Harmonix talks about Rock Band for Wii DLC Issues.
By Tyler Ryan on Apr 10, 2008 in News
It came as no surprise when Harmonix announced that one of the most popular video games, Rock Band, would be heading to one of the most popular gaming consoles, the Wii.
As excited as Wii owners could be, there was a slight snag - Rock Band for the Wii will likely have no DLC ability.
Rob Kay, a lead designer on Rock Band, cited the lack of a hard drive as the main reason that songs would not be available for download in a recent interview with ComputerAndVideoGames.com.
“Come on Nintendo, we need a hard drive,” Kay said when asked about the issue. “That’s what we want. The whole problem is there’s nowhere to store it.”
“If the platform could do it, we’d jump on it”, he continued. “It’s something that we championed to Nintendo, that we’d like to do it. Who knows what will happen down the line, I don’t know what’s coming down the line, but that’s the reason there’s no DLC in Wii Rock Band”
The Wii currently offers 512 megabytes of internal flash memory for storage, expandable via SD flash cards. Rock Band downloadable tracks range roughly between 20 and 40 megabytes per song.
It’s a shame that Harmonix couldn’t work with Nintendo to allow the DLC on the Wii. Although 512 megabytes isn’t a lot of memory, SD memory is fairly cheap and surely Wii owners would be willing to purchase memory to store downloaded songs on.
Nintendo has stated in the past however that there is no need for the Wii to have a hard drive.
Harmonix on the other hand would likely disagree. Not only would the ability to download more songs mean an increase in sales on the Wii, and with Harmonix having already sold 6 million songs for download, you have to bet they’d like to keep that revenue stream open - especially with a system as popular as the Wii.
Related Links:
Rock Band for the Wii Announced
I think this is bullshit for a couple of reasons.
1- The Xbox 360 version was made to work without a hard drive (as all the games have to be compatible with the Core/Arcade sku).
2- SD cards work and so does the online. I have a crapload of songs already bought on my 360, and it no where near reaches the 1gig mark that most SD cards start at. In fact I think Rock Band Wii should have one packed in. About the online, Smash Bros has proven not only does it work, but it is fun.
PacoDG | Apr 10, 2008 | Reply
And you get no arguments from me.
I paid less than $20 for a 4Gig SD card for my camera, and would be more than happy to do the same to download Rock Band.
If the Rock Band songs were 40 Megs each (the article says between 20-40 MB), then you could fit 100 songs!!!
Perhaps Harmonix isn’t worried about the lost DLC revenue because they’re making up for it with all the extra money they’re grabbing from the EU release.
Jill Lentz | Apr 10, 2008 | Reply