With the unbelievabley rapid growth of the internet, it was no surprise that the video game industry would try to capitalize on it. Online multiplayer gaming has exploded over the past decade, first on the PC, and now on consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox360. Anyone with an internet connection can enjoy playing other real live gamers from the comfort of their sofa or favorite easy chair. Voice chat has also become prevalent, which allows friends from across the globe to have a laugh or talk some smack in real time. But something has started to change. Video game publishers and producers have had a revelation so to speak, in the form of downloadable content.

These publishers have finally realized how much money can be made from games they have already sold to the consumer. Why settle for the one time fee of $50+ when you can keep nickle and diming them? It seems now that your purchase of a video game is merely its "introductory price". Take for example the monstrously successful Guitar Hero franchise and its steady devolution. The original Guitar Hero scored a 9.0 and an Editors' Choice award here on GameSpot, while the sequels Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s received an 8.9/8.7, 8.0/7.5, and 7.0 respectively. While these are not BAD scores by any stretch of the imagination, they illustrate a steady decline in the quality, and more importantly, the progression of the franchise. But why haven't these games progressed?

Well in short, because they don't have to. These games don't need to improve on an already winning formula for one important reason: the music sells itself. Essentially with Guitar Hero and the upcoming Rock Band, the game publishers are selling you a karaoke machine for which you can buy more songs. Why try to figure out which songs the consumer would like to have, when they can decide (and more importantly, PAY) for themselves? Take a look at the details for the downloadable content for Rock Band. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Rock Band will still feature preselected three-song packs for download, but they will instead cost $5.49 (440 Microsoft points on Xbox 360). Songs will also be available individually for $1.99. Harmonix has said future songs will be sold individually for as little as $.99 (80 Microsoft points), and as much as $2.99 (240 points). However, "the vast majority" will come in at the standard $1.99 price point."

$1.99 for a song that you can't play on your computer or MP3 player, or burn onto a CD. That's a bad deal any way you slice it. What's worse, is judging from the early list of downloadable songs, the publishers are deliberately holding back the best material instead of including it on the original game disc. Metallica, The Police, David Bowie, Radiohead, and Black Sabbath are just a few of the big name bands that are on the preliminary downloadable content list for Rock Band.

Have they taken it too far for the sake of turning a bigger profit? Or are we just jealous that we didn't think of it first? Regardless of the controversy, many thousands of people, including myself, are going to purchase Rock Band and plenty of its downloadable content. While this obviously adds some welcomed replay value to an already great video game, I don't think we should have to pay for something that could have easily been included with the original game. Maybe we should just start advertising video games as "Fun Sold Separately".