Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomer
Just for you, KK.
I'm sure they make a whole hell of a lot more selling us plastic instruments than DLC. Most people probably don't buy more than a few songs, if any.
Which is still a lot of money on DLC. Don't get me wrong. But the margin from profit from instruments has to be higher, especially at the price they sell them at.
|
Except they weren't making much money on the hardware to begin with. I know the common logic is to assume that since it costs so much, it
must be profitable, but that rarely plays out.
As far as sales slowing, with the lack of a new main platform is likely to blame. Rock Band 2 specifically was down compared to the newest Guitar Hero, and while expansions weren't up to snuff on the GH side, they are expansions and nothing more.
Meanwhile, despite all that, DLC is
still going strong by all accounts, even if the title has slowed dramatically. Without new innovations, game modes, etc. even announced.
The a la carte nature of the DLC makes it appealing. Platform expansions will continue to make it so. The new instruments themselves likely won't be sold for major profit. The most stripped down 25 key MIDI keyboard runs for more than the keyboard for the game by far. Even if you strip out all the features for a controller and the Xbox interface
only, I doubt they're doing much better than breaking even.
Maybe with the other instruments, but considering the costs versus features, I don't know how anyone could reasonably assume so.