Guitar Hero III gets new DLC licks

Velvet Revolver and Foo Fighters get three-song downloadable track packs on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network today.

Keen-eared gamers may have noticed that the TV commercial spot promoting the recently released Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock prominently features a song that isn't actually in the rhythm game. Activision is remedying that today, as the publisher is releasing a downloadable content pack including that track--Velvet Revolver's "Slither"--as well as two more from the rock supergroup, and a trio of Foo Fighters songs in a separate pack.

The two packs are now available on the Xbox 360 version of the game for 500 Microsoft points ($6.25). Activision is saying that the same packs will be made available for the PlayStation 3 version of the game later this month. However, a Sony representative told GameSpot both packs will be going up with today's PlayStation Network release, and will carry a price of $6.25 each.

In addition to "Slither," the Velvet Revolver pack contains "She Builds Quick Machines" and "Messages," from the band's regular and deluxe releases of Libertad, respectively. The Foo Fighters pack includes "The Pretender" from Echoes Silence Patience & Grace, "All My Life" from One by One, and "This is a Call" from the band's self-titled album.

146 Comments

  • Fumpa

    Posted Nov 25, 2007 8:31 am PT

    rip off

  • NeostarrX5

    Posted Nov 24, 2007 12:42 pm PT

    think about it, 3 songs, 99c each on itunes, no argument there.
    $2.97 for all three. but you arent downloading just the song, you are downloading the programming for each song. the notes just dont automatically appear there. and then of course the overhead charged by microsoft so they can make some money too.

    my point is, if you dont like it dont buy it.

  • gunshot134

    Posted Nov 24, 2007 11:53 am PT

    I don't see why nintendo doesn't have DLC. im extremely surprised that the PS3 doesn't have any either. they could very easily pull it off...

  • RabbiRambo

    Posted Nov 22, 2007 1:08 pm PT

    How about Queen - you don`t fool me. The guitar solo in the middle of the song is out of this world.

  • phantom4567

    Posted Nov 21, 2007 8:18 pm PT

    Looks like they never heard of Wii shop eh?

  • simian92

    Posted Nov 21, 2007 5:37 pm PT

    i still don't see why the wii version doesn't support downloadable songs, i mean, couldn't they just run them through the shop channel?

  • talkingpie92

    Posted Nov 20, 2007 9:45 am PT

    Man, I really want "the pretender" but I don't care about the others.

  • Reiden

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 5:24 pm PT

    in response to Urlacher54. Guitar Hero II by Harmonix had song packs priced the same way. It's pointless to expect any free content from any developer.

  • Urlacher54

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 1:21 am PT

    I love the Foo Fighters, but $6.25 is a little steep, don't you think? After spending over $100 for the game, I would have expected the downloadable songs to be free. I guess that's what I get for having faith in Activision.

    I bet Harmonix would have released the song packs for free. . .

  • ctg867

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 10:09 pm PT

    Decent songs that are way to expensive. Guitar Hero DLC = fail. Expect Rock Band to be worse. Paying $1-$2 for a song that I can only use in Guitar Hero. It can't be put on a PSP/mp3 player/iPod/Computer/etc. Way to expensive

  • Watch_Me_Xplode

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 3:55 pm PT

    Good songs, but still way too expensive...

  • Coxxxy83

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 1:06 pm PT

    delcidanddarth is probably the smartest person alive

  • delcidanddarth

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 11:48 am PT

    It's 88 cents to license a song to iTunes to sell me the right to play it whenever and wherever I want. Putting a song in a game does not allow me to listen to it at any time. I have to be playing the game. This makes no sense at all. The GH songs should be cheaper than an iTunes download. The music industry has this whole GH thing completely backwards. GH is not popular because gamers are playing the original song. Guess what? The first GH had very few original tracks, and it turns out it is the most fun. How about selling us a DL pack of all the GH 1 and 2 songs for $25 each?

  • Get_Shorty

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 10:11 am PT

    Uh hello your not just buying MP3s here you buying all the technical work that goes into making the game play along with the songs and everything. Stop your whining

  • MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 8:00 am PT

    i hate microtransactions but "slither" and any foo songs are worth every penny for me ... all i need now is a wii version.

  • RedG375

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 7:13 am PT

    One word... Radiohead.

    "Bodysnatchers", "Just", and either "Paranoid Android" or "Electioneering".

    There you go. Make it happen, Activision!

  • Devvy01

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 6:03 am PT

    more ways to make money, just leave out any decent songs...

  • zer0ne

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 3:51 am PT

    Wat are u talking about? If they left out the song from the game by accident, they should give it to us for free. As for additional contents, they should sell the songs individually as not all song would be liked by the customer and should be priced between US$0.49 to US$0.99 as these song could only be used on the game.

  • viper8828

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 2:14 am PT

    ive been saying screw buying 3 songs for 500 microsoft points ever since they posted them up for GH2 at this price - its freaking retarded even tho i do like the foo fighter songs....I dont enjoy spending $90-100 on a game and then having to pay $13 for 6 more songs....? ya i dont get it

  • MetalZombieII

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 2:11 am PT

    Everyone defending them for the hard work it takes to program a song for multiple difficulty levels + lip sync and band animations, just stop, these things are already in place and only take minor tweaks to make it work, all of the ground work and programming information is already in place.

    On the other hand, while I agree this is a rip-off, you can easily vote with your hard earned cash by not purchasing these, so stop complaining about it, it will not help.

    I didn't download any of the songs for GHII and I will not download any for GHIII either, unless they drop down to $4.00 or less per pack, or they start selling individual songs fo a $1.50 or less.

    In fact I think that would be a perfect price point... $1.50 per song of $4.00 per 3 song pack

  • keyser27

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 9:34 pm PT

    @thrashunreal
    no need to discuss the obvious my friend. They have a huge out of the gate hit on their hands, but the word of mouth is going to kill this game. While we are at it, you can't seriously call a guitar game Legends of Rock with no Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Marc Knopfler, Angus Young, Steve Vai, Brian May, etc etc etc. No more for me. I'm trading this back in (yes that makes me the King of Diminishing Returns) and hoping Rock Band is better than this total piece.

  • thrashunreal

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 9:20 pm PT

    ... We won't even discuss why the songs aren't nearly worth that anyhow...

  • MACMALLEON

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 8:58 pm PT

    Why is this game not fun to play anymore. I mean GH2 was more challenging than the first, which was good. But why did Neversoft make this one nearly impossible? And more frustrating. Man I cant wait for Rock Band!

  • Dmg051793

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 8:43 pm PT

    hey guys it is expensive
    but i buy it
    1 cuz theyre good songs
    2 when they make dlc they gotta pay themselves a buck a song and count the labor they put into making the chart and **** again
    so basically 6.25 for 3 songs is a rip off but it isnt as bad as ud think

  • keyser27

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 8:00 pm PT

    You guys defending their pricing as "reasonable" need to consider that for the 70 songs on the game, at $60, is less than a buck per song, INCLUDING licensing, packaging, transportation/shipping logistics, game design, manual printing, and covers the cost of the programmers DESIGNING the ENGINE. Now for the song packs, they are charging $2.08 PER SONG, when they arent having to debug the game engine, ARENT having to print manuals, pay for shipping, packaging or anything else. They could sell a song pack for $2 and make money. Artists work on royalties, not flat rate, and it's not like Activision has to fork out a million dollars to get Velvet Revolver put their music in the game, they just have to pay x% everytime somebody downloads their song pack.

    If the game were any good none of this would be an issue to begin with, but it's just not. The boss battles were lame, the "notes" you play on expert are NOTHING like they should be (ie a single note being played by red + yellow in one part o the song, but differently in others), the covers being the worst ones ever (La Grange??? ZZTop should sue), the Whammy Bar functions poorly now, and the art direction SUCKS.

    If Guitar Hero is how you start a craze, Guitar Hero III is how you end one, and this absurd pricing is another nail in the coffin.

  • briaooon9

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 7:50 pm PT

    don't do it....that's the only way they will lower the price if we don't buy that **** i love the FF...

  • keyser27

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 7:40 pm PT

    Good grief what a ripoff. I thought Itunes was a complete ripoff at $.99 since it was 128KBPS, and DRM, but jeeez. And we thought Nintendo was ripping was ripping people off for charging $5 for SMB3 and $10 for Mario 64??? That's $2.08 per song. WOW. It's bad enough that GH3 plays like CRAP on expert... now THIS?!?! I'm tradin mine in tomorrow.

    Eff Activision and Neversoft. Harmonix, take note... Golden opportunity to take advantage of the worse pricing ever and land a huge blow for Rock Band. Or you can charge a similar price and ill cancel my preorder... Outrageous prices for "micro"transactions are going to be trouble. I can see a buck a song, no more for ROCK BAND where you have programmers doing drums, vocal, guitar and bass on 4 difficulty levels... thats reasonable, but $2 per song even for RB would be too much, CUT TO gh where its just the guitar track (POORLY done in 3 I might add) and I don't think its worth much over $.50 per song, considering the "quality" of the transfers to the game. A Microtransaction to me would be $.10 for a new guitar design, or $.04 for a different poster at a venue, a transaction that would be small enough to not be worth running a debit card for. You can eat at any fast food restaurant for $6.25 and there is nothing MICRO about that.

  • BR0M

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 6:39 pm PT

    holy crap that is expensive!...for 3 songs?

  • ObjectiveTruth

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 6:14 pm PT

    If only people on this board had run a business of their own they'd realize how much work goes into making things. Sure its just a song, but they have to program the limp syncing for each song, make 4 different versions of the songs for easy, med, hard, expert, then they have to get the license for the song, then they have to pay all the people that make it possible, admins, programmers, managers. They don't just type something up in 5 minutes and sell it. It takes alot of time and management to pull this off and don't think its all profit. I'm sure MS only makes a small % off these downloadable contents. Who says its not EA or Red octane demanding that they charge more. Believe me people business is not as cut and dry as you all think it is...../endrant

  • Madsucktion

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 5:28 pm PT

    And people say that the Wii is ruining gaming. Wrong again people, because Microtransactions are ruining gaming.

  • Jedi_Osborn

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 4:21 pm PT

    not worth that price tag for me...

  • thatguy0130

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 4:20 pm PT

    seriously though, how many people actually like the boss battles?

  • ja_rawr_ed

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 4:14 pm PT

    at least the boss battles will be free [to play in multiplayer and quickplay]

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:53 pm PT

    woah thats expensive for a few songs.

  • Girman

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:34 pm PT

    I want my Misfits, Rage against the Machine, and System of a Down packs NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • thatguy0130

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:26 pm PT

    You know its kind of like Guitar Hero Encore.

  • aRE-you-AFraid

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:18 pm PT

    I may get the Foo Fighter pack.

  • degrassirulez

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:12 pm PT

    What about the Wii version?

  • Cursednavi

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 3:09 pm PT

    How is that a high price. 500 points for three song thats just 100 more points then a low quality arcade game.

  • --Magnum91--

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:58 pm PT

    Yay Foo.

    Boo microtransactions.

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:58 pm PT

    @DSgamer64: Pathetic? You, sir, are bad at math. Now many songs are in GH3? Divide by $60, the cost of the game. Now be quiet until you think of something intelligent to say.

    What puzzles me is you even acknowledge this fact and still think it's everyone ELSE that's a moron.

  • thatguy0130

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:56 pm PT

    Or Activision just wants to make serious money, but yea sure your idea is better.

  • DSgamer64

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:51 pm PT

    People whining about the price are pathetic, 2 bucks per song is pretty good considering how much work goes into making each song for the game, you people have no idea just how much effort goes into making the game. Ok sure, a disc with 70 tracks means each song is worth about 25 cents each but as more songs get released, I would imagine that RedOctane will eventually drop the prices of older songs.

  • KakarotTheMonky

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:38 pm PT

    It's nice to see they are still keeping their stupidly high songs prices. /sarcasm

    I think the argument people are using about it being so high because Activation pays the artist money to use their songs is ridiculous. This is free advertising for the artists so people will buy their albums. I can't rip a song from the game and put it in my ipod. If anything Activision is helping the ARTIST by putting their name on blast to everyone, not the other way around.

  • DukeEarthwalker

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:33 pm PT

    Certainly wouldn't be unpredented to take a loss for later gain. I was gearing those numbers for DLC, not the retail though.

    Perhaps there are deals for the retail release since more people have access to it, and more consoles (looking at PS2 and WIi) have access to it.

    My point is that without knowing the project budgets for this stuff, I don't think it's fair to say say these price points are "pure greed". Outside the boundries of what many people are willing to pay however, I absolutely agree.. Personnally at this point I won't buy band I'm not at least vaguely familiar with whereas at a lower price I probably would take the hit if I didn't like them.

  • DJ_Lae

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:25 pm PT

    If it does cost 88 cents for the rights to license a song, then Activision is taking an enormous loss on every copy of Guitar Hero III they send off to store shelves. They've got to be getting a break from the artists.

  • PopnFresh

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:23 pm PT

    1) $6.25 per set of three.
    2) It IS significantly easier/cheaper to produce DLC. They don't have to worry about artists, they can work with a skeleton crew of programmers (who only need to use editing tools), and the licensing is typically cheaper since you're not reaching as wide an audience.

  • DukeEarthwalker

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:22 pm PT

    "This is all sheer greed" You don't know that. Assuming it costs 88 cents (as per Itune licensing) per download to get the rights, you've blown half the costs of one song on that alone. That leaves around $1.20 or so for programming, testing and XBL distribution rights. And the few number of people that download it, the less profit is made.

    My number are assumptions, but if they make 10 cents a song times three songs per pack, to make $10K, you need to sell 33 thousand downloads. I don't think that assumption is far off.

    I assume the goal on the DLC is to make a little profit so that they can continue releasing new stuff until GH4 gets out.

  • CowbellFanatic

    Posted Nov 8, 2007 2:21 pm PT

    Is it $6.25 for all 6 songs? Or is it $6.25 for each set of 3 songs?

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