Major Nelson Talks Guitar Hero II Track Packs

Following up from the nasty backlash that the recently released Guitar Hero II track packs received because of their price, Major Nelson has sat down with Joystiq to try and explain the perceived hefty price.

You can find details on the Track Packs (and comments from Planet Xbox 360 members) here - basically there are three new packs available for 500 Microsoft Points each, for 1,500 MP total. The consensus is that 500 Points for all three would have been more acceptable. Anyway, you can check out the interview with Major Nelson at Joystiq, here's the intro:

When you were putting up the story at 2AM, were you expecting such a negative response from fans?

Major Nelson: Well, I found out about it late last night, before I posted it. I looked at it and said "okay." But you have to remember, I used to work in the broadcasting industry and in music for a long time and I know that content is not linear. It's not like you go to iTunes, and you're buying the same thing. There's testing that's involved, and there's also licensing involved. There's a lot of elements involved. When there's music involved, that brings up a lot of licensing issues. [pointing at camera] Kids, if you want to make a lot of money, write music. Write the hits, I should say ... It's roughly about $2 a song that you can play over and over. You can't get interactivity with a song on iTunes, and I don't want to defend it: it is what it is.