The MS spin schedule for the next 5 months:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
March spin: Supply constraint finally easing, but still a problem
April spin: Look at our GTA4 software sales vs PS3! Confirms that GTA is truly considered an XBox series first by consumers.
May spin: Microsoft sold more 3rd party software than the Wii and PS3 combined
June Spin: Largest share of current-gen HD-console software revenue.
July: Our average revenue per software title is 20% higher than on the Wii!

sinha said: hunter_alien said: Im not shure how well Rock Band on the Wii will do ... the hype shure died out a bit since launch ... still it could have some awesome legs :) Rock Band hype died down since launch?? I think Rock Band hype is steadily increasing.   Under 200k in week 1, yet after 20 weeks it's still closing in on 1.2 million. And has it ever dropped out of the top 20 in weekly sales?

I meant internet hype . The 360/PS3 versions where all heavily advertised while that IMO wont be made for the Wii version . It will do better than the PS2 version , having a much more casual instalbase , but still Im not certain it will reach 360 sales ...

sinha said: Erik Aston said: mrstickball said: May I ask why the Wii version of Rock Band is going to do gangbusters, when the PS2 version, from any standards, was DOA? I suspect more new songs will be sold via the inevitable disc-based expansions to Rock Band than by DLC, so there should still be a market for a "gimped" version. So the choices are: 1) Buy Rock Band for PS3/360 and play songs whenever you want, in any order you want. Buy up to 3 new songs a week, and buy only the songs you like. 2) Buy Rock Band Wii and insert Disk 1 to play songs A, B, and C; insert Disk 2 expansion to play songs D, E, F; insert Disk 3 expansion... Wait X months for the next disc-based expansion to be released (certainly not weekly), and pay for every song on the disk whether you like a song or not. So when you say more new songs will be sold via disc-based expansions than via DLC, basically you're saying most consumers look at the options and make economically irrational decisions?   [And this is ignoring for a minute the ten other ways Rock Band Wii is gimped compared to the 360 and PS3 versions]

?

If the Rock Band 2 disc alone costs about $50 for Wii, and contains about 60 songs (first game: 58), that's a much better deal than $2 a song or whatever the DLC works out to be. Just because you have to switch discs and wait between releases doesn't make it different from any other game series before 2005.

sinha said: Erik Aston said: mrstickball said: May I ask why the Wii version of Rock Band is going to do gangbusters, when the PS2 version, from any standards, was DOA? I suspect more new songs will be sold via the inevitable disc-based expansions to Rock Band than by DLC, so there should still be a market for a "gimped" version. So the choices are: 1) Buy Rock Band for PS3/360 and play songs whenever you want, in any order you want. Buy up to 3 new songs a week, and buy only the songs you like. 2) Buy Rock Band Wii and insert Disk 1 to play songs A, B, and C; insert Disk 2 expansion to play songs D, E, F; insert Disk 3 expansion... Wait X months for the next disc-based expansion to be released (certainly not weekly), and pay for every song on the disk whether you like a song or not. So when you say more new songs will be sold via disc-based expansions than via DLC, basically you're saying most consumers look at the options and make economically irrational decisions?   [And this is ignoring for a minute the ten other ways Rock Band Wii is gimped compared to the 360 and PS3 versions]

So, how is it then different from PS360 version? I don't know if "no DLC" have been announced for Wii, but techwise DLC is as possible on Wii as it's on PS360.

sinha said: I agree on WiiFit, it will be huge. I don't like anecdotal evidence, but all I know is even my mom wants the damn thing, and so do some of her colleagues. But anyone who buys Rock Band for Wii is essentially a hardcore Nintendo fanboy and/or a moron: There are zero (currently known) ways in which the Wii version will be better than the 360/PS3 versions that will have already been out for SEVEN months. The 360/PS3 versions have a long list of features the Wii version will not have. Yet the MSRP for Rock Band Wii is still $169.99! That is just lunacy. New definition of "fanboy": someone who pays full price for a severely gimped version of a seven month old game.

Now, if i own a Wii, and want to play Rockband, why shouldn't i get the Wii version? Even if gimped, it's still cheaper to pay around 150 for Wii Rockband than 150 for 360 Rockband and 200 for 360. So, for Wii owners, there are 200 reasons to get the Wii version instead of 360 version. And even more reasons when compared to PS3 version. I'd say that you really need to be a hardcore PS360 fanboy to get one of the other versions.

Erik Aston said: sinha said: Erik Aston said: I suspect more new songs will be sold via the inevitable disc-based expansions to Rock Band than by DLC, so there should still be a market for a "gimped" version. So the choices are: 1) Buy Rock Band for PS3/360 and play songs whenever you want, in any order you want. Buy up to 3 new songs a week, and buy only the songs you like. 2) Buy Rock Band Wii and insert Disk 1 to play songs A, B, and C; insert Disk 2 expansion to play songs D, E, F; insert Disk 3 expansion... Wait X months for the next disc-based expansion to be released (certainly not weekly), and pay for every song on the disk whether you like a song or not. So when you say more new songs will be sold via disc-based expansions than via DLC, basically you're saying most consumers look at the options and make economically irrational decisions?   [And this is ignoring for a minute the ten other ways Rock Band Wii is gimped compared to the 360 and PS3 versions]   ? If the Rock Band 2 disc alone costs about $50 for Wii, and contains about 60 songs (first game: 58), that's a much better deal than $2 a song or whatever the DLC works out to be. Just because you have to switch discs and wait between releases doesn't make it different from any other game series before 2005.

But both of you are speculating about the idea of a Rock Band 2, and the idea of switching out various disks for your games, as opposed to the 360/PS3 way of it.

And the issue with that idea, Erik, is the fact that those 60 songs won't be 60 songs you like (again, agreeing your idea is true, and accurate, even though it's entirely based on speculation), whereas the DLC, despite the price, is 100% your choice on songs. And for the record: not every song costs $2 USD. Some are 99 Cents, some are free, and you always have the Song Packs that run $5 for 3 songs, or $8 for 6, so the price is much cheaper than you give it, Erik.

Of course, there might be plenty of stupid Wii owners owner there, willing to pay $160-170 for the much-inferior version of Rock Band. PS2 owners didn't buy into it, so I'd hope that Wii Owners would protest the gimped version of Rock Band, and hope that RB2 gets the same type of treatment the PS3/X360 versions get. Trust me, if you play Rock Band on any sort of big, enjoyable level, you'd understand how important the DLC is to the nature of the game. Because I'd rather choose a Metallica, Oasis, or Nine Inch Nails pack over some sort of Harmonix made-up bonus crap.

your are right, it will stop all of the apollogist... because there won't be any need to defend... the Wii will have higher revenue.

Revenue is not worth talking about. Revenue is not profit, and it doesn't suggest profit, and it isn't consoles sold. By itself, revenue has no known value because it doesn't determine that either:

(1) The sales numbers are higher making your product more attractive to third parties

(2) You are making more profit.

There is often correlation between increased revenue and increased profit, but not necessarily. So if a company wants to talk about revenue, they probably don't have anything good to talk about.

Don't bother trying to silence apologists.  They'll *always* find something.  When the PS2 was dominating the world there were still apologists for other consoles.  And right now there is still the occational person signing the PSP's praises.

Don't ever forget the ability for a fanboy to completely deny reality.  Look at all of the "I don't think the RROD is anything but exaggerated because it didn't happen to me or  my friend Bob" posts we've seen here.  And this is a site where literacy for that sort of thing should be above average. 

LOL we definitely have too many "analysts" on this website. Let's paraphrase:

".... should ... should ... should ... "

or not.

First I rather doubt that Wii Fit will be a real smashhit outside Japan. Second Rockband is the smaller brother of Guitar Hero so the impact won't be huge. Third PS3/360 will see GTA in the time, completely destroying everything else. Mario Kart here Mario Kart there. But we will see

Erik Aston said: sinha said: Erik Aston said: mrstickball said: May I ask why the Wii version of Rock Band is going to do gangbusters, when the PS2 version, from any standards, was DOA? I suspect more new songs will be sold via the inevitable disc-based expansions to Rock Band than by DLC, so there should still be a market for a "gimped" version. So the choices are: 1) Buy Rock Band for PS3/360 and play songs whenever you want, in any order you want. Buy up to 3 new songs a week, and buy only the songs you like. 2) Buy Rock Band Wii and insert Disk 1 to play songs A, B, and C; insert Disk 2 expansion to play songs D, E, F; insert Disk 3 expansion... Wait X months for the next disc-based expansion to be released (certainly not weekly), and pay for every song on the disk whether you like a song or not. So when you say more new songs will be sold via disc-based expansions than via DLC, basically you're saying most consumers look at the options and make economically irrational decisions?   [And this is ignoring for a minute the ten other ways Rock Band Wii is gimped compared to the 360 and PS3 versions]   ? If the Rock Band 2 disc alone costs about $50 for Wii, and contains about 60 songs (first game: 58), that's a much better deal than $2 a song or whatever the DLC works out to be. Just because you have to switch discs and wait between releases doesn't make it different from any other game series before 2005.

Are we talking about Rock Band 1 DLC songs or Rock Band 2?

Because these are Rock Band DLC songs. As you can see, there are already 81 DLC songs already, and they release new songs every week. There will probably be around 30 new DLC songs by the time Rock Band Wii comes out in late June (possibly more if full albums like Nevermind and Who's Next get released). So that's 120 songs at about 30 MB each, with almost 100 MB more added every week.

Rock Band 2 will obviously come out on 360 and PS3 as well as the Wii, and be priced $60 for 60 songs or so for the disk-only version. The songs listed above will not be included on the Rock Band 2 disk (it will be all-new songs, like every new Guitar Hero game), although Harmonix has said the DLC will be compatible with Rock Band 2. So your speculation about the Rock Band 2 disk is irrelevant unless you think Rock Band 2 will not come out on the 360 and PS3 (laughable).

 

But additional Rock Band 1 Wii songs, if released on some "Wii can't do 3GB of DLC" disk, will not be:

1) playable with the original Rock Band disk in the Wii at the same time. If you're playing Smashing Pumpkins and want to go from "Cherub Rock" to "Siva" you'll probably have to take out one disk and put in the other one.

2) new songs on disk obviously can't be released on a weekly schedule. At best it would be every few months.

3) with a disk version you can't just choose to buy the songs you want, you get all of them or none of them. So unless you plan on buying every song, you're paying for songs you don't want (and that will show up on random setlists even if you don't want to play them).

Do you disagree with any of the 3 points above?

 

And again, this is without getting into the numerous other ways in which Rock Band Wii is gimped compared to the 360 and PS3 versions...

 

For some reason I find it harder to believe that Rock Band on Wii is going to seelthrough the roof considering the expense versus the cost of the console. If you consider price as a reason why Wii is eeling well, and I think many of us do believe that's a factor, isn't a $170 game or whatever it costs going to look a bit high to those same consumers?

I don't know. Maybe that's not true. We thought the price of Rock Band would hurt its sales on 360/PS3 originally too and it doesn't seem to be hurting too bad.