Video: Killer Queen on GHII, worth $6?
So, Red Octane and Activision have taken some flack for the pricing of of the Guitar Hero II downloadable content. As a quick reminder, the song packs costs $6.25. With three songs to a pack, that's a little more than 2 bucks a song. Regardless of whether or not the pricing is truly reflective of the licensing costs and other related costs, many folks out there think the price is too high. So, we found this video on GameTrailers showcasing one of the new tracks, Queen's "Killer Queen." The pack also includes "Frankenstein" by the Edgar Winter Group and "Take It Off" by The Donnas, which are both decent songs in their own way. The question is then, now that you've seen "Killer Queen" as it plays in Guitar Hero II, is the $2/song price any more palatable? Would any of you be more amenable to paying 160 points for individual songs?
Related Headlines
Reader Comments
(Page 2)22. queen w/o freddy mercury isn't queen.
they pay the licence and can't get the original version? wtf?
Posted at 6:50PM on Apr 13th 2007 by root
23. I am going to defend the gaming industry here, and probably play devil's advocate.
I think Microsoft is pathetic at times, but if you consider that iTunes are .99 a song, this leaves a dollar a song to pay for all the development cost.
Do you really think it cost as little as a dollar to put those songs to Format as they appear in GH2?
Hell No. It cost a lot more.
You guys are getting a sweet deal.
Guitar Hero is losing money on the additional content.
Should they have put ALL the music together, and maybe discounted it a little more?
Maybe...
...but it is as it is and there is nothing you can do about it, except whine.
Posted at 7:24PM on Apr 13th 2007 by dusty
24. If Microsoft and Red Octane INSIST on the "fairness" of the pricing of the three packs, why not just let the customer choose WHICH songs to buy??? Doesn't that make more sense?
I'm sure that people would be doing MUCH less bitching if they had at least a semblance of control in the matter beyond forcing themselves to fork over $2 USD a song.
Posted at 8:00PM on Apr 13th 2007 by Jared
25. Horrible pricing.
I could see justifying development costs if these songs weren't already done for the PS2. And if it costs THAT much money to convert, then Harmonix needs to fire some people.
Posted at 8:19PM on Apr 13th 2007 by Stan
26. @dusty,
Guitar Hero is actually a game, not a company, so it's not making any money at all ;) And also, I can assure you that Activision, Red Octane, and MS are all making a bit of profit on every track sold. No one in the video game business, and I mean NO ONE is doing it out of the kindness of thier hearts. Sorry bro, they're not losing money on the deal; even if you factor in all of the licensing/development costs associated with each track. If it was a money-losing deal, they wouldn't have released downloadable content.
Now... if the market rejects it, which if you go by chatter online it sounds like it might be, then they stand to lose money; but that's the only way. I'm sorry my friend, but your game development saints aren't actually saints...
Posted at 8:33PM on Apr 13th 2007 by AoE
27. I've said it before and I will say it again, 80-100 MS points per song would have been VERY reasonable but Red Octane and Microsoft wish to RAPE their fans!!! Thus IS worng and sets a bad persident for others developers to follow suit!! Look what happened with the Horse Armor, Besethsda changed their pricing ASAP, I REALLY hope this happens, I refuse to buy the 3 packs and WILL not be buying anything for GH 2 until their is some sort of a pricing structure change!!
Posted at 9:00PM on Apr 13th 2007 by Craig Ravitch
28. No way they're losing money on the downloadable content. If you do the math, the price we're paying per song for each track included in GHII is about 81 cents, not $2.08. I have doubts as to whether the "development costs" and "licensing fees" for this old material is over twice as expensive.
AND some of that 81 cents per song is part of the markup by the retailer, which is about $20 on the $90 product (I know from a friend in retail that it costs his store around $70 per guitar/game bundle).
Unless I'm completely misunderstanding the costs involved on the content developer's end, the margin on this new content is significantly larger than on the core songs.
Posted at 9:10PM on Apr 13th 2007 by BluesmanTLU
29. Watch the language guys!!
Posted at 9:48PM on Apr 13th 2007 by blk_ballard
30. sell us ALL the GH songs for 1500-2000points and we will buy it.....until that, we are not enought foolish to buy a COVER song for 2$
Posted at 1:18AM on Apr 14th 2007 by mastodon
31. Do you have the rights to post that video? Or are you going to have to charge us $2 to view it? I have paypal and can pay it.
- TOM
Posted at 2:08AM on Apr 14th 2007 by Tom
32. And to think, If this was 100-300 points, it'd be an impulse buy. At 400? Well, eh. Maybe. But I'd probably buy an XBLA or two, and use the spare points to get it.
But 500 points is where I think, "Eh. The song really isn't that good. It looks too easy. The vocals are kinda poor."
If it was somewhere below 500, I probably wouldn't bother to care. But selling such imperfection at such a price really makes you think twice.
And in cases like these, the second thought is somewhere along the lines of "Fuck that shit".
Posted at 5:16AM on Apr 14th 2007 by Kritz
33. Single tracks or no cash.
I just want my Ramones, Donnas and Bad Religion tracks and cherry pick between the rest. So that's one bundle I'd allow for :P
Posted at 6:58AM on Apr 14th 2007 by Moof
34. Bad cover, if i was gunna pay for one of those packs it would be this one but...... i know theres freddy mercary vocals out there so whats stopping them getting the rights to the vocal recordings and least having it sound like queen instead of what sounds like a woman singing this decent song
Posted at 7:55AM on Apr 14th 2007 by JwintooX
35. I really don't have a problem with the pricing, but I do have a problem with the quality of some of the songs. Killer Queen in particular... it's one of my favorites and I was left totally down after buying it. Did they even bother to listen to the original, or did they just buy one of those huge books with lousy covers of Queen songs?
Posted at 1:39PM on Apr 15th 2007 by Dave
36. @5, trying to replicate freddy mercury's voice is something few can do, but i agree that sucked
Posted at 8:21PM on Apr 15th 2007 by Patrick
37. Look just don't buy them. Once they see that no one is buying the song packs they will have no choice, but to lower the price. Just take a stand and don't pay for it.
Posted at 10:47AM on Apr 16th 2007 by rr
38. I love how people assume licensing fees are next to nothing. Someone actually quoted 18 cents per song as if performance and digital distribution were the same thing. They forget how many TV shows have their music changed when they go to DVD as the licensing fees have to be renegotiated at a vastly inflated price.
Posted at 4:32AM on Apr 20th 2007 by darkbhudda
21. Wanna explain why my comment was deleted?
Posted at 5:48PM on Apr 13th 2007 by Derka