14 DAY TRIAL // Activision, as the publisher, and FreeStyleGames, as the developer, have already outed two new downloadable tracks for their new release DJ Hero and plan to add more DLC every month in order to maintain gamers’ interest. But players have been a bit surprised to see that the two new tracks, which mix Queen with Mary J. Blige and Gorrilaz with Public Enemy, cost more than the tracks offered for Guitar Hero, reaching the equivalent of 480 Microsoft Points.
Chris Lee, who is the commercial director at FreeStyleGames, has justified the more expensive songs to IGN by saying that “There's additional work in the creation process of the DJ Hero DLC – licensing multiple pieces of content and bringing in a professional DJ to mix the tracks – that brings the price to 300 Wii Points for the mixes individually; 480 Microsoft Points or $5.99 in the PlayStationStore for Extended Mix Pack 01.”
The next piece of content for DJ Hero is set to arrive on November 24 and will contain three tracks remixed by David Guetta, with the price set at 7.99 dollars in the PlayStation Store and 640 Microsoft Points in the Xbox Live Marketplace.
It will be interesting to see how the bigger price affects sales for the new tracks. Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have had great success with DLC releases but players, who are already appearing to be a bit wary of the over 100-dollar price point of DJ Hero, might abandon the platform if the tracks keep being more expensive than those for other music games.
Activision might actually have more success if it launches more sample packs that can be used on any track within the game or if it puts out more characters and skins that can be used in DJ Hero.