Rock Band expansion pack for Wii announced before Rock Band itself is even available for Wii
Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 3:52pm by David
The headline says it all, but here are the details:
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 Rock Band™ Track Pack Volume 1 for the Wii™ home video game console from Nintendo and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The 20-Track Pack features an electrifying mix of classic hits and current favorites, including songs by Boston, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, and All American Rejects. The Rock Band™ Track Pack Volume 1 will be available on July 15th, 2008 for a MSRP of $29.99. Complete details are as follows:
Release date: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tracks:
30 Seconds to Mars The Kill
All American Rejects Move Along
Blink – 182 All the Small Things
Boston More Than a Feeling
David Bowie Moonage Daydream
Faith No More We Care A Lot
Grateful Dead Truckin’
The Hives Die, All Right!
KISS Calling Dr. Love
Lynyrd Skynyrd Gimme’ Three Steps
Nine Inch Nails March of the Pigs
Oasis Live Forever
Paramore Crushcrushcrush
The Police Synchronicity II
Queens of the Stone Age Little Sister
Ramones Teenage Lobotomy
Smashing Pumpkins Siva
Stone Temple Pilots Interstate Love Song
Weezer Buddy Holly
Wolfmother Joker & the Thief
**All 20 tracks utilize original master recordings**
** All tracks are available as DLC on competing platforms**
Price: $29.99 MSRP
May 5th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
How is this being distributed? A second disk or as an SD card?
May 5th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Second disc. I’m curious to see if this can be played without owning the original version…
May 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Too bad it isn’t SD. It’d make more sense since you wouldn’t have to swap disks. Didn’t you guys discuss this on a podcast?
May 5th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Where’s Nirvana’s “Rape Me” song… I kind of figured it would be an option.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
On disc, of course.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
It would have been nice for 30 songs in that case. It’s nice to see they’ll at least do something about the non-downloadable content issue but not being able to pick and choose might really hurt the expansion’s sales. Still, I suppose it’s better than nothing.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Why can’t they put in the character creator? Or why won’t they?
May 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I’d say you’ll be able to play with just this disc. As Dustin points out, disc swapping would be a real nuisance. The reasons they can call it an expansion is that you can’t buy the instruments separately at launch, so they know you’ve got the main Rock Band disc.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
the original aint available because theres no downloadable content yet
May 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
i love how rock band and gh3 introduce so many people to great music. my lil bro had never heard of kansas before gh. and forget it, he certainly would never have heard of dragonforce. let’s hear it for cultivating good (and, well, some ‘eh’) taste!
May 5th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
The character creation isn’t in because all the background imagery on PS2 and Wii versions is pre-rendered as an FMV sequence. Apparently Harmonix deemed both platforms ‘incapable’ of rendering the ‘complex’ scenes in real-time, and as such the play is limited to what they can fit into video. Hence also why DLC isn’t possible on Wii - each song takes tens to hundreds of megabytes in FMV form rather than the megabytes to tens of megabytes one might expect of audio tracks + character models + animation and whatnot. Chalk it up to Laziness.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Thanks elmer, that answered my question.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:36 am
[...] acaba de anunciar que las versiones de Wii y PS2 de Rock Band también contarán con expansiones y ha aprovechado para anunciar la primera llamada Rock Band Track Pack Volume [...]