It appears that some of the most sought after content for Rock Band, the stuff that has been promised since the beginning, isn’t going to be available via “normal channels,” or, as it’s commonly referred to: DLC.
The other week Bobby Kotick of Activision opined that maybe (paraphrasing) “Music companies should pay us royalties,” believing that the pendulum of popular music purchasing was in the video game’s court. The assumption here is that sure, in many cases, the games are selling more units of the music than the music itself.
However, this week we got to hear how AC/DC is going to hit the market for Rock Band players, and, well, it’s telling. It’s only going to be available at Wal-Mart. Wal. MART. Like, on a physical disk. In the store. Sure, sure, go online and buy it at their web store and then wait for them to mail you the disk. Pretend like it’s a new system. But the bottom line here is: Wal-Mart still holds all the cards as far as this brand of music distribution is concerned.
I’m just taking a stab at it, but it probably worked out like this: Wal-Mart signed a deal with AC/DC’s label awhile back for an exclusive distribution right to their new CD, probably for a break on Wal-Mart’s take, in turn giving them some exclusivity in releasing AC/DC extra content. Live concert DVDs. Commemorative calendars. Somewhere in the bylines was a tacked on “bonus video-game content.” The label signed the agreement, because as is often the case with Wal-Mart, they gave them such a good “deal” the label would be a fool to sign otherwise. In the end, Wal-Mart wins, and everyone else loses, as they’re now the only way to buy expanded content in a video-game.
Forget about the price-point for a second (granted, if it’s $30-40 it’s overpriced, even if it IS a standalone game with only 17 songs in it). Consider that Wal-Mart just did an end-around on the entire video-game industry. They figured out how to force the most anticipated content for one of the year’s hugest games to flow only through their brick and mortar retail portal.
Granted, Kotick runs Activision (Rock Band’s competitor’s parent), but it doesn’t sound very much like video-game companies even as large as EA or ActiBlizzard hold the cards when it comes to music, now, does it?
This is very much the same retail “exclusive” bullshit that’s been plaguing this industry since its inception. It’s also probably the reason why it’s so expensive. If it was available via DLC, it would have probably been conisderably cheaper (downloadable content means there’s no game engine, no full game testing, and no disk printing process and no ginormous per-disk fees paid to the console manufacturers).
More importantly, this means that I’m going to have to actually set foot in a fucking Wal-Mart. And give them money.
/shudder
Please, someone, hold me.
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.game-ism.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.game-ism.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Reddit]](http://www.game-ism.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://www.game-ism.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.game-ism.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Email]](http://www.game-ism.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
7 responses so far ↓
1 Sean Beanland // Sep 30, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Like you said, you could get it on their website. So walking into Wal-Mart isn’t strictly necessary!
2 Fred // Sep 30, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I got a question…I realize its probably not developers jobs to ad the neat doo dads to the product to make it more enticing, but couldnt someone figure out a way to make downloading a title more enticing? like, give people exclusive concept art or something. Afterall, isnt that what you usually get with collectors editions and stuff? Admitedly, its nice to have a book or something tactile, but most of the stuff is something that you’ll look at for 5 minutes, then throw in the corner.
…None of which has anything to do with what youre talking about…1 more thing, why’s there DLC thats exclusive to retailers? Like LBP’s costumes and stuff. I know theres something about pre-orders thats important and determines how many copies a retailer stocks, but I remember the halo 3 launch, and it seemed like everyone around here was overstocked for months.
I’m rambling, sorry.
3 Dastardly Josh // Oct 1, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Fuck Walmart.
Seriously, I don’t care how desirable their exclusive content is. I’d rather distributors realize that consumers don’t want to have to go to one of the largest bastions of censorship in America.
There are very few brick and mortar places I’m willing to shop for video games. I don’t care about having to wait extra time to get a game, I’d rather not deal with the ingrates at Gamestop/EB that try to force me to preorder, as well as Walmart.
I’m very much pro digital distribution, mainly becuase it reduced costs and increases profits for developers instead of publishers. Games I would otherwise never touch I’ve picked up via Steam. Most games offer nothing from getting a boxed edition. There are exceptions. The Collectors Editions of World of Warcraft are outstanding and worth owning. The vast majority of games don’t include any extras that entice people to purchase physical copies.
It’s actually part of the reason I feel music stores are going out of business. There’s no reason to get a CD with a piece of paper stuck in the case.
4 Geoff // Oct 3, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I’m not sure I see the rationale for your complaint. According to the linked Joystiq piece, the deal was between AC/DC and MTV, not Wal-Mart… it seems just as plausible that Wal-Mart paid a consideration to carry the exclusive content as it does that they locked up the music in advance. Is there any proof that this was the intended strategy?
5 spitfire // Oct 3, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Geoff, if it’s exclusive to Wal-Mart, then they were in on the deal. These things don’t happen by happy accident.
The only player larger than them in the brick and mortar side of the industry is GameStop, and GameStop isn’t an audio CD retailer.
This was a package deal. Pay for the exclusivity, get the new AC/DC CD exclusive, get the Rock Band exclusive. It’s not a coincidence that they’re both only at Wal-Mart.
6 Zack // Oct 10, 2008 at 2:30 pm
DLC still requires full testing and still requires publishers to give huge gobs of cash to first party.
And the cost is marginal in taking their existing engine and moving it over to a standalone title. They did it with “Rocks the 80s” for almost no money at all.
7 spitfire // Oct 10, 2008 at 2:48 pm
/shrug. Retail always costs more than DLC, regardless of DLC fees, as you’re paying a ton of money to the middle-man (Wal-Mart in this case). If that wasn’t the case games like Braid or Penny Arcade Adventures would be available at Game-Stop.
If all things were equal cost in the distro models, the Dr. Feelgood album available next week for Rock Band 2 via DLC which costs $16 should be priced the same as the AC/DC album available at Wal-Mart, and they’re not.
We might be able to argue that AC/DC is charging more for licensing, but it’s unlikely that’s the case. They’re not exactly Metallica or Led Zeppelin.
Besides, the point here isn’t the cost, it’s the exclusivity vs. Activision’s claims that videogames pwn the music industry.
Leave a Comment