Pro Mode DLC tracks for Rock Band 3 will cost $1 extra
MTV Games' Paul DeGooyer has said Pro Mode guitar tracks for Rock Band 3 will cost users extra cash compared to regular downloadable songs for the game.
Speaking in an interview with IGN, DeGooyer said instead of running you $1.99 a track, Pro Mode DLC will run you $2.99.
"All DLC released for Rock Band 3 will be fully Rock Band 3-compatible, which means it'll come with Pro Mode for keyboard and drums, harmony mode, etc," he said. "The only thing that's more difficult for us in terms of authoring time is the guitar stuff, so we've decided to sell Pro Mode for guitar separately. If you're not interested in Pro Mode for guitar, you can still get the DLC that should conform to our current DLC pricing, and you get Pro Mode for all your other instruments.
"Right now, a typical stand-alone song for us is a buck ninety-nine. If you wanted to buy Pro Mode for guitar on top of that dollar ninety-nine, it would cost a buck. So it's not going to be five bucks or anything. We think it's a really fair price. The alternative would be of course to include it (in the regular download) and up the price for everybody, which I don't think is really fair.
"I should note that not all tracks will have Pro Guitar mode. (Many bands') guitar parts wouldn't rise to the level that they would need to have pro mode authoring associated with them.
As far as retrofitting previously released DLC with Pro Mode, DeGooyer said there was nothing to announce at this time, but there is one band the developers are working with on that front.
"We're gonna have one major band that we're working with that has already got some DLC out there, and we're going to add to that DLC, and retrofit their DLC with Pro Mode," he said. "Then there's a selection of other tracks in the catalog that we've gone back and identified, and we have suggestions as well from our community, and we've gone and identified those tracks.
"So our first announcement will actually be a pretty good cross-section. And I think that track list will help people understand the stuff that we would actually go back and retroactively put Pro Mode into. To be honest, we haven't completely worked out exactly how we would be able to get it to market, in a way that recognizes people who have already purchased it, and thus be able to supply the updated file at a discount, which would be our preference."
In other words: Pro Mode means more money; non-Pro Mode will cost you the same. We can't do better than medium on guitar anyway. Pro guitar would make our fingers break.
Rock Band 3 is out October 26 in the US and October 29 for the rest of the world on DS, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.
Check out our hands-on with the title here.