Why This Rock Band accessory is selling for $1,000
Why This Rock Ring accessory is selling for $1,000
The Rock Band miracle from the mid-to-late 2000s is long over, just accessories for the alive-ring facsimile video game, which were once abundant in bargain bins and thrift shops, accept skyrocketed in value. This includes everything from plastic instruments to add-on pulsate cymbals.
One accessory in item, the PDP Wired Legacy Adapter for Xbox I, has soared into the upper temper, selling anywhere from $600 to $ane,000 on eBay — an eye-popping sum for such an unassuming improver. And this has put Stone Ring fans in an uncomfortable position.
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Every bit older accessories dethrone and pause, lowering the amount available on the second-manus market, add together-ons like the PDP Wired Legacy Adapter give players admission to more than professional person electronic musical equipment, ones meant to handle a greater beating. Unless developer Harmonix or accessories maker PDP do something to address this issue, price gouging will continue to exacerbate.
The PDP Wired Legacy Adapter looks about as basic equally any other USB dongle that can be found on Amazon. Yet, the components inside, which allow for a wide-range of electronic drum compatibility, take become invaluable to the Stone Band faithful.
"If I did ever want to become that pro level drummer, that adapter would enable me to piece of work on being that," said Jon Farrell, 34, an IT contractor and moderator of the Stone Band subreddit told me over the phone.
Rock Ring 4's accompaniment crisis
Stone Band iv launched in 2015 to solid critical acclaim but middling sales. Publisher and accessories maker Mad Catz recorded a $11.6 million loss, blamed largely on "incredibly disappointing" sales numbers. It forced the company to cut 37% of its staff as Mad Catz needed to quickly movement remaining inventory. It also didn't help that Activision's Guitar Hero, a competitor to Stone Band that was likewise popular in the latter aughts, decided to brand its return that same month with Guitar Hero Live. Ultimately, NPD results from October 2015 ranked Rock Band four at ten, with Guitar Hero Live at eleven.
Either way, the title was a fine-tuning of the Stone Band formula rather than a reinvention. Where Stone Band 3 arguably went overboard with the introduction of the 102-push button Fender Mustang Pro Guitar addition or an actual six-string with the Squier Pro Guitar, Rock Band 4 aimed to reel some of that back. Gone was keyboard back up for songs similar Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody as well every bit pro guitar support. Instead, Rock Ring 4 stuck with the fundamentals of 5-button guitars, microphones and rubber drum pads.
Rock Band fans were largely okay with leaving the pro guitar accessories behind, and many were happy to jump dorsum into Rock Ring on newer gaming consoles. Simply the desire for more than realistic drums never went abroad.
While Rock Band 4 didn't run into sales expectations for Mad Catz, it sold plenty copies for game developer Harmonix to commission another visitor to make accessories for the game'southward first major expansion, Rock Band Rivals.
Harmonix turned to Mad Catz rival PDP, known for making third-party controllers and other accessories. And it was in the PDP annunciation that Harmonix revealed Xbox 1 users would get an accessory to accommodate ION Drum Rocker owners and e-kit drummers that played via the Midi PRO-Adapter.
Why does Xbox need the Wired Legacy Adapter?
This adapter was made for Xbox One players specifically, every bit PS4 owners still enjoyed cross-generation compatibility. Xbox 1, in contrast, used a unlike standard than the security chip required for all Xbox 360 peripherals. That move effectively ended all support for past 360 hardware.
"The transition from Xbox 360 to Xbox One required changes to the system architecture to enable usa to support new accessories and products designed for the new Xbox hardware," said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Tom's Guide. "As a result of that decision, Xbox 360 accessories were no longer compatible with Xbox One hardware." The spokesperson went on to add together, "We have no plans to add support for Xbox 360 accessories on Xbox Serial 10 | S."
Thus, it was upwards to PDP to find a solution to accommodate ION Pulsate Rocker and east-kit drummers.
"PDP has an in-firm applied science team hither in San Diego. And so nosotros had the capabilities to do it," recalled Tom Roberts, CEO of PDP. Given that Microsoft only allows certain partners access, it'due south made it nearly impossible for modders to connect e-kits without the Wired Legacy Adapter. Often, modders need a donor motherboard from a Rock Ring drum kit to then reconfigure to an e-kit.
"The stuff that you buy should piece of work, regardless of what version you're on," said Daniel Sussman, project managing director at Harmonix and product manager for Stone Band. "And, you know, we've tried to, to honor that as it relates to DLC, and so too for hardware." It's a delivery to this philosophy that'southward allowed gamers who bought Stone Band dorsum in 2007 to keep using those instruments 14 years later across multiple generations of consoles.
"I don't want to say we did it every bit a favor, but we did it to support that legacy community and Harmonix really wanted that back up, too"
— Tom Roberts
In one case PDP had developed an adapter to work with older hardware, information technology then came down to figuring out how many to brand, a challenge for such a niche item.
"We become notice a contract manufacturer in People's republic of china. And they have minimum order quantities, MOQ's," said Roberts. "And I'thousand like, 'what's the MOQ?' Considering I wonder if we're going to hit the MOQ. Nosotros ended up placing ii orders. We ended upwardly doing well-nigh 6,000, a little over half dozen,000 units."
Roberts admitted that the Wired Legacy Adapter was not going to be profitable.
"I don't desire to say we did information technology as a favor, but nosotros did it to support that legacy community and Harmonix really wanted that support, besides," Roberts said.
Fifty-fifty then, there'southward a reason PDP didn't commission thousands of units to hold every bit potential back inventory. Unfortunately, the production sales and distribution business organisation doesn't work that way.
"It's similar you're trying to predict the future. And one thing I will say, from having been in that part of the business is that your inventory liability is a thing that you need to exist very cautious around." Harmonix's Sussman said. "If you make too much stuff, that can bury your company."
Of course, if people on eBay are willing to drop upwardly of $ane,000 on an accessory to play on Xbox 1, surely, rebuying all hardware and switching to PS4 would be more economical. Unfortunately, due to licensing reasons, if a gamer decided to commencement their Rock Band journey on Xbox 360, they were stuck on Microsoft'due south platform.
In one case on Xbox, always on Xbox
Due to music licensing deals, songs that were released on Xbox 360 and PS3 have now since expired. Before decease, Rock Ring did allow users to export their rails lists to subsequent titles by paying a fee. This meant that a gamer who exported their songs from the original Rock Band on Xbox 360 could proceed to play those songs on Stone Band 4 on Xbox One. Information technology was all linked to their Xbox Alive accounts. Starting from scratch on PS4 meant foregoing an entire library of exported songs, too as purchased DLC tracks. Some of the licenses on DLC tracks take expired likewise. And for those that grew up with the series, letting go of that initial playlist was not worth it.
"I was playing with my girl and she was playing Blitzkrieg Bop on easy. And I own this song on Rock Band 4 — who would have thought when I was playing it dorsum in the day that my girl would be all the same playing with me," said Brian Sevilla, 29, a Rock Ring enthusiast who is currently agile in the military. "This song that I owned because of the backwards compatibility, the mode it works — then information technology's but crazy how all these charts this just stretches so far"
Sevilla himself has been on the hunt for a Wired Legacy Adapter. He recently lost out an eBay listing after placing a bid for $800. He understands the irresponsibility of spending so much on a USB dongle, and his sister thinks he'south crazy for even attempting to buy one, but Sevilla feels that information technology's worth it. Already, Sevilla has gone through multiple Rock Band kits, and is now looking to choice up a purpose-built east-kit that can handle the abuse. Even if information technology means forking $800 or more for an adapter.
"I mean, information technology'southward rational thinking. Information technology's simply for someone similar, who has that soft spot for Stone Band," Sevilla said. "I'm in the Rivals, and I do the weekly challenges. We have a crew and everything."
What's next for Rock Band fans?
Given that at that place's a express number of Wired Pro Adapters out on the 2nd-mitt market, some of which could malfunction sometime in the future, the community is at a loss as to what to practice. Apart from repurposing old Rock Ring pulsate kit motherboards, which requires some expertise, neither PDP, Harmonix or Microsoft have put forrard any kind of solution.
But putting together another manufacturing run isn't as like shooting fish in a barrel as calling upwards Red china either. At that place are real economic challenges. Co-ordinate to Farrell, the Rock Band subreddit moderator mentioned to a higher place, it's not like the Wired Legacy Adapters sold out immediately from PDP'due south website at launch.
"That came out, it was pretty readily available for a few months. And so information technology kind of came in and out of stock a few times at 1 betoken." said Ferrell. "It was in stock for like half price, like only for $15 bucks. And it was in that country for a few weeks. And and so it only disappeared."
Farrell suspects that some keen buyers noticed the drop in cost as a sign of clearing out inventory. Those people likely bought the remaining stock and have been property on to units since. And now that prices have broken the $600 bulwark, units have begun to trickle out online.
The question is non then much similar how much will people spend, but more how many people actually want this
— Daniel Sussman
That'due south not to say all electronics crave a huge order number to go into production. The mechanical keyboard community will often do group buys, where if a certain number of people pre-order a product, then it will get a express production run. Ferrell estimates that if Harmonix was to put together a similar group buy campaign for the Wired Legacy Adapter, and so users would be easily willing to put downward $100. Even then, it's not that simple.
"The question is non so much like how much will people spend, but more how many people actually want this," Sussman said. "I remember i of the things that I sort of learned from my experience in the manufacturing space is that you accept a lot of setup costs that are hard to rationalize at low volume, regardless of what the kind of market price is going to be."
Rock Band fans may accept a tiny sliver of hope
Although the Stone Band community might not be as powerful as it was dorsum in 2007, information technology'south yet plenty passionate. Non only are the games fun, at that place actually isn't another party game that'southward taken its identify in the ensuing years. And to be clear, neither Sussman or Roberts turned down the idea of a express low-volume run outright, even if they weren't overly enthusiastic either.
"I mean, I would certainly exist open to that. But you know, we have multiple projects going on, and we have to weigh the opportunity costs. And, that'due south the reality of running a business," PDPs Roberts said. "If someone came to me and said, 'hey, well, nosotros got, nosotros got ten,000 people that really want a Legacy Adapter,' and they're willing to pay 50 bucks… Yeah, yous know, I might have to take a serious expect at that, for sure."
As for Sussman, who's been with Harmonix for nearly twenty years, seeing the community struggle through this hardware crisis has been tough.
"I'1000 blown away by the passion and the enthusiasm that we see on the part of the community, and that is the positive function of it, Sussman said "The, the negative part is that the whole hardware conversation is hard for me to address in the sense that, you lot know, we make the game, our focus is on the software feel, and we're not in a position to simply like, ring up the factory and have more guitars, or drums, or adapters, or annihilation made."
Even then, Sussman is keeping an open listen.
"I'm happy to talk to anybody who'south interested in making more than Rock Band stuff, admittedly. Call me."
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/why-this-rock-band-accessory-is-selling-for-dollar1000
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