5 Things You Didn’t Know About Rock Band

– EA’s has nefarious plans. “We warm up the
marketplace and create familiarity for many artists”, states Steve Schnur,  worldwide executive for music and marketing at
Electronic Arts. EA’s attack is two pronged: First, get the younger generation
excited about older music, and secondly, to get today’s player familiars with
lesser-known bands. Through their partnership with MTV, videos of new bands
will be pushed via the cable channel, and then once the bands get popular
enough, the requisite song pack will appear. What this means for us: more MTV
‘sponsored’ music like Avenged Sevenfold and Good Charlotte. 

– According to an unnamed source at EA,
“30-40 percent of the Rock Band guitars are coming back. Only about 10 percent
are the drums are returning”. The reason? “We didn’t expect people to be so
hard on them. Especially the foot pedal. The problem with the guitar is a small
screw that needs tightening. Nothing more.”

– Who continues to have a hand in choosing
Rock Band songs? None other than Little Steven Van Zandt, the bandana-ed
guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and former Sopranos star. His pay for the gig?
Supposedly nothing.

– What else will future content focus on? According
to Zandt, “My main mission for future Rock Band music is to feature stuff from
the 50’s and 60’s, and eventually new arts too.” We assume that means MTV rock.

– According to an informal survey of ten
retailers, seven are reporting that Guitar Hero 3 is outselling Rock Band. One
Gamestop manager in the Los Angeles area said, “People come into the store
after seeing or hearing about Rock Band. 
Once they hear about the ($170) price, some hardcore people buy it, but
most others buy (the cheaper) Guitar Hero 3”. 
About half the retailers had at least one copy of the Rock Band Bundle
in stock.