Ion Drum Rocker set is damn expensive…and coming to Wii

Good news for Wii owners…we too will get the pleasure of spending $300 on the Ion Drum Rocker set, if we want to. This snippet comes from the official site…

The Xbox 360 version of Drum Rocker will be available first, in mid-September. We’re also working hard on Playstation and Wii versions, which we expect to ship later in the year. Check back soon to pre order the Playstation or Wii Drum Rocker.

Link

Process of elimination: No hard drive means… something else

As the internet, and our friends over at GoNintendo, has fully exploited about recent chats with Laurent Fischer from Nintendo, it seems we aren’t getting a shiny new hard drive for the Wii.

Fischer says about the matter:

“Definitely there’s no plan to issue hardware, an external hard drive, but we know that we have an issue in that area. It’s very obvious and we’re perfectly aware of it, but there’s nothing we can say beyond this. This area is fully handled by the development team in Japan. It’s very linked to the overall strategy; that’s something they’re working on.”

If there isn’t a plan to issue hardware, then Nintendo will likely stick to their guns and encourage users to download and re-download Virtual Console and Wii Ware titles, with some sort of added interface. Maybe they’ll include added SD card support, but little else it seems (unless they use special Nintendo magic).
But that’s beyond the point. Something else should demand your attention. Since Nintendo recently posted a job opportunity for a tester to work with usb devices, we still can ask the question, “what usb devices?”

So what else can Nintendo spring on us, that isn’t a memory solution, that connects to the Wii’s usb ports?

So through a process of elimination, here’s my top three picks of devices that might have a usb connector in the works:

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Harmonix: Lack of Memory Means No DLC for Rock Band

As Wii owners, we are used to the way Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 owners look down on us for having an inferior system. But it isn’t just players who are being critical.

Harmonix, originators of the Guitar Hero series and sole creators of Rock Band, publicized the Wii’s lack of memory space for downloadable content in a recent interview with CVG:

“Come on Nintendo, we need a hard drive,” said Harmonix design director Rob Kay in an interview with CVG. “That’s what we want. The whole problem is there’s nowhere to store it. If the platform could do it, we’d jump on it. It’s something that we championed to Nintendo, that we’d like to do it.”

As a result, Rock Band for the Wii will not offer any DC, since there isn’t enough memory to do so.

In the age of digital media, it is tough to even fathom a half-way intelligent reason why the Wii was shipped with such low memory capacity. Frequent buyers of Virtual Console games have already noticed this, reporting that they can download a lot of older NES titles, but only a couple of N64 titles before they are out of memory.

IGN reported that Harmonix has sold more than $6 million in DC for the PS3 and Xbox 360 Rock Band versions. With that kind of money train coming in, it’s no wonder why Harmonix is critical of Nintendo’s lack of memory for the Wii.

How far will the Wii’s 512MB memory last when WiiWare is released to the American public? Sure, you can copy games over to an SD card, but you can’t play them from the card; forcing gamers to painstakingly cut and copy games every time they want to play a title that’s not currently on their Wii. It’s minuscule memory is especially laughable when compared to the current memory capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PS3, which range from 20 to 120GB. In this age of downloadable content (DLC), Nintendo’s decision to not include a larger harddrive seems like nothing more than sheer negligence.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has promised Wii gamers exciting news at the upcoming E3. While this writer was initially hoping for a new Kid Icarus title, I would rather see announcements about my beloved console’s hard drive and a more user-friendly online feature, such as Xbox Live.

Rock Band For Wii Release Date

As reported way back in February, Rock Band was announced to be coming to the Wii. Today, we have been given a release date of June 22, 2008 at a price of $170.

According to Multiplayer Blog at mtv.com there will be no downloadable content (I am still awaiting DLC for guitar hero!), but there will be 5 songs unique to the Wii platform.

“When developing ‘Rock Band’ for the Wii platform, we focused on making the core gameplay experience as solid and enjoyable as possible while tailoring it specifically to the strengths of the platform.

“The Wii version still contains the robust four-player band experience and all the fun at the core of other versions of ‘Rock Band.’ However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for ‘Rock Band’ to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they’ve come to expect.”

According to the above statement, the Wii will be getting the gimpy version, very similar to the PS2 version which had no DLC. Way to go Harmonix, way to go. I will not be purchasing this game for that very reason. And I would imagine that several others will feel the same way I do. To make it even worse, my Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul won’t work with it.

I can’t lay all of the blame on Harmonix. Nintendo still hasn’t given us a simple way to store what we download anyway. How hard could it be for the techno-geniuses at Nintendo to create a driver that would allow us to hook up an external hard drive via one of the USB ports on the back of the Wii? I would be willing to wager that homebrew guy will come up with a solution before Nintendo does!

Cambridge, MA - March 24, 2007– Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks, which is a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced plans to release the award-winning music video game Rock Band on the Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo in the U.S. and Canada on June 22, 2008 for the suggested retail price of $169.99.

Rock Band for Wii will be released as a Special Edition bundle including the software, drums, microphone and a wireless guitar. Stand alone instruments will also be available on June 22nd for people who want to build their band one instrument at a time or want to play the drum versus drum game mode. The game will feature 63 songs including five bonus songs for Wii gamers to enjoy.

“The Wii’s success among casual and core gamers of all ages makes it an ideal match for the cross-generational appeal of the music featured in Rock Band,” says Bob Picunko, Vice President of Electronic Games and Interactive Products, MTV

“The social interaction and addictive nature of the Rock Band experience is a perfect fit for the Wii and will undoubtedly be fun for the entire family,” says Steve Singer, licensing VP from Nintendo.

Rock Band is an all-new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune - all while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals. Featuring the most master recordings of any music game ever by the world’s biggest rock artists, Rock Band includes tracks that span every genre of rock ranging from alternative and classic rock to heavy metal and punk. Rock Band has garnered over 40 awards this year including Game Critics Award: Best of Show E3 2007 and three awards at The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards including Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, Family Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack.

Rock Band is rated “T” for Teen (lyrics, mild suggestive themes) by the ESRB.

Rock Band is currently available on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and on the PLAYSTATION®2 computer entertainment system.

via Kotaku, MTV, joystiq
Rock band for Wii cover created by Ilchymis.

Prayers Answered: Rock Band For Wii Announced!

Musically inclined Wii enthusiasts, your prayers have been answered! Electronic Arts finally came out of the woodwork and announced that Rock Band, Guitar Hero’s biggest competition for the 2008 musical crown, will be coming out for the Wii! When trumpeting the resounding success of Guitar Hero 3 late last week, we speculated that the newcomer to the music scene would be making it’s way to the Wii sometime soon. After all, with one of the largest console rates worldwide, it only makes sense for MTV/Harmonix to bring their game to the wonderous, untapped Wii market sometime this year.

No further details on the game have been announced at this moment, but we can only hope that the masses of downloadable songs will somehow be made available for purchase for Wii owners. The poor souls who picked up the severely gimped PlayStatoin 2 version were not only robbed of downloadable content, but the bands phenomenal World Tour mode as well. That unfortunately downgraded port seemed thrown together at best, so here’s to hoping that the developers have used their extra time to work out all the kinks for the Wii version of the game.

So for those about to rock, get ready to salute by picking up your giant box of Rock Band sometime before the end of the year.

[Via Kotaku]