When Harmonix's Dance Central launches alongside Microsoft's Kinect hardware this November, expect to see a Rock Band-style music store where you'll be able to download additional tunes and moves for the game. You should also expect those additional routines to cost more than a five-instrument Rock Band track. In an interview with Joystiq, Dance Central Project Lead Kasson Crooker revealed that DLC for Dance Central will cost more than $2, the current going rate for individual Rock Band tracks. 
 
 

"Because [Dance Central DLC] comes with a brand new unique routine with the three difficulties, we have to: engage the choreographer, find the song, license the song, come up with a routine, get them into a [motion capture] suit, shoot all the choreography, integrate the animation, build the filter system, the flash cards, the [voiceover] for 'Break it Down' -- it's a pretty elaborate process that is not only a lot more expensive, but a lot more time consuming."

When Harmonix's Dance Central launches alongside Microsoft's Kinect hardware this November, expect to see a Rock Band-style music store where you'll be able to download additional tunes and moves for the game. You should also expect those additional routines to cost more than a five-instrument Rock Band track. In an interview with Joystiq, Dance Central Project Lead Kasson Crooker revealed that DLC for Dance Central will cost more than $2, the current going rate for individual Rock Band tracks. 
 
 

"Because [Dance Central DLC] comes with a brand new unique routine with the three difficulties, we have to: engage the choreographer, find the song, license the song, come up with a routine, get them into a [motion capture] suit, shoot all the choreography, integrate the animation, build the filter system, the flash cards, the [voiceover] for 'Break it Down' -- it's a pretty elaborate process that is not only a lot more expensive, but a lot more time consuming."

" hmm "

I guess that makes sense.

Despite the justification of the price, I still don't see myself spending more than $2.00 per song and routine. Even in RockBand I thought $2.00 was a bit much.

That DLC comparison is rather poor. In fact, that makes it sound like they are the exact same thing since at the end of the day you're still limited to just mimicking the moves the games tells you to. The gameplay isn't going to radically change with any of the DLC.

If you were talking about before Rock Band 3, I guess I would kind of understand. Instead of mapping green and blue chords, they have to map different gestures specific to the song. 
 
 
But now that Rock Band 3's coming out, a game that has to map around 36 different pathways for a song (including all difficulties, instruments and pro modes) and is probably going to still cost two bucks a song, this is a little less welcome.

"After all, I can't imagine how costly it must be to generate brand new animation in a very short period of time, let alone higher and mo-cap a choreographer. "
 
Something ain't right here.

Hey, another reason to not buy this game!

@filthreaper:
A noble stance, but I'm afraid you may be disappointed.

:(

Well, there goes Dance Central Network - motion capture is still as expensive as ever, it seems. This looks to be the most promising of all the Kinect title announced and if I were more of the dancing type, I would so pick this up, but alas. *cuddles his plastic instruments*
 

@Diyashi

" hmm "

I appreciate that the game will come with new moves, which would really be the draw... but considering they've already licensed songs for Rock Band(s), exactly how much is it going to cost to put it in Dance Central?  Do you have to pay No Doubt twice to put Hella Good in Dance Central and Rock Band?  Then MTV/Harmonix needs to start working out better deals.
 
Furthermore, do we care that much about licensed songs?  At a certain point, I'm just going to want the game to give me new moves to dance to a beat.  You're telling me you can't generate some dance music in-house at Harmonix of all places?

Well...that makes this  instantly less appealing.

Well, this is a shocker. Bleed us dry mentality keeps on a'rollin'.

They better have really good previews in the DLC store.  I see a lot fewer people impulse buying at a price point unless there is adequate justification.

" I appreciate that the game will come with new moves, which would really be the draw... but considering they've already licensed songs for Rock Band(s), exactly how much is it going to cost to put it in Dance Central?  Do you have to pay No Doubt twice to put Hella Good in Dance Central and Rock Band?  Then MTV/Harmonix needs to start working out better deals. "

not really surprised, I feel like they have to do more with this DLC than Rockband DLC

"  However, I'd like to see house music or made up tracks in there too. Eff royalty/licensing issues...I'm not that into the majority of pop music, but wanna dance and learn moves, coordination, etc. "

"But now that Rock Band 3's coming out, a game that has to map around 36 different pathways for a song (including all difficulties, instruments and pro modes) and is probably going to still cost two bucks a song, this is a little less welcome. "

I already have Thriller down, so I don't need the mocap.  Can they release that for free?

" @jos1ah said:

"  However, I'd like to see house music or made up tracks in there too. Eff royalty/licensing issues...I'm not that into the majority of pop music, but wanna dance and learn moves, coordination, etc. "

That's how I feel.  I realized after buying a Pearl Jam album on Rock Band 2 that it's not the music I like in Rock Band, it's the actual gameplay.  I probably had more fun with the tracks I'd never heard of before than I did Ten, which I love.  I bought a Rush album I don't even like just because I knew it would be killer on drums. "

But now that Rock Band 3's coming out, a game that has to map around 36 different pathways for a song (including all difficulties, instruments and pro modes) and is probably going to still cost two bucks a song, this is a little less welcome. "

As a potential Dance Central buyer, this news disappoints me. Boo, HMX!

 I'm fine with paying for good content, let's hope they offer good content.    

I totally uploaded the image used for this story's thumbnail. Thank you, thank you.

Who needs DLC? Lady Gaga is already on disc.

 There's no way to read the second half of this article in the iPhone app I bought from you!    

Seems like a justified reason to pay more.

Makes sense but i wonder how many people will look at the price and not care to think further and just not buy dlc or the initial game at all.

This seems fair since dance routines are probably harder to put together than instrument tracks.

Fine with me! If the game is as good as I am hoping, I will have no issue with buying DLC from them.

This game looks pretty stupid. Why in the world would I want to learn these ridiculous video game dance routines? If I could learn some actual say, break dancing, maybe sign me up. But paying to wave your arms at your TV, then paying even more money to wave them in different ways? Kinect launch is fail if this is their flagship title. I haven't really looked into that game, or seen any gameplay except for what Ryan was doing in the E3 vid and....wow who in the world would embarrass themselves by wasting money on this.

Heck, I think $2 is way too much as it is.

" This game looks pretty stupid. Why in the world would I want to learn these ridiculous video game dance routines? If I could learn some actual say, break dancing, maybe sign me up. But paying to wave your arms at your TV, then paying even more money to wave them in different ways? Kinect launch is fail if this is their flagship title. I haven't really looked into that game, or seen any gameplay except for what Ryan was doing in the E3 vid and....wow who in the world would embarrass themselves by wasting money on this. "

No comment on a song list, huh. Only six have been announced. Maybe this game will just revolve around Poker Face and Hella Good. Rock Band 2's set list reached something like 70. Any hope of this game being as high, or maybe just the low thirties to start with?

No thanks...$2 was the magic price for me...remember the backlash Guitar Hero received   when they were about $3 a song

Maybe this'll only mean a slight increase, like from 160 to 200 or something. Although I trust Harmonix to have a hefty song and dance list with enough hits, so yeah.

I'm surprised that Harmonix is going this route.  It would seem to me that they'd have figured out that raising the price of DLC doesn't necessarily equate more revenue.  I'd think the $2 price point would be spot on and that more people would buy it at that price than a higher price, probably meaning that more money would be brought in overall.

" Well, this is a shocker. Bleed us dry mentality keeps on a'rollin'. "

This is about the ONLY game I'm interested in on "Kinect" or whatever they want to call it.  That's not saying much since I'm not too ready to buy one at all so.  :p

Still IF and that's a big if, IF they do increase the dance moves and such with the downloads I'd be interested.  Also I would like a song list on disc that's worth the initial cost.