DailyTech - Rock Band to Hit Wii on June 22

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Software Rock Band to Hit Wii on June 22
Marcus Yam (Blog) - March 25, 2008 9:20 AM

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11 comment(s) - last by theapparition.. on Mar 26 at 10:28 AM

The hottest music rhythm games makes its way to Wii this summer

Music rhythm games experienced the most growth out of all videogame genres in 2007. Guitar Hero III sat near the top of the sales charts across all platforms, while Rock Band demonstrated what’s possible when things were turned up to eleven.

Rock Band, however, wasn’t initially available on the fastest growing console, the Nintendo Wii. That will change this summer, as Rock Band will launch on the Wii in North America on June 22. Unlike with the launch for Xbox 360 and PS3, Canadian gamers will not have to face a painful additional month-long wait.

Like its release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, Rock Band will ship for the Wii as a Special Edition set with the game, drums, microphone and a wireless guitar for $169.99. Standalone instruments will also be available for those who want to build their band one instrument at a time or want to play the drum versus drum game mode. Sadly, Guitar Hero III hardware will not work with Rock Band, as per Activision’s stipulations.

“The Wii's success among casual and core gamers of all ages makes it an ideal match for the cross-generational appeal of the music featured in Rock Band,” says Bob Picunko, VP of EA Games and Interactive Products, MTV.

“The social interaction and addictive nature of the Rock Band experience is a perfect fit for the Wii and will undoubtedly be fun for the entire family,” says Steve Singer, licensing VP from Nintendo.

One of Rock Band’s biggest advantages over other music games on the market, besides its support for four players, is its weekly flow of new downloadable songs. Even with the success of more than six million songs sold through Xbox Live and PlayStation Store, it appears that Wii gamers won’t be able to download new tracks – at least not initially.

A Harmonix representative told Kotaku, “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.”

The lack of mass storage options may also be a limiting factor for the Wii version of Rock Band. Pi Studios, which handled the PS2 port of Rock Band, is also working on the upcoming Wii version. Furthermore, it’s possible that Rock Band for Wii may be similar to the PS2 in that it will be without certain character customization and world tour modes that are on the other current generation platforms.

Harmonix’ Sean Baptiste wrote on the company forums, “The feature-set is a lot closer to the PS2 version of Rock Band which was also developed by Pi Studios. We've decided to focus on getting the core gameplay on to the Wii and focus on making that awesome.”

Baptiste did reveal that the Wii version will have five extra songs on disc which will be announced at a later date.

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rock wii

By leexgx on 3/25/2008 9:41:42 AM , Rating: 2

it does have an SD card slot in there should not be to hard for the customer to get an 1-2gb SD card or even rock band supply an 2gb SD card as its not like £150 an £2 item is going to put an dent in there profit as thay make an nice amount from the music downloads (as in the UK just convert the $ to an £ and not take off the amount it should be )

as there are far more wii's then PS3 and xbox put together should be interesting as basically every one has an wii (every house i been to any way)

my friend has got rock band in the UK very good it is {you-tube rock band expert :) }
(his ps3 has an USA account Jap acc and uk acc so he can get games and some jap only games)

RE: rock wii

By Aikouka on 3/25/2008 9:54:04 AM , Rating: 2

PS3 games are not region locked, so acquiring games from other regions is not a magical feat and certainly doesn't require a PSN account in that region.

Also, the issue is that the Wii doesn't have a very online-centric model and because of that, it doesn't really have a store front where Harmonix could sell the songs. To my knowledge, the only stuff you can really buy are the VC games.

Parent

RE: rock wii

By AlphaVirus on 3/25/2008 12:38:48 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
as there are far more wii's then PS3 and xbox put together

Not sure where you got your information from but you should double check on those stats.

quote:
should not be to hard for the customer to get an 1-2gb SD card

Usually the people who bought the Wii are not looking for more 'tech' to buy. Majority of the people who bought the Wii were looking for simplicity and price, if you tell them they have to buy something 'extra' they will not listen. Unless you sell it to them while they are still in the store, they are not going to bother.

quote:
or even rock band supply an 2gb SD card as its not like £150 an £2 item is going to put an dent in there profit

This would be the best option but it might not be price issues, it would turn into supply and stocking issues. If there is a shortage in SD cards, they would have to stop shipping the game and therefore lose $150 over a $2 SD card. Also in turn would produce overstocked games and they would have to drop their price in order to get them out faster. A lot can happen when 1 part out-supplies another.

Parent

RE: rock wii

By Fallen Kell on 3/25/2008 1:35:35 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Not sure where you got your information from but you should double check on those stats.

Well, lets post some stats. As of Dec 31st 2007, 20.13 million Wii's worldwide sold, straight from Nintendo's sales data:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2008/080124e.pdf#...

The last 3 months have seen the nintendo Wii outsell all other consoles combined as well.

As of Dec 31st 2007, 18 million Xbox360's have been sold, based on financial data posted by MS (and then analyzed): http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=93...

As of Jan 1st 2008, 10.49 million PS3's sold, based on Sony's reports: http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sa...

Now that means the combined PS3 and Xbox360 number are 28.5 million on or about Jan 1st 2008, and there are 20.14 million Wii's sold by that same time.

For January, Wii sold 274,000 units, PS3 269,000, Xbox360 230,000. These were only the US numbers. No numbers for Japan could be found, however, the Wii has consistantly outsold the PS3 by 2:1 and the Xbox360 by 6:1 ratios in Japan for all of 2007. The PS3 will have some jump in January numbers from the Blu-Ray winning the format war, so they possibly sold about the same number of systems. Both Nintendo and MS complained of console shortages for reasons of their poor numbers.

For February, Wii sold 432,000 units in the US alone. PS3 sold 280,000, and Xbox360 252,000. Again, these are only USA numbers. Xbox360 is and has been extremely weak outside the US market, while Nintendo and Sony have their strongest markets in Japan.

So, the numbers are actually almost correct. By October-November 2008, Nintendo's Wii will sell more units then PS3 and Xbox360 combined given current sales data.

Parent

RE: rock wii

By theapparition on 3/26/2008 10:28:26 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
So, the numbers are actually almost correct.

Don't sugarcoat facts. The original statement was the the Wii far outsould PS3 and 360 combined. Fact is, it is more like 70% of the combined sales of those other two consoles. Certainly not "far outselling" them combined.

Next year, it certainly should have the overall sales lead over the combined consoles, but right now it's only outsold the 360 alone by about 15%.

I'm not knocking the Wii at all, it's obviously the console of choice for most consumers and it's impressive sales in the short timeframe pay testimate to that.

Parent

RE: rock wii

By nolisi on 3/25/2008 2:00:30 PM , Rating: 2

While I agree, packaging a 1-2 gb card is probably not the most reasonable option, getting SD card is definitely NOT a a stretch for most Wii owners. Although the big news with Nintendo is the fact that they've been successful at capturing the more casual market, the fact is, Nintendo has a strong cult fan base that love the traditional franchises attached to Nintendo (Super Smash Bros, Mario, Donkey Kong). This fan base will buy just about any accessory, memory card, specialized controller, etc to make their console cooler.

On top of that, SD cards are fairly common in the domain electronics (primarily the camera market).

And I doubt that a game like Rock Band is for the extremely casual gamer to begin with. How many people not that into gaming to begin with will drop over $150 for a new game + hardware. Sure this is for a more general/party crowd, but I can tell you not many extremely casual gamers would want to spend 60-70% of the purchase price of the console itself just to have that game.

Parent

RE: rock wii

By buddry on 3/25/2008 1:42:31 PM , Rating: 2

I was wanting this game but I will probably end up passing. I will not pay that much for the game and not get DLC as well as the guitars not being compatible with gh3. It is just not worth it at that price when you get so much more for the ps3/360 version for the same price.

Parent

RE: rock wii

By nolisi on 3/25/2008 2:14:44 PM , Rating: 2

I ran into this conundrum last month. I have a Wii and a PS3- I only got a PS3 for Blu Ray, never intended to use it for gaming.

On the one hand, I saw a killer price for Rock Band PS3 (around $140), but I really would have preferred to have it for Wii. On top of that was the waiting factor, and at the time, had no idea when it would come out, or if it would support DLC. In the end, I just ended up buying the PS3 version.

Something worth noting, GH3 is slated to get DLC on Wii. Not sure if it has already happened or if it's still pending, but it definitely doesn't mean that DLC will never come to the Wii.

Parent

Platinum Edition with Extra Songs, Please

By Houdani on 3/25/2008 9:42:02 AM , Rating: 2

With DLC presumably out of the picture, I'd strongly consider paying extra for a "Platinum Edition" which includes a bunch of the most popular songs currently available via DLC on the other platforms.

The five unannounced bonus songs with the Wii version is alright, but give us an option for a truly expanded song list right up front since you won't let us add them piece meal as we go along. Um, please.

RE: Platinum Edition with Extra Songs, Please

By Polynikes on 3/25/2008 11:40:22 AM , Rating: 3

Only 5 extra songs is a slap in the face, especially if it turns out the DLC thing won't work out. I may not get this game for my Wii now.

Parent

Awesome!

By Vanilla Thunder on 3/25/2008 11:42:20 AM , Rating: 2

So I get to pay the same amount for the game, but it will have lackluster options and no DLC? No friggin' way. Wii need DLC!!

Vanilla

"Game reviewers fought each other to write the most glowing coverage possible for the powerhouse Sony, MS systems. Reviewers flipped coins to see who would review the Nintendo Wii. The losers got stuck with the job." -- Andy Marken