $24.99 for the appropriate amount of songs that you get at that price on XBL.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I keep on hearing it’s a port of the ps2 version, if that’s the case it’s a very bad thing.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
As expected:
“Sean from Harmonix dropped into the forums to answer some questions about the Wii release. First, “the feature-set is a lot closer to the PS2 version of Rock Band which was also developed by Pi Studios.” Harmonix “decided to focus on getting the core gameplay on to the Wii and focus on making that awesome”" joystiq.
So, no HD, no/limited online, no use of the modularity of the Wiimote, an 8 month wait, no enhancements (in fact cut-backs compared to some versions) and apparently little to no development costs to the non-lead dev team. All this selling to an audience already well catered in the get-off-your-ass-and-play-in-a-group genres, who incidentaly bought into Wii thinking they’d save some money.
Why exactly are we paying $10 more in June than the PS2 version was last Christmas? How on this planet are they justifying charging us the same as on 360/PS3?
I hate you EA. I hate you. You greedy fat fu*&ers!
March 24th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Ever tried typing “F*%k you EA” into google? (minus the *% obviously).
It brings up 353,000 hits.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
No thanks. >.>
March 24th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Oh man. I was really hoping they were being tight-lipped about the Wii version because they were planning something special, not warmed-over PS2 crap. It sounds like we’re not even getting proper World Tour. Does EA need to be reminded that Guitar Hero 3 Wii was the best-selling version?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
…I might get this one, i haven’t gotten a guitar hero game at all yet.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
No DLC is a bummer.
I don’t care about DLC for this game specifically, although I WAS hoping this game would be big enough to warrant a proper solution to the storage problem.
You’d think the monetary potential of rock band DLC would be enough to get them off their asses and update the firmware to allow us to save direct to the sd card. FUgg.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
They have more details on Joystiq now.
It doesn’t have:
online
downloadables
character chreator
mii support
wireless controllers
compatibility with GH guitar
It does have:
a $10 higher price tag
5 “bonus” song (see previous)
snazzy white drums
What a pile of shit
March 24th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Major disappointment at no DLC. I’ll just wait until I get a PS3 one of these days maybe.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
@ used cisco
I totally agree that DLC is an issue that should be solved on Wii sooner rather than later. I would point out that the problem you’re talking about is more or less a technical non-issue: The channels and VC content can be shifted to the card as necessary, and recent hacks notwithstanding Nintendo appear to be plenty confident their encryption will hold when paid for content is placed on remote storage. In this case, I seriously don’t know what the problem is here. Do you have any ideas? Besides which, why are we assuming this is Nintendo’s fault (as seems to be going on at Kotaku thanks to Crecente’s slanted reporting). Paid for DLC is already possible onto internal storage, and MP3 playback of music from SD cards on previous games clearly proves 3rd parties have access to the SD slot. Really this comes down to either:
a) Nintendo see no need/are lazy with the tech
b) EA are lazy with the tech
Sure it’s possible the problem’s on Nintendo’s end, but to assume it’s not EA with a track record like theirs is really pissing me off. Particularly with the platform history of this game.
However, in this case seen as my only other option is the borked Wii version of GHIII, I’m perfectly happy to get Rock Band without DLC, with one caveat: it better bloody well be cheaper.
Product - features = Regular Price - Discount.
No saving = No sale here.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Wth are there only 63 songs, and whats so impossible about not giving us the same or superior experience the PS3 version has? EA is always allowed to use its’ own servers for online on every system, why can they open up a game store with their servers on Wii and make dlc a possibility by letting us buy it and use it from our SD cards?
All I wanted was to get the drums and have some fun, and to use a GH3 controller to play the guitar parts. Why isn’t there compatibility, I bet the guitar is just another plastic shell. I’m not getting this.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Excuse me while I yawn at the prospect of this afterthought..
hhhh…*yawn* urray.
I guess the execs came to this decision after they had finally finished licking their chops at how well GH III sold on the Wii.
At least it’s being ported, but I have no desires to buy another PS2 game, except Okami, for my Wii.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
@gametaku
Medal of Honor 2 connects to EA’s servers.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
So apparently the Wii version now won’t have any form of online gaming at all, so my decision between this and the online enabled GHIII is now solved. I need worry that a superior guitaring music game is coming no longer, and I merely have to wait for the non stereo/surround-borked iteration of GH to hit European shores.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Looks like that extra ten dollars is going towards the 5 “bonus songs”. It’s genius porting something over with little-to-no effort to get that big handful of cash that people will no doubt throw at them. Too bad they had to do it with Rock Band to rape people’s wallets too.
I learned my lesson with GHIII: don’t buy something that isn’t up to par with other versions. I’ll still probably get GH: Aerosmith for Wii just to save 10bux, since others won’t have DLC either. Rock Band though, I’ll get that on 360. Eventually. D:
March 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Harmonix’s comments about online play are complete and utter BS. They piss me off to no end.
Firs they say this blurb;
However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized,
Then they follow it with this contradicting blurb;
we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they’ve come to expect.
So we already know high-quality online performance and expect it, but the Wii’s online capabilities have yet to be fully realized. What?!!! BULLSH ! T!
F*KING LAZY coupled with a limited budget is what comes to mind.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Ok. I’m starting to change my opinion. I was willing to look past no DLC but all this other stuff…
No GH3 guitar support is killing me. If I buy Rock Band and an extra guitar I’ll have 5 plastic guitars laying around my house.
At $169, I may have to skip it and just play at my friends house (360 version)
March 25th, 2008 at 2:37 am
But GH3 wasn’t made by Harmonix, it was Red Octane.
Isn’t that the reason PS3 didn’t support it either and XBox 360 only supported GH2 controller.
But I’m stoked that our beloved Wii will get Rock Band very soon.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:15 am
As far as EA’s servers are concerned, I’m really wondering why they couldn’t use them to give us the complete online experience while having their development teams give us the complete core experience of the game.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
@elmer,
I don’t know whose fault this is. All I know is that it’s getting annoying when seamingly obvious features are dismissed out of hand.
With regard to Nintendo, it bothers me that we can’t play our VC games or gamesaves direct from the SD card. This should be fixed IMO and I probably make some incorrect assumptions based on that. :-/