You're getting this all wrong. This is the first measure of cost-cutting instituted by Harmonix' new owners, one of a long line that will inevitably lead them to their doom.
Well, not about the cost cutting part. I wonder just how well the profit margin is on the Wii as a whole, not just RBN. It kind of seems they should've just said that 'RB is not for Wii' from the beginning.
Well, not about the cost cutting part. I wonder just how well the profit margin is on the Wii as a whole, not just RBN. It kind of seems they should've just said that 'RB is not for Wii' from the beginning.
Honestly, RBN is kind of an experiment, and its success for any system was never guaranteed. I wonder what the profit margin is for that service on all the systems.
Though I was being silly, I really do wonder if the new owners have less tolerance for things that don't bring in the bacon, so to speak.
The problem (for me) with RBN is that it's a bunch of bands I have NEVER heard of. Are there songs in there I'd wind up liking? Probably. Would I rather get songs from bands I know? Yes. Will that stop me from looking in there for good stuff? It has so far.
So I guess RBN isn't "for me" at the moment. I think it's a great idea, but the bands I'd want in there either can't be bothered or are too big to care. Which sucks.
And because of the sheer volume of stuff released on RBN, those of us that would be willing to give something we haven't heard of a shot face a pretty hefty amount of work on our part to figure out what we'd like.
RBN is a neat idea, but I wonder about its long-term viability.
Well, not about the cost cutting part. I wonder just how well the profit margin is on the Wii as a whole, not just RBN. It kind of seems they should've just said that 'RB is not for Wii' from the beginning.
Honestly, RBN is kind of an experiment, and its success for any system was never guaranteed. I wonder what the profit margin is for that service on all the systems.
Though I was being silly, I really do wonder if the new owners have less tolerance for things that don't bring in the bacon, so to speak.
I've said it before, but RBN is already a failure. It doesn't matter if it runs at any kind of profit.
As far as profitability over all is concerned, for the 360, HMX only has to develop and support the authoring programs. Their involvement in posting them is simply checking the legality. The cost there is minimal. Porting to PS3 takes some effort (not as much as the licensing, though), but SONY's five song limit probably also helps HMX, indirectly, to keep costs low.
These numbers are low since Keldon has pretty much stopped updating since RB3 was released, but you can kind of see that the numbers for PS3 are keeping up with the 360. The Wii has long been dead in the water.
HMX probably runs a profit overall with RBN. Clearly 360 makes them the most money and the PS3 probably turns a tidy enough profit. But the Wii had to have been killing them.
And because of the sheer volume of stuff released on RBN, those of us that would be willing to give something we haven't heard of a shot face a pretty hefty amount of work on our part to figure out what we'd like.
RBN is a neat idea, but I wonder about its long-term viability.
Hence why RBN was a failure. If people are so ready to just casually dismiss it based on name recognition, then there is no real hope for it other than profitability.
And I find it kind of funny that my effort to bring a little bit of RBN knowledge still means 'hefty amount of work on our part'. I provide fucking links, man! All you have to do is click on the damned things...
Well, not about the cost cutting part. I wonder just how well the profit margin is on the Wii as a whole, not just RBN. It kind of seems they should've just said that 'RB is not for Wii' from the beginning.
Honestly, RBN is kind of an experiment, and its success for any system was never guaranteed. I wonder what the profit margin is for that service on all the systems.
Though I was being silly, I really do wonder if the new owners have less tolerance for things that don't bring in the bacon, so to speak.
I've said it before, but RBN is already a failure. It doesn't matter if it runs at any kind of profit.
As far as profitability over all is concerned, for the 360, HMX only has to develop and support the authoring programs. Their involvement in posting them is simply checking the legality. The cost there is minimal. Porting to PS3 takes some effort (not as much as the licensing, though), but SONY's five song limit probably also helps HMX, indirectly, to keep costs low.
These numbers are low since Keldon has pretty much stopped updating since RB3 was released, but you can kind of see that the numbers for PS3 are keeping up with the 360. The Wii has long been dead in the water.
HMX probably runs a profit overall with RBN. Clearly 360 makes them the most money and the PS3 probably turns a tidy enough profit. But the Wii had to have been killing them.
Well, the missing part of the equation is bandwidth costs. The publishers generally have to take their cut as well, so it's not free to get completed RBN songs up there. In fact the cost is probably more than we'd realize, since Sony recently admitted that they only expect to finally make a profit off PSN this year.
I'd guess at the very least that whatever cost Nintendo charges to get the stuff up there is more than what Wii RBN brings in, if those sales figures are accurate.
Eh, clicking links sucks. Could you like... come over to my house and put headphones with the songs loaded on my head? I'm too lazy to put them on myself.
Eh, clicking links sucks. Could you like... come over to my house and put headphones with the songs loaded on my head? I'm too lazy to put them on myself.
Youknowwho was telling me the same thing...
The costs to publish RBN on PS3 and Wii are far greater than for the 360. It must include both submission costs and the costs to obtain the proper licensing and maintain the staff to monitor disbursements. All of which are handled by the XNA program that MS created.
Everybody still gets a cut (usually) from the 360 sales, but is all pretty much automated. I think if anything, this situation proves that making a game (and content) for a system with the highest install base is not always the best of ideas. Maybe it's true for everybody else, but it sure isn't in this case. The Wii has always been a sales dog for Rock Band.
Surprisingly enough, this is the unbelievably anti climactic resolution to this mystery that was so secret that even I didn't know about it.
I asked HMXhellion, of Tijuana Sweetheart fame, and she explained that Eran Egozy, esteemed HMX co founder, "made" her include the message for the MIT Mystery Hunt. Now, I have no idea what the Mystery Hunt is all about, but Eran is a grad and they're right down the street so I'm guessing that we got swept up in some kind of crazy scavenger hunt.
Our clue is, as some of you have caught, "stir fried". I have no idea what that means.
Sincerest appologies for making you do all this work, but here is the list of the recent songs for RBN officially available in-game since the last time. Colour coded for price convenience. (Example links included where available. * means it's not an 'in-game' chart.)
After doing ESL3, I got about 40 goals worth of fans (I guess, about 56 million) to put me currently about 350 million. It feels both more and less of a grind to get fans than it did in RB2.
And for me to beat the number of fans I got in RB2, I'd have to get more than 2 billion. I doubt that'll happen.
Most of guitar done. I have like 3 goals total left there.
Most of bass done. Just a couple more to do.
A bunch of keys goals.
Starting out on pro keys.
Starting out on vocals (and harmonies doesn't count for solo, so you get to do everything twice for fans)
I may be out in front of you and Arikado right now, but I don't have a drum set so once I finish what I have for instruments, I'll have to wait to get fans for protar/drums/pro drums.
I don't have the drums either. And unless Pro keys adds some extra skills when dealing with the five lane charts, I'm probably done with much of the keyboard stuff.
And anyway, I decided the moment I realised how the Road Challenges actually worked that I wasn't going to specifically target goals anyway. What I usually just do is boot up and play one of two sets of gigs (5 and 5, 5 and 4 [The four is to avoid the Music Video...it seems to work pretty well.]) filled with randomly selected songs. I still have yet to play 200 songs in my library.
It's just too easy to get caught up in the 'completionist' deal if I start implicitly targeting goals. I'd rather have fun.
Ha. I started doing the tier goals because I realized I didn't even know which songs were on the disc. I had so much DLC I was missing out on playing some good songs I never heard of before.
I think to this day there's still songs from the 20 Free that I've never played
Thanks to the holiday yesterday, we get a giant update today. So here is the list of the recent songs for RBN officially available in-game since the last time. Colour coded for price convenience. (Example links included where available. * means it's not an 'in-game' chart. *** means BNS.)
So the new version of Magma was released, like, an hour ago. Does what it's supposed to, everything's fine and dandy. I'm weird though, so I paid attention to the new genre structure that appeared. And here it is. New genres/subgenres are blue, while old subgenres that've been moved are in red.
Alternative
Alternative
College
Other
Blues
Acoustic
Chicago
Classic
Contemporary
Country
Delta
Electric
Other
Classical Classical
Classic Rock
Classic Rock
Country
Alternative
Bluegrass
Contemporary
Honky Tonk
Outlaw
Traditional Folk
Other
Emo
Emo
Fusion
Fusion
Glam
Glam
Goth
Other
Grunge
Grunge
Hip-Hop/Rap Alternative Rap Gangsta Hardcore Rap Hip-Hop Old-School Hip Hop Rap Trip-Hop Underground Rap Other
Indie Rock
Indie Rock
Low-Fi
Math Rock
Noise
Post-Rock
Shoegazing
Other
Inspirational Inspirational
Jazz
Acid Jazz
Contemporary
Experimental
Ragtime
Smooth
Other
J-Rock J-Rock
Latin Latin
Metal
Alternative
Black
Core
Death
Hair
Industrial
Metal
Power
Prog
Speed
Thrash
Other
New Wave
Dark Wave
Electroclash
New Wave
Synthpop
Other
Novelty
Novelty
Nu-Metal
Nu-Metal
Pop/Dance/Electronic Ambient Breakbeat Chiptune Dance Downtempo Dub Drum and Bass Electronica Garage Hardcore Dance House Industrial Techno Trance Other
Pop-Rock
Contemporary
Pop
Soft Rock
Teen
Other
Prog
Prog Rock
Punk
Alternative
Classic
Dance Punk
Garage
Hardcore
Pop
Other
R&B/Soul/Funk Disco Funk Motown Rhythm and Blues Soul Other
Reggae/Ska Reggae Ska Other
Rock
Arena
Blues
Folk Rock
Garage
Hard Rock
Psychedelic
Rock
Rockabilly
Rock and Roll
Surf
Other
Southern Rock
Southern Rock
World World
Other
A Capella
Acoustic
Contemporary Folk
Experimental
Oldies
Other
Then this follows a short while later:
J-Rock!?
Japanese is confirmed as a language in RBN 2.0?
Yes, that and german were added.
Not sure what that will mean for approval since they want people to be able to understand the words. German I could see, but Japanese seems like it would be a bit thin.
Probably not since they were giving the developing to Q Entertainment for RB Japan and from I recall them saying at a Q&A (don't remember which one), it never got to the point where they had bands lined up already.
Hopefully there'll be an announcement about it soon. Andertons is a pretty well-respected music retailer over here, and it's nice to see their 0% finance offer applies to this too. I might just be able to afford one!
SporkAndrew on
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
Turns out I am the owner of a very useless 360 RB2 Strat. I've posted about this before, but it doesn't turn on. Fresh batteries may as well be rocks. When I hold the power button, nothing happens. I can't RMA it because it's a little over a year old. I'm relatively sure that since EA sold Harmonix they don't do that stuff anyways.
So does anyone have experience with that particular issue, or is there a site that talks about fixing stuff like this? The thing is broken and can't be replaced, so I may as well take it upon myself to do a little tinkering if info is available. I'm relatively sick of using my wired P-Bass to play guitar, especially since this Strat was barely used/in perfect playing condition up until it decided to stop turning on.
I haven't played RB or my xbox in a while, but I'm a sucker for drums in this game. I picked up RB3 and a keyboard to find that:
- I don't like any of the keyboard songs
- It's not much of an upgrade
- my old XBL account profile was nuked at some point with 1500pts on it. My account still worked on the web site, but I had to create a new profile and start at 0 points.
I need to be sure to back up my DLC songs to a thumb drive now, as I'm still using a gen1 xbox.
At least there's a primus track now...and nice alice in chains DLC. I'm considering the queen DLC for some good keyboard songs.
sim on
0
Doctor FinkBishounen ChewbaccaRegistered Userregular
Turns out I am the owner of a very useless 360 RB2 Strat. I've posted about this before, but it doesn't turn on. Fresh batteries may as well be rocks. When I hold the power button, nothing happens. I can't RMA it because it's a little over a year old. I'm relatively sure that since EA sold Harmonix they don't do that stuff anyways.
So does anyone have experience with that particular issue, or is there a site that talks about fixing stuff like this? The thing is broken and can't be replaced, so I may as well take it upon myself to do a little tinkering if info is available. I'm relatively sick of using my wired P-Bass to play guitar, especially since this Strat was barely used/in perfect playing condition up until it decided to stop turning on.
EA never owned Harmonix.
There was a forum dedicated to it, but when I checked the link just now, it says it's not available. Turns out, the hosting service brought down all forums because of spam. Or something. That's what I read, anyway. When it comes back up, I'll let you know.
Turns out I am the owner of a very useless 360 RB2 Strat. I've posted about this before, but it doesn't turn on. Fresh batteries may as well be rocks. When I hold the power button, nothing happens. I can't RMA it because it's a little over a year old. I'm relatively sure that since EA sold Harmonix they don't do that stuff anyways.
So does anyone have experience with that particular issue, or is there a site that talks about fixing stuff like this? The thing is broken and can't be replaced, so I may as well take it upon myself to do a little tinkering if info is available. I'm relatively sick of using my wired P-Bass to play guitar, especially since this Strat was barely used/in perfect playing condition up until it decided to stop turning on.
EA never owned Harmonix.
There was a forum dedicated to it, but when I checked the link just now, it says it's not available. Turns out, the hosting service brought down all forums because of spam. Or something. That's what I read, anyway. When it comes back up, I'll let you know.
Doh, yeah, I dunno why I wrote anything about EA selling Harmonix. I know that the EA website for Instrument support doesn't work anymore.
Posts
Honestly, RBN is kind of an experiment, and its success for any system was never guaranteed. I wonder what the profit margin is for that service on all the systems.
Though I was being silly, I really do wonder if the new owners have less tolerance for things that don't bring in the bacon, so to speak.
So I guess RBN isn't "for me" at the moment. I think it's a great idea, but the bands I'd want in there either can't be bothered or are too big to care. Which sucks.
RBN is a neat idea, but I wonder about its long-term viability.
I've said it before, but RBN is already a failure. It doesn't matter if it runs at any kind of profit.
As far as profitability over all is concerned, for the 360, HMX only has to develop and support the authoring programs. Their involvement in posting them is simply checking the legality. The cost there is minimal. Porting to PS3 takes some effort (not as much as the licensing, though), but SONY's five song limit probably also helps HMX, indirectly, to keep costs low.
These numbers are low since Keldon has pretty much stopped updating since RB3 was released, but you can kind of see that the numbers for PS3 are keeping up with the 360. The Wii has long been dead in the water.
HMX probably runs a profit overall with RBN. Clearly 360 makes them the most money and the PS3 probably turns a tidy enough profit. But the Wii had to have been killing them.
Hence why RBN was a failure. If people are so ready to just casually dismiss it based on name recognition, then there is no real hope for it other than profitability.
And I find it kind of funny that my effort to bring a little bit of RBN knowledge still means 'hefty amount of work on our part'. I provide fucking links, man! All you have to do is click on the damned things...
Well, the missing part of the equation is bandwidth costs. The publishers generally have to take their cut as well, so it's not free to get completed RBN songs up there. In fact the cost is probably more than we'd realize, since Sony recently admitted that they only expect to finally make a profit off PSN this year.
I'd guess at the very least that whatever cost Nintendo charges to get the stuff up there is more than what Wii RBN brings in, if those sales figures are accurate.
Eh, clicking links sucks. Could you like... come over to my house and put headphones with the songs loaded on my head? I'm too lazy to put them on myself.
Youknowwho was telling me the same thing...
The costs to publish RBN on PS3 and Wii are far greater than for the 360. It must include both submission costs and the costs to obtain the proper licensing and maintain the staff to monitor disbursements. All of which are handled by the XNA program that MS created.
Everybody still gets a cut (usually) from the 360 sales, but is all pretty much automated. I think if anything, this situation proves that making a game (and content) for a system with the highest install base is not always the best of ideas. Maybe it's true for everybody else, but it sure isn't in this case. The Wii has always been a sales dog for Rock Band.
This followed on the Forums (in the fourth post):
So henry shows up a short while ago:
MIT can suck it!
Due to lack of some in-game charts, may be NSFW.
One dollar
Two dollars
***** Originally released Nov. 20.
The audio for The Meterial song only comes out of the right speaker. It plays hell on headphones.
Like surf rock? Maybe you'll like The Riptides song.
Get clicking, you silly geese!
And for me to beat the number of fans I got in RB2, I'd have to get more than 2 billion. I doubt that'll happen.
I have:
Most of guitar done. I have like 3 goals total left there.
Most of bass done. Just a couple more to do.
A bunch of keys goals.
Starting out on pro keys.
Starting out on vocals (and harmonies doesn't count for solo, so you get to do everything twice for fans)
I may be out in front of you and Arikado right now, but I don't have a drum set so once I finish what I have for instruments, I'll have to wait to get fans for protar/drums/pro drums.
And anyway, I decided the moment I realised how the Road Challenges actually worked that I wasn't going to specifically target goals anyway. What I usually just do is boot up and play one of two sets of gigs (5 and 5, 5 and 4 [The four is to avoid the Music Video...it seems to work pretty well.]) filled with randomly selected songs. I still have yet to play 200 songs in my library.
It's just too easy to get caught up in the 'completionist' deal if I start implicitly targeting goals. I'd rather have fun.
I think to this day there's still songs from the 20 Free that I've never played
Due to lack of some in-game charts, may be NSFW.
One dollar
Two dollars
***** Originally released on Jan. 10.
******Originally released on Nov. 17.
The audio for in-game chart Lullaby by Amberian Dawn is basically just the bass only. Bassists suck.
Graveyard BBQ gives their take on surf rock. (Drum solo!)
Did you like singing 'Deeeeeeeeeaaad' over and over? Judy Buendia is right up your alley!
Expect a 2x Bass version of the Kataklysm song in a week or two.
Seemingly Mayday Parade 'learned' from the last time about having a three dollar song.
Octavio Suñé grooves a little this week.
Apparently the Ween song had passed before but was resubmitted. No idea why or if it had made it to the store.
Hooray!
Then this follows a short while later:
Not sure what that will mean for approval since they want people to be able to understand the words. German I could see, but Japanese seems like it would be a bit thin.
What I'm really hoping for are some of the great songs from Guitar Freaks and Pop n Music!
Give us so much Pillows.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Also I think I might actually grab Through Glass, since now I listened to it I realized it's one of those "that song"
I wonder if this means that we might see some of the content that would have been in Rock Band: Japan.
So does anyone have experience with that particular issue, or is there a site that talks about fixing stuff like this? The thing is broken and can't be replaced, so I may as well take it upon myself to do a little tinkering if info is available. I'm relatively sick of using my wired P-Bass to play guitar, especially since this Strat was barely used/in perfect playing condition up until it decided to stop turning on.
- I don't like any of the keyboard songs
- It's not much of an upgrade
- my old XBL account profile was nuked at some point with 1500pts on it. My account still worked on the web site, but I had to create a new profile and start at 0 points.
I need to be sure to back up my DLC songs to a thumb drive now, as I'm still using a gen1 xbox.
At least there's a primus track now...and nice alice in chains DLC. I'm considering the queen DLC for some good keyboard songs.
EA never owned Harmonix.
There was a forum dedicated to it, but when I checked the link just now, it says it's not available. Turns out, the hosting service brought down all forums because of spam. Or something. That's what I read, anyway. When it comes back up, I'll let you know.
Doh, yeah, I dunno why I wrote anything about EA selling Harmonix. I know that the EA website for Instrument support doesn't work anymore.
http://www.rockband.com/support/rock-band-rb2-help-ea tells you to go to http://support.ea.com/rockband but that link just has this:
In the meantime, what's the forum? I can just keep checking it on my own...
*change sort to Stars*
*scroll down to zero stars*
*336 songs*