Help make Wii Rock Band Better

Attention Rock Band developer Harmonix and Nintendo,

First, we would like to thank you for developing the video game Rock Band for the Nintendo Wii platform.
Through various press releases recently, it has come to many potential customers attention that, while the game does sound to be planned very well, there is some room to for improvement.

At the top of the list for improvement, is web based downloadable content (DLC). Although no game yet released for the Wii has made use of this functionality, Rock Band could help be a pioneer for this feature. As of right now, the means for 3rd party DLC, Nintendos WiiWare service, has already been released to the public in Japan. The release date for WiiWare in America (May 19th), is well ahead of the currently planned release date for Rock Band (June 22nd). As all of your potential customers, we would request that this feature be included in the release of Rock Band for the Wii.

As you no doubt have learned, DLC, specifically for this type of video game, is a monumentally popular feature. This feature would also help generate even more revenue for the involved parties, if included. Basically, other than some additional time and resources during development, there is no downside to this feature. We urge you to reconsider including this feature in your release of Rock Band for the Nintendo Wii platform.

Another feature of the announced Wii game Rock Band that has come to the attention of your potential customers is the fact that the key peripherals, drums, guitar, and microphone, that are used to enjoy playing this game, will not be wireless. Now while the microphone does present a newer challenge, the other peripherals do not. The already provided Nintendo controllers already have all of the wireless ability needed by most new peripherals.

As the recent release of Guitar Hero III has shown, it is very possible to create a new Nintendo Wii controller add-on that simply plugs directly into the existing Wii-motes controller expansion port. This should be easily translated into creating a similar feature to your peripheral add-on devices (drums, and guitar).

For the microphone add-on, a wireless USB based device would be fantastic. If it were done correctly, this device has the potential to be multi-platform capable. We would understand if this device takes some additional development time, and is released later for a small fee. If the standard wired microphone was included, we only ask that the cord is made of ample length.

At the very least though, the other two primary peripherals should be created as wireless devices, and use the existing Wii-mote controller expansion ports.

Finally, the one additional feature which seems to be vacant from your recent press releases is the online playability. The internet has changed the way video games, and many forms of entertainment, are included in all of our lives. This brings us to ask that at the very minimum, some forms of online features are built into Rock Band for the Wii. Even if this were to be a simple feature such as leaderboards, it would be a good thing. However, the ability to play the actual game with other players, as part of your own band, or against other teams of players, as a band vs. band option would be a great feature to include in your game.

Again, thank you for bringing the wonderful game Rock Band to the Wii.
As your potential future customers we would respectfully ask that these features of your upcoming release of the game Rock Band be given some very serious re-consideration. Inclusion of even some of these key features would only help sell more copies of this wonderful sounding game.


Nintendo,

First, we would like to thank you for your creation of the Nintendo Wii video game platform. This portion of the letter is addressed directly to you though.

Congratulations on the Wiis success. To help continue this success, we are asking that you provide any available assistance that you can to Harmonix, the Rock Band developer, to help achieve even some of the goals outlined above.

This would not only help sell more Wiis, but also more peripherals, and particularly help promote your upcoming American release of the WiiWare (DLC) service.


Again, Thank You both for your consideration of the above mention items.