Rock Band store now up and ready to take orders [Updated]

by Majed Athab { Mar 21st 2008 at 1:30PM }

We're sharing the same enthusiasm our Joystiq brothers are feeling over the new Rock Band store. So, when we heard about the store finally up and running, we immediately fired up our PS3 copies and upgraded to version 1.03 to test it out.

The store is definitely pretty with CD cover art for all musicians. It's also informative on the song choices; the previously known ability to preview songs and see difficulty ratings for individual instruments is a major plus. Purchasing songs is quick and easy.

Those are the good parts, but some things are not that great. For example, songs can't be bought in a batch like on the PSN, and must be bought individually (unless you're buying an artist pack). Unfortunately, to play your freshly downloaded songs, you'll still have to exit the game and install the tracks on your PS3. While the latter criticism is something we didn't expect to happen anyway, it does make the swiftness of an in-game store a tad cumbersome. In short, the store is good at driving a sale; it just needs to work on getting those tracks integrated quicker. That was the whole point of the store, was it not?

[Update: Just to clarify, the game does install tracks, but only when you download songs one at a time and if you wait until the song fully downloads. If you choose to 'perform in the background' and/or proceed to get more songs, you'll have to install manually and exit the game.]

Tags: harmonix, mtv, mtv-games, rock-band, rockband

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fiddlesworth @ Mar 21st 2008 1:37PM

Not as pretty and useful as the SingStore then.

Andy @ Mar 21st 2008 2:20PM

Was just playing and noticed the update. I haven't tried buying anything from it yet, but from what you guys say, it could use a little work...

Otsego_Undead @ Mar 21st 2008 2:20PM

Wow, i thought for sure there wouldn't be a need to exit the game to install the tracks.. thats really, really, weak. hopefully this gets patched soon.
Any word if the RB store will mirror the PSN store or visa-versa for new releases? Will games be released sooner on the RB store like so we get them at the same time as 360 owners?

Andy @ Mar 21st 2008 2:55PM

I doubt they'll update the Rock Band store sooner, since I'm fairly sure that the RB store grabs the downloads from the PSN. I'd be very very surprised if they somehow did update RB store sooner.

But I'd definitely be happy. Next week's DLC is a 6 pack of Boston. I WANT IT NOW GORRAMIT!!!!! Thursday's gonna come so slow...

Lars @ Mar 26th 2008 1:44PM

The way that other in-game stores work is that as soon as the downloads are on the network, they're downloadable (don't have to wait for the psn storefront to update). Hopefully Rock Band will follow suit.

Lars @ Mar 26th 2008 1:36PM

Otsego_Undead @ Mar 26th 2008 2:57PM

No update for us yesterday. So it must still be Thursdays.. that sucks.

Lars @ Mar 26th 2008 4:52PM

That sucks. Fix it, Hmx/Sony!

I think they said they usually give their DLC to MS/Sony on Mondays. It would be cool if we started seeing stuff pop up on Mondays... here's to hoping.

Also, blogsmith, I hate thee. (for the double-post)

mathab @ Mar 21st 2008 2:36PM

Hey guys, updated the post. I fiddled around with the options a bit more. It turns out, if you download the song and don't choose the 'perform in background' option and wait things out, then the track will automatically install. Still cumbersome and slow nonetheless.