Rumorong: GameSpot says Rock Band 2 will support RB1 songs

by Christopher Grant { Jul 8th 2008 at 6:22PM }

And here we go again: After IGN backtracked on comments that seemed to indicate that Rock Band 2's biggest perceived shortcoming – spreading the rhythm game "platform" onto multiple discs, thereby tossing our precious monolithic library of songs to the wind – would in fact be be addressed by the sequel comes word from GameSpot who say ... well, the exact same thing and ... look at that, they backtracked later as well.

Their original story said that Rock Band 2 "will feature full support for all of the original Rock Band songs, all of the downloadable content" as well as the 80 songs on the RB2 disc. GameSpot evidently got their purportedly faulty information from IGN's piece, and a Harmonix representative tells us that both stories were incorrect (both have been updated).

Even so, that doesn't stop us from dreaming of our perfect solution: You mail in both the Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2 discs; include $5 for shipping & handling along with three cereal box-tops; wait 4-6 months; get Rock Band 2: MEGA edition back in the mail including all tracks from Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2 (including bonus Sgt. Slaughter or William "The Refrigerator" Perry action figures). See? Perfect.

[Thanks, Joe]

Tags: Harmonix, MTV-Games, Rock-Band, Rock-Band-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MarkHawk @ Jul 8th 2008 6:26PM

Oh, here it goes again.
It starts out easy, something simple, something sleazy, something inching past the edge of reserve.

had to...

OMGOMG @ Jul 8th 2008 6:29PM

*Gets ready for create a Rockband movie on Gamespot*

Chase @ Jul 8th 2008 6:35PM

I don't know if I would buy Rock Band 2 if it did not offer support for Rock Band 1. I know it's a bit greedy, as it is a separate game in the franchise, but I think most people expect support for Rock Band 1 tracks and would be bothered if they did not offer it.

todd @ Jul 8th 2008 6:37PM

So, no RB1 songs I paid for will work... well, looks like I'm not buying anymore RB1 songs and will buy RB2 when the price drops. Cept for World Tour online there is prob not much different, which they will backtrack on in a few months, guessing.

MarkHawk @ Jul 8th 2008 6:45PM

DLC content will work on both RockBand 1 and RockBand 2.

RB1 songs that are on the disc may or may not be playable with the Rockband 2 disc inserted. Will find out during E3.

World Tour is mode in RockBand. That's where it should stay.

OMGOMG @ Jul 8th 2008 6:45PM

No, you're wrong.

RB1 DLC WILL work with RB2. The question is whether the songs that came on the RB1 disc will work with RB2.

Christopher Grant @ Jul 8th 2008 6:47PM

The DLC works, just not the songs on your Rock Band 1 disc.

xmrblondex @ Jul 8th 2008 7:08PM

joke's on you guys, he's being sarcastic. he didn't buy any dlc, he bought the disc. so those are all the songs he paid for

OMGOMG @ Jul 8th 2008 9:42PM

Hey Mr. Grant. What's your opinion on the whole RB/GH imbroglio?

Love the site.

I'll stop sucking up now.

Dracula Jones @ Jul 8th 2008 6:41PM

I don't see how they could possibly offer RB1 tracks as free DLC to anyone who has RB2. I'd like to know how their contracts worked with the licensed songs, whether or not it stipulated that they could be used in future sequels.

Flit @ Jul 8th 2008 7:10PM

You can't imagine? I can...

Beat Endless setlist on expert (by all players) and you unlock the ability to download your disc to your drive. This (most likely) stops people from renting the game to get the DLC, well, except those who want to do multiple rentals (then you might as well buy it anyway). I mean, how much is RB1 going to cost anyway by the time RB2 comes out, sans old peripherals.

Or, How about a $5 XBL fee that puts the disc on your drive, and registers the Rock band 1 disc on XBL, allowing the "unlocking" a single time (so each rental copy would get one useage out of it before the disc is "used"). Who knows how/if this could work, but you never know how much thought Harmonix put into this before hand.

Or, what about a trade in program with Gamestop. When you trade in your old copy of RB1, you get a free upgrade to the "limited edition" of rock band 2, that includes a bonus disc of RB1 content. Gamestop gets to sell all the old rockband 1 discs, and you get a single usable disc.

Or, this limited edition could just cost like $80 without a trade-in.

Dracula Jones @ Jul 8th 2008 7:52PM

I can see you really thought this through.

There's no way my wife and I are ever going to do the Endless Setlist on any difficulty level. We just don't have the time to commit to this. So that excludes me and anyone who isn't currently working a full time job from ever accessing our RB1 disc content. Thanks!

$5 gets spread pretty thin after EA takes their piece, MTV takes theirs, Harmonix maybe gets thrown a couple pennies per, and then each artist gets a fraction of a cent. Any more than $5 and people cry foul for having to pay for content they already bought at retail.

Do I need to address a Gamestop trade-in option? Really?

You're coming at this from the wrong side. If they're going to make this content downloadable to everyone who owns RB1, how do they restrict it for people who only buy RB2? If they're going to make it swappable-disc-based, does that mean RB1 songs are partitioned from RB2 songs completely?

How about RB2 extracts the songs from the RB1 disc to your hard drive? Well, that means the RB1 disc is useless and can be resold or traded. That means EA/MTV gets no cut. This is a business... getting on gamers' good side is one thing, especially when in direct competition with a strong competitor, but I can't see EA giving up potential income. I hope they prove me wrong, though.

Tiptup300 @ Jul 9th 2008 1:17AM

I work fulltime and have done the endless setlist.

Ben @ Jul 8th 2008 6:43PM

No you will be able to use your RB 1 DLC for sure in RB 2. What is unannounced is whether there will be a way to use your songs from the RB 1 Game Disc in RB 2.

todd @ Jul 8th 2008 6:42PM

ahhh ok, thanks for the info... I wasnt reading it the same way I guess.

Ben @ Jul 8th 2008 6:49PM

Personally the whole mail-in RB 1 to get RB 1+2 plan sounds like a great idea.

That and just selling a premium version of RB 2 that would come with the songs from the first game for people who are just joining the RB universe.

Amoveo @ Jul 8th 2008 6:50PM

Is it really that hard to switch discs? Its not like Harmonix is going to come to your house and take away your original Rock Band disc. I mean I would love it as much as the next guy if they somehow enabled rollover, but is it really the end of the world if they don't?

Lantern Of Ash @ Jul 8th 2008 8:17PM

It's not about changing discs, it's about losing features when you decide to play RB1 again. This way everything will be a nice extensive package.

Justin McElroy @ Jul 8th 2008 6:56PM

Chris, your Rock Band trade in program is for fucking insane people.

Sora267 @ Jul 8th 2008 7:30PM

I agree. Who the hell would want to go 4-6 months without Rock Band 1 OR 2 just to get both on the same disc?

MED @ Jul 9th 2008 4:14AM

Ya and i dont have the cereal box-tops.

idiot @ Jul 8th 2008 6:57PM

hmm...rumorOng?

CAEKISGAEMJOURNALIZM @ Jul 8th 2008 7:03PM

Thanks for reporting something that you have already reported on, using a source that used a source that has retracted that statement.

At least this article had no 'cake is a lie hurr' or 'i can has rock band 1 songs' crap in it.

Games journalism...

Alex @ Jul 8th 2008 7:31PM

Really couldn't care less about RB1 or 2, but I loved the GI*JOE reference.

Of course, Sergeant Slaughter was also available for purchase in stores with his Triple T...

ScottG13 @ Jul 8th 2008 7:40PM

Chris, what exactly did Harmonix say?

Seroth @ Jul 8th 2008 8:09PM

The only realistic way I can see of getting RB1 disc songs on RB2 would be for them to put up the RB1 disc songs as DLC for RB1, but charge for them. Perhaps they'd be discounted or something, but either way, fans would be upset.

Peterid @ Jul 8th 2008 8:46PM

Step 1: Make RB1 songs available as DLC.

Step 2: Allow RB1 owners to mail in some sort of proof of purchase.

Step 3: Mail RB1 owners a code that allows them to download the RB1 songs for free.

Step 4: ????

Step 5: Profit.

Jack Tango @ Jul 9th 2008 12:33AM

How hard is this?

Rock Band 2 comes with an download option that rips your Rock Band 1 tracks to the hard drive.

All the technical mumbo-jumbo about usage and blah blah blahs can be sorted out later.

Verrrrrry simple, and at an average of 40MB per song, should only take up about 2.4GB on the hard drive.

Sure, that limits those without the harddrive, but really, c'mon, who cares about those people anyway? ;-)

josh @ Jul 9th 2008 2:30AM

I'm sure the issue is more the licensing of the songs than any technical problem. It's hard to imagine in this world of rapidshare and torrents, but record labels do expect to get paid for each download of their tracks or EACH DISC their tracks appear on... that is called "mechanicals" and depending on their contracts with the labels/brokers of the songs, it may completely violate their contracts to make on on-disc songs available in a different format... because their ontract with the labels probably says "we will give you $0.20 per disc this song appears on" and doesnt mention the right to copy said song to a hard drive or memory card.

This is, I would assume avoided in the DLC songs, because they likely are paying the labels on a per-download basis, irregardless of which game is access the file.

FSK405K @ Jul 9th 2008 12:29AM

Please, Harmonix, let me play ALL my many Rock Band songs using just one disk. I won't even consider saying anything good about any new Guitar Hero game if you do.

CubeGuy @ Jul 9th 2008 1:16AM

I'm surprised that no one has brought this up, but what are the odds that the RB2 discs have the RB1 songs already on them, waiting to be unlocked?

ryan @ Jul 9th 2008 2:38AM

I don't care about the songs on the disc for RB1. I wouldn't expect that, or frankly want that (why would I want songs I already have in one place taking up HDD space?). All I care about is my DLC, which i'm going to be able to keep. Now all I need to hear is that i'll be able to buy instruments seperate from the get-go. I'm fine with my drum set and my mic is still sitting balled up in the little corner I left it in, but if they come with a better guitar (they better), I want it, and I don't want to have to buy the whole shebang or wait forever to get it.

tapitaa @ Jul 15th 2008 7:57PM

how about when you play rockband 2 install a patch into hard drive to allow you to switch cds to play rock band 1 without losing rockband 2 features...