This is dependant if the PS2 version was also rejected by consumers for being a downgraded experience compared to other versions, but we have no sales statistics for PS2 version to compare.
@lstormy10, If bad sales for this teach EA to spend more effort in their Wii titles, I am all for it. If bad sales for this teach EA that they should not spent effort porting game to Wii, since it will not sell, then GHIV will be very luck, since they can have virtual monopoly on the Wii platform due to no-competition from EA (of course, they still have competition from other music oriented game on Wii).
@PyrosMagus, So this just further confirms that EA, MTV, and Harmonix are merely porting Rock Band from PS2 to Wii and not putting really any effort into it. In other words, this game is turning into a full-on cash-in because of EA, MTV, and Harmonix seeing the success that GHIII had on the Wii. This doesn't bode well for sales for people that are less casual as they will just pick-up the title on a different platform because of how gimped the Wii version will be in comparison.
If there is character creation, will there be Mii support when creating your Rock Band character?
No, there will be no character creator. When developing Rock Band for the Wii platform, the primary focus was to make the core band gameplay experience as fun and solid for everyone... In tailoring Rock Band to the strengths of the Wii console, character creator unfortunately didn't make the cut.
No matter what your opinion on DLC for music games in the form of songs is, I think it is agreeable that it is not very acceptable for this title to not have at least online play. Online play could have been easily done for this title as even Guitar Hero III on the Wii has the feature. I believe that EA, MTV, and Harmonix will probably wait until a sequel to Rock Band to bring online for Rock Band to Wii because of the fact that not even online play is built-in for the title - unless for some reason Nintendo decides to finally put out a HDD, allowing for this feature to be added, but that is very doubtful.
"clunky and expensive" only from the publisher's point of view.
For Rock Band (on the 360) you pay $170 for a microphone, guitar, drum set AND 58 songs. Afterwards, they charge you $2-3 PER SONG.
Look at GH3 (360). Initial cost of about $80 for a guitar and 71 songs! What do downloadable songs cost? $2.50 each.
It doesn't take a math whiz to note that the DLC is ripping off consumers in terms of price. They're charging you about 3-4 times as much as the songs are costing you on the game disc, and people are lapping it up, never pausing to note that DLC songs are incredibly expensive.
It's almost become habit to put in DLC due to the massive and powerful nature of Xbox Live Marketplace and the PSN. It would come down to the question of "What good's a music game that has no DLC?"
GHIII for the Wii absolutely has no DLC, but that doesnt mean it's gonna be completely ruled out.
As for just making another Game Disc just for the extra music and stuff, it seems expensive, and clunky just for what, a couple dozens of songs?
Sure, DLC is expensive, but it's worth it. So now, Rock BAnd Wii DLC is at a moment of "Wait n' See" and waitin' shall we do.
Considering that WiiWare doesn't hit North American until May, it isn't a huge shock. They haven't ruled out DLC completely, just initially.
Personally I wish gamers would stop crying for DLC...get them to put out a disc of new material, it costs a hell of a lot less than what you're getting gouged for in DLC.
"Regarding downloadable content: During Rock Band for the Wii development[,] Harmonix focused on making the core gameplay experience as solid and enjoyable as possible while tailoring it specifically to the strengths of the platform. However, 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."
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This is dependant if the PS2 version was also rejected by consumers for being a downgraded experience compared to other versions, but we have no sales statistics for PS2 version to compare.