This seems a bit like overkill. And where is the shelf space at retailers to stock all this?

@Ken

That was one of my initial gut reaction as well, if the market becomes too super saturated it might leave the consumer confused. More often than not, we have to remember that when someone goes into the store they limited money to purchase an item. Its like going to a carwash with a dozen special variations..I just want my car clean!

@Ken: so far, there's three new games and one new peripheral - though I'd expect there to be yet more rebadged plastic guitars for Band Hero and GHVH.

It'll be interesting to see how well these new titles do. Things are rapidly getting overly complicated - look at it from a user perspective:

GH series:
Songs need to be unlocked, disks must be swapped to play songs from another compilation; back of gamebox does not show full song list

Singstar:
No need to unlock songs; disks must be swapped; back of gamebox shows full song list

Rock Band:
Songs need to be unlocked, disk swaps not required (excepting RB:Beatles, everything else so far can be copied to the HDD and played via RB2); back of gamebox does not show full song list (which is partially offset by the HDD option)

None of the main three franchises are perfect, but from a "party gamer" player's perspective, it's something of a tie between RB and Singstar with GH coming a definitive last. Having to unlock songs is annoying; having to swap disks is annoying; not being able to find a specific song is annoying.

(I'm aware that there's unlock cheat codes for both RB and GH - but seriously: restrict locking to higher difficulty modes, drive player interest via achievements and in-game unlockable equipment or just have a straight forward Party Mode enabled in the UI)

(damn the small text box and lack of editing options!)
The above comments are in the context of Activision (and Harmonix, to a degree) seemingly abandoning the DLC model as a revenue stream and instead focusing on "track packs" a la Singstar. However, there's some key differences between the various franchises...

@ Juice UK

You're right, having to unlock songs when your trying to throw a party would suck big time. Avatar customization is the right way to go!

Once again, Activision throws enough bands I care about into an expansion that I'll probably end up owning, much to my chagrin. At least they're making the expansion packs worth it now, instead of looking like a ripoff (I'm looking at you, GH Rock the 80's).

@Aaron Casillas: Game fact #2358: Customizing your game character can not be hurried.

http://www.little-gamers.com/2008/11/10/ting-tar-tid/

@Aaron - I'm not entirely sure whether you were agreeing or poking a bit of fun - I'll assume the former :)

I've actually experienced the "unlock" problem at several large-scale events (assuming you can count 20+ people at a birthday party as large-scale!). People get very quickly turned off at the limited number of songs available by default - and a party is generally not the correct venue for unlocking songs which participants may either dislike or have never heard before!

(Admittedly, trying to complete the non-english songs was fun - various renditions of Hier Kommt Alex triggered gales of laughter...)

Actually, you've also highlighted another problem with the current model: lack of continuity in character models between games. If you're that way inclined (I'm not!), then every time you buy a new GH game, you need to create a new character and earn enough in-game cash to kit it out in the appropriate fashion.

There's also the lack of continuity when it comes to switching games - the band has to be recreated, with all the potential for confusion.

Back to unlocking: my main gripe is that vast majority of content *for which I have paid* is not available by default. I appreciate that there's reasons and justifications for this model (avoiding player overload, maintaining player interest, training players in more advanced concepts, story plot advancement, etc) - and it works well in other genres (e.g. RPGs, racing, etc).

However, I'd argue that the music genre has a much "flatter" gameplay model: the key thing people are buying these games for is the music and the gameplay itself is pretty much consistent across each individual song.

Then too, what I've found in RB and GH is that having to wade through songs I don't like to gain access to songs I do is becoming increasingly tiresome. Which is putting me off buying these expansion packs: the amount of time I have to invest (around 4 hours on RB1) to enable access for friends and family simply isn't worth the effort.