Kotaku
Along with a slew of other updates, the latest patch for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version of Rock Band includes a new in-game music store. The music store will let you preview and purchase songs from inside the game by selecting the option from the main menu.
The store lets you sort all of the games' music by a selection of categories, view original album art for the masters recordings, listen to song previews and check out some extended information about specific songs, like the difficulty rating for each instrument.
We had a chance to check it out in Harmonix suite during the Game Developers Conference earlier this year and were pretty impressed. The menu allowed you to sort by artist, song, genre, album, pack and the difficulty of the song.
Selecting the Music Store from the main menu brings you to a slick interface that allows you to quickly look at new releases, a list of songs available for purchase, song packs and, eventually, entire albums for sale. The front page of the Rock Band Store will also include a sizable box that can show off cover art for the latest album, pack or song and an place where Harmonix can add a message to gamers.
Hopping into the list of songs, gamers can quickly sort by a number of options. When a song is selected on the list, located on the right side of the screen, box art for the music swings down on the left side. It can also show the album name, genre, year it was released and other information.
Hopping into an actual song will bring up an option to preview a snippet of the music as well as a break down of the song's difficulty for each instrument. It will also include a listing of which DLC pack the song is part of.
When Mark and I checked it out at GDC we were very impressed with what we saw, the store will not only help gamers sort through what is increasingly becoming an unmanageable selection of songs, it also looked really damn neat.
Comments
nice. . NOW RELEASE IT IN THE FUCKING UK!!!!!. . . . . please
Cool. Beats going back to the dashboard to look for new songs. Is that preview option new? I don't ever remember it being on any of the songs/packs before.
That looks fantastic. I would consider purchasing the game just for that. Well, and the fact that Rock Band is an awesome game, but that's just too cool.
Awesome! the preview options makes this a win.
I need to log into Rock Band now and update the game.
I love this type of forward thinking by developers. You dont have to just release a patch because your game is buggy or what not. You can make something that enhances the experience. Getting to preview songs before purchasing them is amazing. This is like a gaming extention of iTunes.
Harmonix and MTV are relying doing something special with this title. I'm impressed.
Yeah a preview option will help them sell more songs. I rarely recognize current bands, as I'm in my mid 30's and somewhat stuck in the 80's and 90's as far as popular rock music goes. Man that Dead pack is the bizomb though, way tougher than I thought it would be.
*applauds Harmonix*
Aside from more Red Hot Chili Peppers this is what I wanted most.
Finally! Sure beats having to go to youtube to find every single song for a preview. It's also nice to finally have the store included in the native menu structure.
Of course, I don't buy many songs for Rock Band anyway, but it's still nice.
This is the kind of alternate revenue streams that the recording industry need to be looking at, and not just crying about lost CD sales and piracy.
When is this patch available? It wasn't there when I logged on this morning.
Harmonix for presidents.
Now I must get Rock Band. It already was a must buy for me, but now I must buy it sooner. And with gold bars.
Oh thank you Jebus. It was getting so freaking annoying scrolling through 87 different tracks to see what's there, and... then.... waiting.... for.... X.....box.....Live's.....patented..... slow..... scrolling...... to..... find..... out..... if..... the..... song..... was...... available...... in..... a..... song pack.
That is fawesome.
...insert statement of annoyance at having to wait for Rock Band in the EU, but that doesn't prevent this from being fawesome.
Sometime this weel, or early next week, Mommar.
yikes! Now it's going to be even harder to resist saving up those microsoft points for future songs. They sure are crafty, HMX crew.
This week, too. Stupid band-aids on my fingertips...
Mandatory release it in Europe already statement.
The preview option is great, though I'd like to see a gameplay preview of the song. I envision something similar to the Live Arcade experience, in which you download the full song, but in "trial mode." If you play the song in trail mode, you see the normal interface with notes, words, etc, but instead of you playing the notes, they're all played for you by the system, effectively allowing you to see the whole song and note charts before you purchase the song.
I just got Rock Band this past weekend, and as we were showing my Dad how much dlc the game has, he would sing a little bit of each song that he knew as we scrolled through, so that was our preview option before this. That led me to download "Last Train To Clarksville", though, so i guess its alright.
Er, "trial mode," not "trail mode."
it's so funny that they did this because i was just thinking, after i bought those $1 sxsw tracks that it would be great if i could have previewed the music, even if i couldn't demo the song.
sounds like a great interface that i can't wait to try out.
And I thought it couldn't get more awesome. Way to turn my world upside down, tear asunder my illusions and send the sanctuary of my own ignorance crashing down around me.
Can I has rock band in EU?
Finally a preview option! Some of the bands I'm not as familiar with I'd really like to have a taste of what the songs are like. I can almost guarantee that this will increase the number of songs I download!
Now when can I buy Siamese Dream, Black Holes and Revelations, and Vulgar Display of Power?
Nice thought, since I was wondering how the heck they were going to keep managing eleven billion songs from the Live menus. Not that it matters that much to me anyway, since I buy every single release when it comes out. :) Does the update do anything to help the ridiculously long load times when you have a bunch of songs, though?
Holy crap, the other features in this patch are equally awesome: caching DLC for 360ers, new fan caps, improving the randomization seed in BWT, better phenome recognition...
Obligatory EU remark, but if we get all this stuff out of the box it will make me happy in my pants and hands.
On the one hand I hope this makes it into the european release on the disc, on the other I hope it doesn't because the european versions already gone gold or is coming iminently. On a third, mutated and cynical, hand I hope this makes it outside the north america at all.
just release it in EU already with all the extras kthxbye
FINALLY!!!
This is a really great development. Buying songs through the Playstation store was really annoying.
About goddamn time.
Rock Band FTW screw Guitar Hero and its business model of releasing a new version once or twice a year plus those artist packs like Aerosmith on their own discs. Downloadable content FTW
Wow do I want albums. I wonder if theyre going to be releasing only old albums, or if they'll let new CDs be released on Rock Band simultaneously. Getting Tally Hall in Rock Band would be uhh-mazing with their new re-release.
I can dream.....
Jesus Christ, you saw this during GDC and could only now tell us. Why the fucking embargo Harmonix?
I <3 Harmonix & RB
This is great news. I no longer have to go to the internets to preview a song I'm unsure of and Xbox Live is great and all, but it was terrible for trying to pick out songs.
FFS just announce the EU release date and make the jealous pangs stop!
This is amazing news. Looking forward to it :)
The most annoying part I noticed while downloading songs was they weren't sorted very well, and with the dozens and dozens of songs available it was hard to sort out what I wanted. Looking forward to this update :)
This is cool and all, but I wish they would patch their Nintendo-like approach to band world tour(no online mode). Quickplay is all great fun, but it gives you nothing to really work for as there is no progress saved.
@I_Hate_This_Place: Nintendo-like would mean they didn't even try :)
Can't wait to check out the new feature tonight.
Personally, and disgustingly, I've downloaded EVERY song available to date...and I'll proabaly continue that tradition. But this is something I kinda thought of in the back of my own head as well for a while too.
EA/MTV/Harmonix...they have truly put together something special for gamers (and fairly hardcore music gamers like myself) and actually KNOW it by supporting it through and true.
Congrats & thank you to those companies whom have litarally made the last 5 mos. of gaming so vividly memorable!
Wow, this is a really cool interface. I was just hoping there would be a way to buy songs in-game, period. But this is way better than what I expected.
This is wicked sick...
But one thing though...
EA if you're reading this....
And assuming this will operate independet of the Playstation Store..
PLEASE ALLOW INTERNATIONAL CREDIT CARDS FOR PURCHASING SONGS...
Because I can't buy anything from the Playstation Store (US)....
@LX: If it's only allowing you to hear the song, GH still has it beat by showing actual gameplay.
I'd love a brief demo of the song on expert with all four parts going. YouTube has the full thing, but with smart editing you can get the jist of a song in 30 seconds or so.
@ca$h: They likely had to sign an NDA. Similiar to how you haven't heard any reports of what exactly was on the "massive DLC list" HMX scrolled through before settling on Still Alive.
Yes, this is neat. Now, if they were able to make the games playable cross platform...THAT would be the best!
@djgil: Every song????What did that cost you?
I've been using YouTube as my "Preview" option as well as my weekly dose of rock culture. However, this'll be a lot nicer. The difficulty ratings are probably my favorite part of this package.
I'm kinda curious what other things they will be patching up with this release. Perhaps an option to turn off the film effect?! =D
@A Pimp Named Daver4470:
Scrolling is for scribes, use the R or L trigger for page up & down like navigation. Much faster.
w00t! This looks very very cool. ^^ Harmonix™ is getting a big pat on back from me. :D
Harmonix is the best. <3
This is all fine and dandy, but thanks to this store, PS3 users can't share RB DLC anymore, or so I'm guessing.
@DigiMish: I doubt the PS Store will no longer carry the tracks. We should still be able to share tracks.
@dabu: I tried it, and the sharing should still work since when you decide to purchase a song, it just takes you to the normal PS store cart. Alright, I'm still happy!
@DigiMish: Well now you can continue to leech off us now :P and vise versa as well
Wait, is this patch out already, and if not when is it due?
It's out.
All it does is integrate the store with the game itself. You're just given access to the entire library through the game. It's really smooth and neat.
@Spoony Bard:
Uhm, let's not talk about that....I'd like to not try and crunch those numbers.
Kiddin', uhm to be honest Im not sure. I'm pretty sure though it's got to be close to what I paid for the damn Special Edition + extra Stratocaster. lol
I luv the variety of every song myself...and for every instrument. I'm working on Hard Guitar + Hard Singing as a combo right now. Not fun with those Mystery Sets inb World Tour mode I must say. 0_o;
@Spoony Bard:
GAH!!!! You went and did it......I've done the math now:
$136.53
Not as bad as I thought, huh.
This is full of win. I am pleased.
@I_Hate_This_Place: Not gonna happen. Harmonix said nay to online BWT.
@djgil: Awesome, I hope to do the same some day should I get the extra cash flow
@djgil: ...You're right. That's not so bad. Although, if you keep going,