Rock Band Wii will not support Online play/DLC
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 6:38am by Jake
Soon after today’s press release, Kotaku shot Harmonix an email concerning the fate of left out details, including possible online play. Soon after, Harmonix/EA responded with a very saddening statement to Wii owners…
Regarding downloadable content: During Rock Band for the Wii development Harmonix focused on making the core gameplay experience as solid and enjoyable as possible while tailoring it specifically to the strengths of the platform. The Wii version still contains the robust four-player band experience and all the fun at the core of other versions of Rock Band. However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, 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.
Harmonix/EA
That’s basically a big fat, NO. No downloadable content for other Wii titles might not be such a big deal, but Rock Band thrives off of fresh tracks and a constant flow of new content. Lack of DLC and basic online play makes the $169.99 price tag pretty hard to swallow. Joystiq’s EA pestering gave us a few more details including…
- DPL II, 480p
- Ships with USB hub
- Instruments don’t need to be connected to Wii Remotes
- (5) Bonus songs will be announced at a later date
- No character creation
- No Mii support
- No support for GHIII guitar
I might be over reacting a bit, but this just seems like a slap in the face. When will the crappy ports stop? Note to devs: We’re not stupid. We can see what 360/PS3 owners have and we like.
On the bright side of things, at least we get some clean, white drums!!! sigh…
March 24th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
weak sauce
‘Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized’ is developer speak for ‘Nintendo get it together online’
i doubt the online capabilities will be fully realized before we see wee2…. sigh…..
March 24th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Count me out. I’m not paying full price for half the features of the other systems.
Everyone needs to make a statement to EA by not buying this half @ssed port.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I am just going to wait for the PS3 to drop in price then i will purchase Rock Band for it. This way I can have online, but more importantly DLC.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
not cool.
i was planning on getting it if my gh3 controller was compatible because then i could just buy the game and the drums and basically enjoy the whole experience (i only have one friend who’d want to play with me and he’s a real life drummer so he could drum and i’d guitar).
shelling out another $30 for another damn guitar peripheral is just too much.
at the absolute best i’ll wait for hannukah and ask for it then, but even just game+guitar+drums is $110 ($120 when you include the damn 8.5 percent new york sales tax)
March 24th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
deepthoguht^
These devs need to stop blaming Nintendo for “holding back their online abilitys” crap. Yes, Nintendo is a bit stiff on the online scene, but if Harmonix really wanted their game to be a success then they would get off their butts and put some work into it. As for DLC, even if we had to do the SD card switch-r-oo it would still be better than just “No”. I think we might see Rock Band 2 at the end of 09 with DLC and online for the Wii. I was really looking to get this, but i think i’ll just stck to Guitar Hero IV.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
You are NOT overreacting. I don’t play Rock Band very often, but I can tell that SUCKS.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Rock Band won’t support my GHIII guitar? They just lost a purchase from me. Down the road, if I can buy the guitar and game for cheap I might consider it, but no online play? That’s weak and inexcuseable.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I was actually interest in getting this (mostly for the drums) but now, it’s a definite NO! No DLC? No online? What’s more is the GH III controller won’t be supported with it?? Screw this. They released just a Drums version for the 360 (no mic or guitar), and I hoped they would release something like that for the Wii, but no GH III support kind of kills that idea. Overall, this is going to hurt EA more than help them. Well, I assume it’s EA’s doing for these ideas, not Harmonix (since EA’s the publisher), but who knows.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Weak
ASSED
Port
NO
Online
Support
Wow, what is the “big surprise” here, we should be USED to this 3rd party GARBAGE by now. But it still sucks.
Shame on Nintendo in not making it easy for third party developers to go online. But even BIGGER shame on the third party developers , for not putting in the EFFORT themselves.
Weak.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Where exactly can we send hate mail? Or is there any point? I mean, despite repeatedly saying that they need to make more effort on the Wii, EA in particular seem intent on doing the opposite of what they say. I mean, wasn’t it in a stockholders’ note? Isn’t not doing what you promise to do for stockholders illegal?
March 24th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
EFFE THAT!
also… didn’t stop GH3
March 24th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
half the features should equal half the price. I seriously doubt that will happen though. Nintendo needs to make a big rule and send it out to all developers that says “DO NOT make up problems”
March 24th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Ridiculous…they can count on not getting my money. I was thinking (maybe, JUST maybe) I might pick up the game anyway just because it’s so fun, but they can’t even allow for the GH3 controller to work either…pure laziness.
I’m starting (actually for quite a whole now) to wonder if the Wii’s sales mean anything at all to developers…
You know…you can bash/hate me all you want, but this (as in the terrible porting jobs among other things such as this one) is really bringing the Wii down…these “little” things add up to a point I wish I wouldn’t have even got a Wii sometimes (or at least purchased a 360 or PS3 first). Looks like I’ll have to get another console some time soon… =/
March 24th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Then EA will complain, “We gave them what they ask, and they still don’t want to buy it.” >.>
March 25th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Another lost purchase. Not a chance I’m buying it with half of the game not actually there.
No character creation? That ALONE destroys a large chunk of the fun in making your own band up.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:09 am
And here I was holding out because I thought Rockband would be the superior title for the Wii. Activision’s greed at milking the franchise isn’t looking so bad now because at least they’re making things happen for the Wii instead of some half-assed port.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:13 am
@the_Saac
I’m the biggest fanboy I know, and I definitely understand where you’re coming from. However, if it weren’t for Nintendo themselves, I’d be thinking more along the lines of quitting gaming all together. It’s just so bloody disillusioning. They don’t want my money even when I’m in the majority? Then I don’t want their shitty version of the industry. I’ll be done with it. I can’t afford it anyway. Sadly, what with Nintendo’s internal resources being stretched to cover all the gaming bases where the combined efforts of the rest of the industry fail to correctly hit any demographic, they have desperately limited capacity to cover my more traditional Nintendo gaming needs. I feel like I’m getting close here. Whatever Reggie’s announcing better be good, because Okami (another shit rush port) is looking to be the only thing tying me over here. And despite the writing being on the wall at E3 2006 (nearly two bloody years ago) I see Fuck All on the horizon from 3rd parties at any point. For a while Crystal Chronicals was looking good, but that now sounds dead.
What’s it going to take? I suppose complete industry meltdown. Every one of the major publisher’s to go out of business and be displaced by devs not so snooty to look down on us, the huddled masses called Wii owners. Hey, with EA, Take Two, Sega and others all posting losses over the 2007 Christmas quarter, it could happen. For some reason that makes me happy.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Here’s the best part…
“However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality…”
I guess they didn’t notice Guitar Hero 3, which had excellent online multiplayer on Wii. And the lazy, half-assed PS2 ports continue.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:49 am
F*** You EA…F*** You
March 25th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Why are people getting so fanatical over this? I don’t blame Harmonix for their decision, putting Rock Band online just isn’t logical from a business perspective. Nintendo haven’t provided an adequate environment for online play. Friend codes, small harddrive and an overall lack of interest and development tools for online support. Why should Harmonix care if Nintendo (as a console manufacturer) don’t? Don’t shoot down the 3rd parties, it isn’t always their fault.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Guess I’ll be happy with GH: Aerosmith this summer instead of rocking with RB.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:08 am
“However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized,”
Ahem,correction. It should be, ‘because this is a half-assed port of the shitty ps2 version”
March 25th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Daniel, what’s so hard about online play, if Activision could do it surely Harmonix can?
And I think people are getting fanatical because it’s missing a multitude of features, not just one thing.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:09 am
@ daniel:
four words: Guitar hero three Wii
Is doing great, and it actually had some work into it… guess what third parties!? THAT ACTUALLY IMPROVES SALES OMG NO EFFING WAY!!!
March 25th, 2008 at 4:21 am
OWWW….damn I’m tired of getting frickin’ shafted…..this is really getting tiresome.
o well..i’ve got guitar hero3 and it works just fine…and guess what? it also works…ONLINE!? really!? yeah,…really..I like playing games, that aren’t so,…shafty…
March 25th, 2008 at 5:05 am
I wonder if some of these developers are deliberately giving the Wii the shaft, in hopes that gamers will go back to the days of hardcorn thumb-twiddling. I know how the younger peeps love to point with their thumb. Then again, it’s probably that most developers are just lazy bastards.
Anyway, I won’t be buying this for the Wii as is, nor will I buy it for another console. I prefer the Wii, since it gave me a real fricken pointer, so I’m definitely not going to reward lazy developers by picking up copy a for the PS3.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:17 am
[…] www.infendo.com […]
March 25th, 2008 at 8:09 am
@ Daniel Primed
Like I was saying on the other article, most people on the internetz are assuming this is Nintendo’s fault what with (as you pointed out) their limited drive to go online. First I’d like to point out the tech is clearly capable what with encrypted data purchases already possible, 3rd party games already able to access MP3s on SD cards and this game’s release date being well after the worldwide introduction of WiiWare (which incidentally is today).
What I’m saying is the online problems here are either down to;
Nintendo being lazy, or;
EA being lazy
Why is everyone assuming it’s Nintendo when EA has the worst fucking record in History? The fact that the Wii version ISN’T BEING MADE BY HARMONIX should be the first indicator that even if the online services were the best in the business, that EA wouldn’t give two shits. The fact that Harmonix planned a PS3 and 360 version of this game, had a PS2 version tacked on by EA, and hadn’t officially considered a Wii version until a good 2 months after release means Harmonix themeselves never had any intention of supporting Nintendo at any point ever. For God’s sake, it took their sale off to EA to wrangle GHIII onto Wii from Activision (of course another illegally broken shit port), leaving it apparently inferior to it’s predecessors, and yet somehow technically superior TO THIS BLOODY SHIT.
More importantly, we’re all uppity about it because despite having a reduced experience, we’re being asked to pay full fucking price. Surly a reduced experience warrents a reduced price tag.
Hence our attitude.
Fuckers.
And yes Daniel, when it comes to EA, IT IS ALWAYS THEIR BLOODY FAULT. ARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Sorry, I’ve been a bit quick to jump to conclusions but now I’ve done some research.
Red Octane owned Harmonix who subsequently sold them to MTV while retaining the rights to Guitar Hero. Activision then bought Red Octane, aquiring the Guitar Hero rights and handing off development of III to Neversoft. Meanwhile Harmonix started work on Rock Band at a development cost of $200 million, to be distributed by EA.
In the end Neversoft handed development of the Wii version of Guitar Hero off to Vicarious Visions (who subsequently borked it resulting in a replacement/”recall if you complain” program) with PS2 development handled seperately by Budcat Studios, while Harmonix, in conjunction with EA, handed PS2 Rock Band off to Pi studios who, having completed that gimped version are now working on/porting the Wii version. Looking back, both Vicarious Visions (technical and licensing highs and lows) and Pi Studios (Call of Duty 2 and Halo 2 VISTA version) have interesting but somewhat checkered development histories.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Much as I understand people blaming EA and I can’t deny they are too blame, I have to subscribe to the I-blame-Nintendo camp, sadly. Yes, sure, EA is apparently being lazy, what with great online play in GH3 and all. However, if Nintendo had made it easy for developers to implement online play (not to mention DLC), things would have been a whole lot easier. I mean, there is a reason EA decided to drop it for the Wii version. Even if that reason is economic, it’s still a valid reason from a developer/publisher’s standpoint. So I still say it’s Nintendo who dropped the ball in the first place.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:40 am
However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, 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.
For some reason that was not the lame ass execuse we got with Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. So we can get 32 player online support without a friend code for a game that is only released on a console and a portable, but the millions of dollars already earned on a solid performing game is not reason enough to develop online support that your customers have come to expect from this game when released on the Wii. Epic Fail Jackasses!
March 25th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I think the worst is the gimped World Tour. There’s no excuse-they just know they can get away with it. Ugh. Nintendo is packing their releases with content (see Brawl, Galaxy) while EA is taking stuff out. And still they will avoid the third-party curse just because Rock Band is such a phenomenon.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Thats it I’m seriously buying a 360 or PS3 No honestly, i was holding out for rockband on Wii but this is the last straw for me.
I can live without HD graphics because i’m looking at dots anyways.
I can live with a 15 digit friend code (GH3).
But no Character custimization, no DLC, and no GH3 compadibility! DONE with it. I’m sticking with nintendo first part titles from now on. Now i need to decide between 360 or a PS3.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
@ Greentorpeedo
Look I agree with everything you said regarding Rock Band. But to limit yourself to only First Party titles seems a bit drastic. There are plenty of good 3rd party titles and I can only assume there will be more on the horizon. Just because Rock Band (EA/Harmonix/MTV) is shunning the Wii, doesn’t mean everyone will.
I was planning on getting a PS3 eventually anyways for the Blu-ray component. Since Rock Band is the same price for both, yet has double the content of the Wii version, why even bother getting the Wii version…?
March 25th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Well… I’m not going to throw a fit. But it is disappointing, I doubt I ever would have actually bought the game, what with the obscene price tag, but in my dreams, I was still really looking forward to Rock Band on Wii, since I don’t own the inferior XBOX 360 or PS3. Oh well. I’ll just have to keep bumming my Rock Band fixes off of my girlfriends’ sister. Mwahahahaha.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Surely this was mentioned in the excellent comments above, but the lack of features is not due to Wii. It is simply easier to port the PS2 version, rather than building an exclusive version that plays to Wii’s strengths. There are obvious solutions to the problems EA attributes to Wii’s shortcomings IF YOU START FROM SCRATCH AND BUILD THE GAME RIGHT!!!
As Miyamoto said, developers need to stop assigning thier fourth-string teams to Wii projects.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
DEAL BREAKER!
I’ll wait to pick it up on a price-dropped PS3, or maybe I’ll wait altogether for Rock Band 2
Nintendo’s crappy online plan costs us again …
March 26th, 2008 at 2:16 am
I was ready to stand in line starting June 21 to get RockBand Wii as a midnight release, but to find out that my GHIII guitar is not supported and no DLC… well screw that. I’ll be content with GH Aerosmith.
.
Screw You EA !!…. no rock band at my house until you get your sh1+ together.
.
.
(I’ll just go over to Scott’s house and play it on the 360.
.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:48 am
PS3 FTW (& I don’t even own one…yet)
March 26th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I’m anything BUT a defensive fan-boy…but I have to say, I’m not going to slam Nintendo for this one. While it may deserve the blame for the absurdly inadequate storage situation, largely responsible for the lack of downloadable content, Nintendo cannot be blamed for Rock Band’s lack of, at the very least, online multiplayer.
For all the hype to the contrary, Wii is technically capable of a great online experience. Just because software hasn’t achieved it yet doesn’t mean the hardware isn’t capable; to think Wii can’t handle online gaming is ridiculous. For all their limited functionality, several games have proven Wii is capable of a decent online experience…Battalion Wars II, Mario Strikers Charged, Guitar Hero III, the list goes on.
The simple fact is that the Wii version of Rock Band is a PS2 port. Another “WiiS2″ afterthought that will, unfortunately, sell a billion copies and encourage other developers/publishers to do the same with their future Wii projects.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
That just dropped Rock Band from a must-have for me to a never-have. I will pick up a 360 when I can afford it and get Rock Band then.
This is a huge letdown for me. They could’ve made a killing off of downloadable tracks, it just doesn’t make sense to NOT spend more time working on a version for the Wii that would be capable of that. What a shame.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Remember when GHIII was originally not going to feature online play? And it turned out that it did in the end. Perhaps the same will happen w/ Rock Band, with a delay.
I also remember the publisher said they wanted to wait to see how to play the Wii’s strengths. Not sure if they meant the Wii remote in some way like the GHIII guitar.
If you work for EA, look at my notes and pass it on:
-Online play - EA, look at how Activision did it with GHIII
-DLC - have Rock Band come w/ a USB flash drive. That way it won’t use up Wii system storage. Make songs re-downloadable like VC games. Nobody said we had to store ALL the songs at once, so a cheap storage solution could work.
-character creation - at least use the Miis if you’re not going to do this.