Red Octane says Wii will have GHIII online play, no DLC initially

52 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 6th 2007 2:56PM
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Rhythm

Following yesterday's ProG interview with Red Octane pres. Kai Huang that the Wii's Guitar Hero III would not have online play, there seems to have been some miscommunication. Red Octane contacted Joystiq to let us know that what Huang meant to say is there would initially be no downloadable content for the Wii. They reaffirmed that there will be online play.

Our immediate question about the online play was, "How are you implementing that?" The Red Octane rep. said they have to check with the developer and get back to us. The whole initial no downloadable content thing for the Wii we understand. The Wii Shop channel is definitely not set up for DLC like PSN or XBM, not to mention the Wii doesn't come with very much storage space for downloading in the first place. We'll wait to hear how the online play will be implemented, but we fear 12-digit game codes, on top of our 16-digit Wii codes, on top of Nintendo criminal background checks.

Tags: ghiii, redoctane, Ghiii,Redoctane, onlineplay, prog

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Rubang B: Sep 6th 2007; 3:00PM

Ah crap, now I have to buy a guitar AND a balance board AND a zapper? My room will be cluttered with peripherals. What do you do with old DDR pads, anyway? Use them as posters?

Ska Oreo: Sep 6th 2007; 4:04PM

I know people who do use them as posters.

Shig: Sep 6th 2007; 3:01PM

I'm just glad it'll have online play. I could care less about whether or not they implement friend codes.

waves: Sep 6th 2007; 3:08PM

Right now I'm leaning more toward Rock Band on the PS3, of course all my friends only have the Wii so maybe I should consider this.

vinny: Sep 6th 2007; 3:14PM

rock band > guitar hero 3

Fullmetal Salchemist: Sep 6th 2007; 4:31PM

It's going to leave Activision's asshole in ruins:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070810.jpg

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:14PM

Wait, so now online play matters again?

How are fanboys supposed to keep track.

I keed, I keed.

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:15PM

A whump, a shump, a woobie doobie doo.

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:14PM

Wait, so now online play matters again?

How are fanboys supposed to keep track?

I keed, I keed.

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:15PM

Habbie da bub, hab haah hee da bub!

AlanRickman: Sep 6th 2007; 3:15PM

A whump, a shump, a woobie doobie doo.

D. Short: Sep 6th 2007; 3:20PM

I don't see how online play would work well with a game as fast as this? I think the smallest bit of lag would kill it.

accidental: Sep 6th 2007; 7:06PM

I don't know anything about it, but all that needs to be communicated is timed button presses, no rendering of 3D models or anything. Online play should be a piece of cake to run super-fast. I bet it could've been done on dreamcast.

Psaakyrn: Sep 6th 2007; 11:58PM

He's referring to latency, not speed of download. No matter how small you get the data transfer to be, the virtual distance is still going to have an effect.

(For that matter, there's a lot less data transfer for most 3D game than you think. It's basically Directional Change, Velocity Change, Item status change, with the occasional positional value for error checking. Almost everything else is handled post transfer. The biggest problem with online games has always been latency.)

Skeffington: Sep 6th 2007; 3:22PM

All of a sudden, I am interested again! Although I agree that between that and the WiiFit, I'm going to run out of space.

All this talk of pedophiles lurking in GHIII to lure out wanna be rockers is silly.

Are there any Gary Glitter tracks in the game? Just curious.

Rubang B: Sep 6th 2007; 4:18PM

Nice move.

AlanRickman: Sep 6th 2007; 3:26PM

Kinda funny to hear Red Octane discussing anything related to DLC and Guitar Hero. They arent exactly known for keeping promises in those areas.

hvnlysoldr: Sep 6th 2007; 3:27PM

Hmmm. Sour Grapes taste so good. Especially with their jelly like skin.

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:41PM

Sour grape jelly is like skin? This might solve all my cannibal problems!

Captain Jody Anthony XVIII: Sep 6th 2007; 3:50PM

I wish they had the descendents song Sour Grapes

or better yet, clean sheets

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:54PM

Is this relevant?

DeadPlasmaCell: Sep 6th 2007; 3:57PM

Is Nintendo's online capability really setup for something like this?

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 3:58PM

Playing a game online?

Yes...

Ska Oreo: Sep 6th 2007; 4:02PM

yes. Guitar Hero online isn't that complex.

DeadPlasmaCell: Sep 6th 2007; 4:06PM

I was talking in terms of capacity and whatnot.. I'd imagine with the Wii's install base, this would be a big selling title.

NvM: Sep 6th 2007; 4:17PM

I never had a problem with lag when playing online on a Nintendo system.
Well when the problems not from my end at least.

Anni: Sep 6th 2007; 3:57PM

Always relevant, sir.

HaleysComet: Sep 6th 2007; 4:20PM

Really Alexander we GET IT. You're a sony fanboy. Why not stop trolling in your supposedly objective articles.

Everyone knows that the Wii uses Friend Codes. It still doesn't stop it from outselling that garbage called the ps3.

If the "dreaded" codes were so bad then GHIII wouldn't be on the Wii.

Joystiq is just becoming more and more evident in their hatred for the Wii.

Abscissa: Sep 6th 2007; 4:23PM

Speak for yourself. I'm a Wii/DS fan, and even I hate the friend codes.

BPM: Sep 6th 2007; 6:01PM

I second Ascissa.

Friend Codes are annoying only for the fact that you have a different one for every game. If you could get one universal Friend Code for every Wii and DS game you play (if Nintendo were not to implement a username system), then it wouldn't be so bad.

But if you wanted to play against one friend in Mario Kart DS, Pokémon D/P, Bomberman Land Touch!, etc... You'd need one code per game for that friend.

Seriously. If they implemented a one-code-per-person system, it'd be SO much better.

Abscissa: Sep 6th 2007; 4:20PM

What I *STILL* want to know is: Will it let you use PS2 guitars connected through a PS2->GC adaptor, or do they REALLY expect us to re-buy two new guitars?

Joe: Sep 6th 2007; 4:36PM

Look at the guitar.

There's a Wiimote in it.

It looks like your question is answered.

megaStryke: Sep 6th 2007; 4:36PM

Why don't you just buy the PS2 version then? Duh.

Abscissa: Sep 7th 2007; 2:15AM

"Look at the guitar. There's a Wiimote in it. It looks like your question is answered."

No, that doesn't answer my question at all.

The Wii has GC controller ports on it. I've already used them to play VC games with a DualShock using a PS2->GC controller adaptor I have. Smash Brothers is planned to allow people to use GC controllers, and Resident "Wiivil" 4 already allows GC controllers. So I know I can play at least a couple non-VC games with a PS2 controller. Thus, it is definitely TECHNICALLY possible to do so (Well, depending on the button mappings, anyway). The big question is whether the developers will actually allow it.

Normally, I would suspect "no" for a peripheral game, but since the guitars are such an expense, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the developers might actually be nice enough to take care of us PS2->Wii upgraders.

"Why don't you just buy the PS2 version then? Duh."

Because the PS2 version will never have online play or downloadable content. Duh.

megaStryke: Sep 7th 2007; 9:52AM

Well, tough nuggets to you. Why the hell should a PLAYSTATION CONTROLLER be expected to work on a NINTENDO CONSOLE?

Abscissa: Sep 7th 2007; 3:37PM

Wow, getting rather snippy, huh? Chill, dude. Heel! Heel, boy! Good doggie! Have a treat.

In response to your question, I'd have to say "Because it already does work on all the other games that use the GC controller ports".

In any case I never said I expected it. Just that it's possible and would be nice, and that I haven't seen anything confirm or deny it. Obviously I'm fully aware it's a shot in the dark.

phattie: Sep 6th 2007; 4:32PM

Lets all keep our panties on and see what online play actually consists of... has there ever been a good online rhythm game?

Mr Khan: Sep 6th 2007; 4:40PM

Except for co-op a la Rock Band, i never saw the need for competition modes in rhythm games, they all felt rather shoe-horned

Leaderboards would be enough to satisfy me, although my bet is the DLC will have to be strongly compressed. Wii don't have a lot of memory

honavery: Sep 6th 2007; 6:11PM

Amplitude for the PS2 had a really fun multiplayer element to it.

Paul P.: Sep 6th 2007; 4:41PM

First of all, online Wii games don't have to use that friend code stuff or even the Nintendo Wi-fi connection. Madden, for instance, uses its own network, and I assume many third party games will.

Secondly on how downloadable content could possibly work, the Wii can read from SD during gameplay. This is already done in Excite Truck and Endless Ocean. If it can read an mp3, Red Octane could probably make it read a proprietary Guitar Hero song file. They could use the same protection on these as Nintendo uses on virtual console downloads.

The DLC will probably be enacted at the same time Nintendo opens their expanded Wii Ware portion of the shop channel, in early 08.

BPM: Sep 6th 2007; 6:02PM

If they do DLC for GH3Wii, I'm sure they'd just place it in the Wii Ware section of the Shop. Or, maybe make a new section for DLC. Doesn't seem that hard to do.

mr nimblewick: Sep 6th 2007; 6:25PM

It doesn't SEEM hard, but Nintendo will find a way to make it...

Adv2k1: Sep 6th 2007; 6:52PM

I think the way they could do it, is that you go to the website from your computer and you can download it to SD card and than use them in your wii. however how could they stop piracy in that.
hmmmm

my guess this is going to force nintendo to use SDcard in wii for more things than they wanted to. Nintendo is lazy because that would require firmware update of some kind and I bet they don't like some 3rd party telling them what to do.

I can care less however since Donkey Konga is 1000x better than Guitar Hero.

bassbeast: Sep 6th 2007; 7:10PM

Jeez, did nobody here pick up Metroid Prime 3? Anyone notice how it used your address book as a friends list? Anyone? Hello?

idioteraser: Sep 6th 2007; 10:46PM

Yeah everybody who bought the game read the manual and the menu options and the ingame inventory figured that out.

Also random battles friend codes were never needed. It's as it says friend codes meaning to play when you know your real world friends can play it but you don't have to go to their house.

Abscissa: Sep 7th 2007; 2:19AM

That's good to hear. I still haven't picked up the new Metroid yet.

Kazi: Sep 6th 2007; 7:37PM

So, really, the Wii is getting the Online function that doesn't really matter for Guitar Hero since you do no interaction with another player in the game. While being shafted of the function that does matter, being able to download more songs. I do hope they get the DLC in since depending I might get the Wii version over the 360 version.

idioteraser: Sep 6th 2007; 10:46PM

Also the dlc well guess what the dlc for guitar hero 2 is 30 megs each package. Since the nintendo download service wiiware lets you redownload the content as much as you want they will put the dlc when the wiiware service launches the gaming part of it. Why is this so hard for people to figure out?