Harmonix Coffers Getting Prepared for Flood of our Cashola

Posted 9/4/08

Categories: Xbox 360

Every one’s very excited about Harmonix’s confirmation of the option for Rock Band 1′s transferal of tracks to Rock Band 2. For a mere five bucks they will allow us to rip the tracks off the Rock Band 1 disc for use in the sequel. This may all sound well and good, but I can’t help but feel I’m getting scammed here.

Let’s look past the obvious argument that I already paid for these songs when I bought the first disc. Didn’t Microsoft just recently announce that we will be able to load our games to the hard drive with the upcoming fall update? And surely this could be a simple firmware update for the PS3 also.

Instead someone at Harmonix, or more than likely EA, had the genius idea to try to get the over 3 million (probably closer to 4 million) people who already bought the game to shell out another $5 for the convenience of accessing all their music through one interface. Bam! there’s another $15 million in the bank, all gravy since whatever little patch the use probably took little to no programming effort.

Don’t get me wrong, I will absolutely pay the $5, but I do so with disdain. I do so thinking to myself that Guitar Hero World Tour looks pretty interesting, and possibly worth the cost if the extra innovations they claim play as good as they sound. And mostly I do so with a heart jaded by the crew at Harmonix. A group that made me feel like they made music games for the love of music, not solely for profit. And no I do not buy into the claim that it’s strictly to cover some kind of additional licensing cost. With all the money they made off the first game, the DLC and the $h!tty bass pedal they must have saved money on, I’m sure they could have spotted us on this little option for the benefit of insuring customer loyalty.