Guitar Hero Live developer explains its track DLC model yet again
"The more you play, the more you earn."
Guitar Hero Live developer FreeStyleGames has again tried to explain its new DLC model, which makes use of the game's GH Live streaming service.
In a nutshell, you will get a bundle of songs in the base game. You also get free access to the GH Live internet radio channels, which stream curated playlists around the clock (as long as you're connected online).
There is no way of downloading and paying for a song in the traditional way. Instead, you pay for access tokens to play tracks that you like, every time you want to play them.
"We're revamping how typical DLC works," creative director Jamie Jackson wrote on the FreeStyleGames blog. "We looked long and hard at the way it used to be in past music games - you pay a few bucks for a song to add to your library. It's a big financial commitment up front and a tough decision to make, and it has always left me feeling like I have to replay that song until I'm bored of it to get my money's worth.
"But it's a different time now. We have so many different options for how to access music and entertainment. With services like Spotify, Pandora and Netflix, we no longer have to make a decision to buy a song or a movie up front, and we have more freedom to access more songs, movies and TV shows than we ever could have dreamed of just a few years ago."
This way, FreeStyleGames hopes that players will be exposed to more new tracks to play - and never have to fork over real world cash to just play what comes up.
"As you play in the channels, you earn in-game currency which quickly adds up, so you can get tokens to play any song from the GHTV library on-demand," Jackson explained. "And we're going to load you up with a bunch of play tokens the first time you play and as you rank up. The more you play, the more you earn.
"And hey, if you have a bunch of friends coming over, we'll also give you the option to purchase a party pass for a set duration during which you'll have unlimited, on-demand access to every song in the entire GHTV music library."
More tracks will continually be added to GH Live, and the catalogue of tunes which you then use tokens to play.
By comparison, rival game Rock Band 4 has stuck with its traditional DLC model - it will be interesting to see which one that players ultimately prefer.