Making Sense of Rock Band 3 DLC

So Rock Band 3 is out, and it happens to bevery, very good. Two essential components that helped it be very, very good arethat wacky new keyboard and the added Pro Mode. Another reason isis thefreakish amount of music available to download and play. However, marrying the two of these together is about to get a little more tricky, and maybe even a bit more expensive. Better take notes, people, there'll be a quiz later.

Firstly, all future DLC for Rock Band will be Rock Band 3 specific. Meaning, if you have Rock Band 1 or 2 and they finally release those Smiths songs you%26rsquo;ve been waiting on, you%26rsquo;re SOL.

Harmonix repsexplained to Joystiqthat new tracks won't be backwards compatible "due to the new authoring standards, inclusion of new instruments, new lighting / venue cues, etc." They also noted that future tracks won%26rsquo;t appear on the Rock Band 1 or Rock Band 2 in-game store and will be noted as Rock Band 3 songs.

Now say youalready own olderDLC music and want to play it with your swank new keyboard, vocally harmonize with more than one singer, or learn to play them for real in Pro Mode. You%26rsquo;d better be ready to pony up more dough.

Above: Like what you see? Then break out that wallet, pal

According to theofficial Harmonix forums, %26ldquo;upgraded%26rdquo; versions of older tracks,with support forkeyboard and harmony vocals,can be purchased for $2 (160 Microsoft points). This will be known as the RB3 version of the song. If you want to play pro guitar or bass in this new version, it will cost you an extra $1. If you simply want to add pro guitar/bass for your older songs, you can do that as well for a buck.

From the forums:

"To reiterate, if you stick with your RB2 legacy track and want to upgrade to pro guitar/bass %26ndash; you will not have access to Keys, Pro Keys or harmony vocals. If you want that latter content, you need to purchase the %26ldquo;RB3 Version%26rdquo; of the file.

To boil this all down, it means that you have to rebuy songs that you already own plus one extra bone to get the full experience of pro instruments, plus keys, plus harmonized vocals."

While we think that there are plenty of songs offered that deserved to be downloaded a thousand times over for the sake of some sort of perverse preservation, this is going to really put a hole in some people%26rsquo;s wallets. To you, holed wallet person, our hearts goout to you and yourlove of rock.

[Sources:Joystiq,1up]

Nov 9, 2010