Rock Band 2 song transfer priced

By Robert Purchese Published 5 September, 2008

Sabbath, Maiden, Metallica tracks off limits.

Harmonix and MTV will charge 400 Microsoft Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80) to transfer 55 on-disc songs from Rock Band 1 into Rock Band 2.

This excludes covers of "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath and "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden. Master recordings "Enter Sandman" by Metallica and "Through the Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel are off-limits, too.

Downloadable songs are unaffected by this licensing fee and should work with both games.

A title update will need to be downloaded in order to transfer the tracks. Not that Europeans should worry, as Rock Band 2 remains but a distant whisper here, despite the looming September release in the US.

Rock Band 2 will offer 84 on-disc tracks to bop along to, plus, apparently, 20 free downloadable numbers post-launch; there's no word on whether these are new arrivals or discounted oldies.

Harmonix believes - and indeed promises - that the combined total of songs available for Rock Band "platforms" will be 500 by the end of 2008. In the US, obviously

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Garulon #1 3 years ago

    Eurogamer - we NEED a release date! NEED one! Please! Use guns if you have to!

  • digiwalsh #2 3 years ago

    So. All the best tracks then.

    Booo

  • superted1974 #3 3 years ago

    It may be my hangover but.....

    I don't understand this story. What are they transfering where?

  • Colin8703 #4 3 years ago

    They are making the tracks that you get on Rock Band 1 useable on Rockband 2. Simple.

  • Arwin #5 3 years ago

    If GH World Tour makes it to Europe before Rock Band 2, then sorry Rockband, but you've screwed up and lost your sale, at least in terms of peripherals. You may have a small chance later if the peripherals are indeed properly compatible and you manage to bring the excellent download support to Europe at some point.

  • toythatkills #6 3 years ago

    It also transfers eight of the nine European bonus tracks - minus Tokio Hotel

  • Der_tolle_Emil #7 3 years ago

    Very reasonable price. Too bad about Enter Sandman and Paranoid, I really like those. Couldn't care less about Iron Maiden because GH and RB have the very special talent of picking the most annoying songs by that band. The Evil That Men Do would be awesome for example but that's another story.

    Still it's fantastic that EA allows me to do that. It will make RB evenings even better.

  • Steroyd #8 3 years ago

    Is this paying for the ability to have these songs from RB 1 on the HDD?

  • KungFuSpoon #9 3 years ago

    @Steroyd: Sort of, it transfers them to the hard drive so they appear in RB2 as DLC.

    @boabg: No other game has offered this, for Guitar Hero 2 you could pay 100MS points more to have THREE FUCKING SONGS from GH1 so this is a sweet deal. Stop being such a fucking tight shit it's £3 that you're hardly gonna miss and you'll get more than £3 enjoyment out of it.

    Shame about Iron Maiden, but I'm so sick of hearing the other two songs Enter Sandman is one of the most over-rated and over-played songs in metal history and Paranoid is so damned repetitive. Don't get me wrong good songs, but I'm not going to miss them funny that tokyo hotel is on that list so it's 3 of the biggest names in rock history and some nobodies with a transgender singer.
    Edited by 3 at 05/09/08 @ 09:41

  • DDevil #10 3 years ago

    I want to be able to use my existing characters in RB2 as well.

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #11 3 years ago

    Shame Monsoon can't be transfered - I quite like that track.

  • Stu #12 3 years ago

    What's a "title update"?

  • johnnybrn #13 3 years ago

    I always thought it was a girl singing on Tokyo Hotel but are you saying its a guy? Damn

  • DUFFKING #14 3 years ago

    Presumably you're paying because HMX didn't have the foresight to liscense the songs for both games or something.

  • MattyD #15 3 years ago

    Money for old rope. It's the new sequel!

  • metalnut #16 3 years ago

    I think the issue with the missing tracks is that they licensed those songs for physical media, and this makes them electronic (like DLC) so requires a different license. I believe they negotiated the transfer with everyone except these.

    Personally, I couldn't give a flying toss about Paranoid or Run to the Hills; they're both highly overrated. Well, I think Iron Maiden are overrated generally, they don't age at all well ;) And Sabbath have *much* better tracks than Paranoid, like War Pigs (GH2).

    I will miss Enter Sandman and Monsoon though, both good tracks an my wife likes to sing the latter particularly.
    Edited by 1 at 05/09/08 @ 10:32

  • kangarootoo #17 3 years ago

    @boabg

    "Why the fuck should you have to pay if you've already bought both of the games?"

    You paid for two seperate games on two seperate discs. This meagre sum is to allow you to drop the tracks from one disc onto your hdd, so that you can use them within the other game.

    Put your dummy back in.

  • kangarootoo #18 3 years ago

    Those tracks that can't be transferred, are they available for seperate purchase from the relevant store? If so, its not much to pay to have the tracks you love all in the same place.

  • kangarootoo #19 3 years ago

    "And Sabbath have *much* better tracks than Paranoid"

    This is very true.

  • andywilkie35 #20 3 years ago

    Here's a new question:

    After the brilliant news that the Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Metallica songs are being left off, does that mean that I can leave other songs off as well? Because if I have to play that Flirtin' With Disaster or that fucking Who song again when I get Rock Band 2 then I'll be fuming. I want to transfer over the good songs like QotSA, Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer, but have no desire to play some of those songs anymore.

    Hopefully if it transfers onto the Hard Drive then it'll be each song individually, rather than a big block. That way I can delete the songs that I don't wanna play anymore...

  • KungFuSpoon #21 3 years ago

    @boabg: Wow way to not read the comments as your question was answered like twice, it does cost them because they have to re-license the songs for the new game. Either they need to license them because they only have the rights for the one game, or because they're transferring them from physical media (the disc) to digital media (the HDD). So it DOES cost them, and frankly that isn't a rip off, but you don't even have to pay it, you could just swap the discs. Fucking imbecile.

  • Garulon #22 3 years ago

    "Hopefully if it transfers onto the Hard Drive then it'll be each song individually, rather than a big block. That way I can delete the songs that I don't wanna play anymore... "

    It's each song like a normal download, so dump the ones you don't want. It's possible this'll block you from one or more battle of the bands competitions if they use that song in the setlist though

    Boab - don't be an arse. This is like £3 to use your existing on-disc RB tracks in RB2, which means they're in band challenges, they're in Battle of the Bands, you can play them with a band assembled online and all other good stuff. It's excellent value, the only problem is WHEN IS ROCK BAND 2 COMING OUT IN EUROPE? WWHHHEEEEENNNNN!!

  • KungFuSpoon #23 3 years ago

    Because they have to RE-LICENSE the songs, are you being intentionally stupid or does it just come naturally? They have had to PURCHASE NEW LICENSES for all the Rock Band songs so that we can transfer them so we have to pay a small amount for the privilege, again it's an option you don't have to, if you really are so fucking cheap that you won't pay £3 for it then don't problem solved. But stop being a fucking douche bag troll.

  • davc4 #24 3 years ago

    boabg,

    It's pretty simple the license for each of the songs will state something like you can use this song in the game Rock Band for X amoout of money.
    The Transfer will require a new license for each of the songs saying that you can use this song in the game Rock Band 2 for X amount of money.

    So hence for each of the songs that are allowed to be transfered then whoever is paying the license fees will have to stump up a fair amount of cash for this to happen.
    So to try to minimise the costs they are passing on this minimal transfer fee to the consumer. If you dont want to pay then you can simply play Rockband 2 without the original Rockband songs in them.
    I dont believe this is a transfer of media issue rahter than buying new licences for the new game. Also Metalica are probably not there due to the GH: Metllica game coming out and The others were possibly asking either too much of a license fee or have some other clause stating that in this gen of music games they will only appear for X company.

  • andywilkie35 #25 3 years ago

    Good stuff chaps, thanks!

    Very excited

  • toythatkills #26 3 years ago

    @boabg

    I don't know if you're deliberately misunderstanding, just to be awkward, or stupid.

    You've licensed the songs to play in RB1, you can continue to do that for as long as you wish, no problem. You have NOT licensed the songs to play in RB2, which is why you can OPTIONALLY pay 400MS points to transfer them across.

    It's a bit like buying a CD. You are licensed to listen to it, but NOT licensed to listen to it in mp3 form, if you want to do that you have to purchase a new "license" from iTunes, or whatever.

    Do you see?

  • KungFuSpoon #27 3 years ago

    Yeah after charging £180 for the game and peripherals they're REALLY screwing you with that £3. Don't pay it is the simple answer. fact is you paid for the license with the song for RB1 nor for RB2, and how many games allow you to transfer content from the first game to the sequel?

    The other issue is what's to stop someone from borrowing or renting RB1 and copying the songs to their RB2 having never paid for the first game? They could always charge full whack for all the RB1 songs that'd be fair for the people who didn't buy RB1 but what about the people who did? Well the solution is you charge a small price to everyone, that way the costs get covered and there's not a huge price difference to any consumer, it still screws over the people who did buy RB1 but it's this or paying £30 for all the songs or not offer the service at all. I'd take this.

  • sanctusmortis #28 3 years ago

    I can't help but note that the 3 main ones are all covers (one of which is by a band now signed exclusively to GH), so maybe that's part of it. I know, there are covers that ARE being put across (Tom Sawyer for a start), but maybe those ones are endorsed or something...

    As for why it costs, the tracks must be relicensed, as the original license only covers the first game, NOT the series (like the DLC costs do).

  • metalnut #29 3 years ago

    @boabg: Contracts of any kind with music companies have conditions. Extending those conditions (ie using the music in a different way) usually costs money. Legally speaking in copyright law (in the US anyway) music companies have the right to sue you for ripping mp3's from your CD collection, they just don't bother doing it in most cases. They will however go after a company who does it if they dont' secure the additional rights to be able to do it.

    If you've bought RB1 and RB2, you're legally entitled to use the discs, not to rip the data off the DVD and use it elsewhere, and if Harmonix allowed you to do that without getting expanded licenses from the music owners, they'd get sued. That's what 'relicensing' means, and it no doubt cost them something. And yes, it also makes up slightly for all the people that will buy RB2 and just rent RB1 to get all the extra songs.

    If you don't like it, go ahead and swap discs. That's what your original purchase entitles you to do. It does *not* entitle you to do whatever you like with the music on the discs, and if you think it does then you're sadly mistaken.

    I can't believe we're even debating this: Paying £3.40 to avoid the inconvenience of swapping discs is a bagain. You could of course go back to GH where you have to switch discs for every goddamn thing - good luck with that.

  • Erinan #30 3 years ago

    £3 to be able not to swap discs between RB2 and RB1, that's freaking nothing. I was expecting something along the lines of £1 per track (i.e. £40). It might as well be to prevent people to just borrow a disc from a friend in order to get all the songs from RB1, but who cares? It's £3!

    I will miss Enter Sandman though, don't really care about the other ones.
    Edited by 1 at 05/09/08 @ 13:54

  • dnimkrad #31 3 years ago

    i don't have and likely won't have rockband (my interest in the genre is more abstract, the changing shape of media and such), i just wanted to comment on toythatkills comparison to cds and mp3s, as to my way of thinking having bought that on cd i own that cd and thus am free to rip it to my computer, which is protected by my fair use rights, and there is nothing on the planet that would motivate me to pay out twice for the exact same product and i object to the presumption in the music industry that i should, which i'm guessing is the issue here, harmonix's licensing was short sighted, ergo they should absorb the cost

  • metalnut #32 3 years ago

    I agree that you *should* be free to rip mp3's from your own CDs, but the fact is that you're not in all countries. The Fair Use clause does not cover this.

    In the UK the BPI specifically lobbied to allow personal copying: http://ne ws.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment... . This has not happened in the US and you can still theoretically be taken to court for ripping CDs because its explicitly against copyright to do so. Blame the US 1970 copyright law for that one. So despite the UK being more open, because the US is the dominant market for games, all conditions will inevitably be homogenised to that.

    Common sense != law in most cases I'm afraid.

  • kangarootoo #33 3 years ago

    @boabg

    "The re licence point doesn't hold any water with me at all"

    Well it holds water with the law of the land. Licensing just works that way, you amke an agreement, and if you want to change the agreement you have to renegotiate.

    "Seems to me like a deliberately short sighted license agreement."

    Its not shortsighted. It works like this. If they had included this clause in the original license, they would have paid for it then instead of now. That means they would have had to pass the cost on to every player of the game right at the start, rather than only apply the cost now to players that actually use the functionality.

    You seem to be entertaining this idea that everyone else is missing YOUR point. We understand your point absolutely, but at its heart it holds some misinformation. What you would like to be the case is not the same as what Harmonix are legally obliged to do. People on here are trying to point out the inconsistencies in your assumptions, but you honestly don't seem open to being corrected.


    "Some fantastic point missing today but go right on ahead."

    Well lets just clarify then, so there can be no doubt, because clearly everyone on here is an idiot except you.

    What is your point? In plain terms, so we can understand. Thanks.
    Edited by 1 at 05/09/08 @ 17:56

  • Fallen_Angel #34 3 years ago

    Isn't the outrage for 3 fucking quid null and void cos you can disc swap anyway? The fact is, it isn't that its not licenced to RB2, its that its not licenced to be taken off the CD onto the HDD, as has been stated. If you're that against it, show with your wallet and stick to getting up everytime you wanna play songs from the other game. I'm lazy and its annoying to try and get to the 360 when I'm on drums, so I know I'll be paying the minimal amount for the ease of being able to play from one disc.

    Least they didn't try to charge 3 times the amount of the first game like was attempted with GH2 360's DLC.