DLC limitations mean no Hendrix for Guitar Hero: World Tour
by JC Fletcher 
{ Nov 17th 2008 at 12:45PM }
Activision made a statement over the weekend about the nature of their Guitar Hero: World Tour "track pack" downloads and what it means for the Wii version. Pressure from two outside parties has constrained the DLC catalog, unfortunately. Some labels or artists will only give Activision the rights to distribute track packs, with individual sale of the contained songs prohibited. And for some reason, according to the statement, "the Wii's infrastructure only allows us the ability to release single songs as DLC."That means that some artists will have to be excluded from the Wii's DLC offerings entirely. Like, for example, Jimi Hendrix. Because of these restrictions, none of the Jimi Hendrix tracks from the PS3/Xbox 360 set will be available. So it won't just be the limits of your ability that keep you from playing Hendrix songs.
[Thanks, Ferco!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shadow31 @ Nov 17th 2008 1:07PM
HAHAHAH! Sorry, just heard something funny. Yep, the Wii gets shafted again... anything with Rock Band 2 restricting Wii features yet? Once again, makes me relieved that I caved and bought a 360; I love my Wii, but at this point, mainly just for its exclusives. If it is multiplatform, the Wii gets jipped, and that's what my 360 is for.
Seriously, yes, this does piss me off a bit, but I've sorta gotten used to it. Now Nintendo, start releasing these core games you promised? At least we can expect quality from [most of] those.
holmes @ Nov 17th 2008 8:26PM
my intent is not to sound like a fanboy, but i totally agree with you, shadow31. i sold off half my wii collection to get an xbox 360 so i could have GHWT, RB2, compatible instruments, more room for DLC, and so i could import RB1 onto my hard drive and play the songs in RB2.
this is just another reason that i'm glad i caved in. i love the wii still. i still bowl once per week. but i'm a musician in real life and i really like blowing off some steam nearly every day using GHWT or RB2. this works out like a charm for me.
WrenDraco @ Nov 19th 2008 10:11AM
Me too, I got one of the Best Buy XBox's that went on sale $100 off, and it was worth it. I wouldn't have, if games for the Wii didn't keep getting screwed up (or if Mushroom Men had already been out to distract me).
fco. @ Nov 17th 2008 1:19PM
What? wait, WHAT???
You gotta be kidding me.
Hendrix was almost the sole reason I still bought this game, and now, weeks after the game's release and weeks after the anouncement of this pack, just now, they come and say we wont be able to get it??
Freaking unbelieavable.
Shadow31 @ Nov 17th 2008 2:47PM
That sucks. Exactly how I felt when I bought GH3 and they were still promising DLC in the future for it... which never came. And people were just like, "You should've waited to see if it would actually have DLC." So I sorta feel your pain.
Matt B @ Nov 17th 2008 1:26PM
That makes no sense. How could the set up the Wii's infrastructure to only allow single tracks. They messed up royally.
And I can't even buy the game yet! (Its sold out everyway- despite reserving a copy at Best Buy).
HappyFunBall @ Nov 17th 2008 1:36PM
I don't get it. Is this Nintendo's fault? Are they trying to alienate us?
And who are the idiots that won't let the songs be sold separately anyway? That's ridiculous. It's not like the 3 songs together tell a story or some crap.
ChibiKawase @ Nov 17th 2008 5:42PM
It's not entirely Nintendo's fault due to the size consideration of the Wii's internal memory-- it's really a bigger issue with labels/artists not being happy with individual song releases(apparently they either don't want to make more money with singles, or really want you to be forced to take on crappy songs with the gems).
bug frawg @ Nov 17th 2008 1:40PM
Not surprising really, the size limit for downloads is 43mb at current, and the track packs would exceed that limit.
Matt B @ Nov 17th 2008 5:53PM
43MB download limit? Where did that come from? And why? That makes no sense either. Just raise the damn limit.
bug frawg @ Nov 17th 2008 11:23PM
Probably because of the low internal memory, or possibly because of server limitations. Either way, them's the breaks kiddo.
KiloVision @ Nov 17th 2008 2:07PM
FYI for the person responsible for content on this site: Jimi was left-handed. The image on this article shows him playing guitar right-handed.
Ferco @ Nov 17th 2008 2:47PM
That's Xavier, the Jimi Hendrix ripoff
jughead789 @ Nov 17th 2008 1:57PM
I died a little inside when I first heard about this. And to Matt B. I was so pissed when my "reserved" copy of it from best buy was backordered i canceled it and drove an hour and twenty minutes to the nearest mall to buy it fom any store other than best buy...and when I got there they were the only place with it in stock. So I ended up repurchasing it from them.
ejamer @ Nov 17th 2008 2:28PM
So the songs won't be DLC. As long as the "track pack" can be made available as a disc-based version, I don't really care. *fingers crossed*
Still, it's a shame Nintendo still hasn't realized that a hard drive is pretty much necessary for DLC and online content these days.
megapenguinx @ Nov 17th 2008 3:06PM
I'm calling shenanigans, this is just ridiculous
Jumbo @ Nov 17th 2008 4:15PM
This is old news.... We knew this with the Metallica DLC.
bug frawg @ Nov 17th 2008 5:44PM
That was just speculation, this is confirmation.
Christ-ian @ Nov 17th 2008 5:44PM
The hits just keep on commin' for multi-platform titles on the Wii. Oh well... glad I wised up, got a PS3 and sold my GH3 copy and guitar for the PS3 counterparts. And now with the RB + GH interoperability, it's win-win. Sorry guys.
Gewurz Man got equipped with... Guitar Hero! @ Nov 17th 2008 7:33PM
I've already invested in Guitar Hero for the Wii so here's hoping the bands I like are fine with singles. Or that someone at Nintendo can make track packs happen.
juangrande386 @ Nov 17th 2008 7:52PM
Yet another reason why I buy these games for my 360 and Nintendo games for my Wii. Seriously I dont see how anyone can like being a Wii only owner. Not flaming cause I love the Wii and play it more then my PS3 but it is a 2nd system compared to my 360.
Smart Guy @ Nov 17th 2008 8:58PM
Well even though this pisses me off too(and kind of ruins getting this game in the future for cheap), do we still get xavier stone? because i like to be him in the other GH series because he is my fav.
Kai Cherry @ Nov 17th 2008 9:03PM
Nintendo Wii Fanboy...indeed.
First of all..some clarity:
The *PRIMARY* issue here is the "rights holder agreements" in place; they want more money per sale.
The way the Wii works, dear friends, is the result of people caving into the insane restrictions of DRM. Nintendo's implementation requires a digital sig on each piece of media xferred...to protect it, essentially, from paying customers :)
Likely, to preserve some sort of sanity on the gtunes store, they didn't code a mechanism to bundle and unpack these things or come up with a way to make them compliant with both the rights holder's (primary cause) and Nintendo's "needs" so it could not be done.
It has little to do with not having a hard drive and more to do with how to protect themselves from you, the, again, paying customer, because as well all know, Nintendo's copy protections have worked swimmingly well so far :)
All that said, this does suck a little and has probably killed the franchise on wii in the minds of many people.
wayne @ Nov 17th 2008 9:07PM
I picked up GHWT on Wednesday love it I chose it over Rockband as I believe it has the better drum set, at first I thought I could use the Rockband game on my GHWT drum kit but it did not work when I purchased the Rockband 1 game on the weekend? I have looked in many places on the web and it looks like the wii is the only console with this problem as PS3 and Xbox360 can play either game with either drumkit. If anyone knows a solution eg. A patch or an aftermarket drum kit that will allow you to play either game. I do not have the space for 2 drum kits. I believe the problem with the wii is that it uses the wiimote in the drums and guitar for GHWT and it has a usb plug for the Rockband drums and guitar, please comment if you have any ideas, There will be many wii users hitting this brickwall, I only I could make a patch myself but I know nothing in that sort of way....... (hanging on) Wayne
StckFigure @ Nov 18th 2008 10:17AM
Just out of curiosity... if I buy the track pack on PS3 or Live, it costs me something like $5.50, right? But if I were to buy all three Hendrix songs on Wii singly, for $2 each... I'm not sure I understand why the rights holder would tell me I can't spend MORE money? And I don't think it's a fair argument to say "Well, this way you force people to get all three songs if they want one or two", because the current strategy suggests they'd rather force people to get zero songs. It's not as if they aren't charted and easy to put *on* Wii. So we know the Wii is capable of DLC, and I'm not buying the money argument because they get more money if I buy them individually, but I don't have any different ideas either.
Dylan @ Nov 17th 2008 10:08PM
This is why I like my Xbox 360 more... :]
Jack @ Nov 27th 2008 8:56PM
Wii owner here. After hearing about this I got rid of my GH:WT and seriously... went and bought the Rock Band Special Edition with what I got from that back. The idea I'm figuring is that since the GHIII controllers will work with Rock Band 2... and the disc for it will cost $50... then I'll have a full band's worth of equipment and both Rock Band discs for $150.
Yeah, it sucks that the Les Paul won't work with Rock Band 1 the way it is but at least RB2 will have the full DLC for Rock Band that PS3/360 owners will have.
Thank you, Harmonix, for knowing how to please your customers. Shame on Activision, Metallica, and the rest of them for basically shafting us Wii owners.