There's another kind of music debate going on that is completely independent of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Rockstar Games recently announced that they would be teaming up with Amazon.com to allow Grand Theft Auto IV owners a chance to buy real-world MP3's straight from Niko's Blackberry device. The idea is simple; with a soundtrack of more than 150 songs, Grand Theft Auto IV is bound to have at least a few songs you want to own. It only makes sense for all of the companies involved to want to team up and allow these gamers the chance to purchase the songs for a mere 89 cents. It's an idea so intriguing that it's hard to believe nobody had thought about doing it earlier.

But is it a good deal? Unfortunately this act of convenience comes at a price. Starting this month Amazon will be selling around 150 songs for 89 cents, ten cents cheaper than iTunes (and not using any kind of DRM). To compare these prices we've decided to look at both the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas CD Soundtrack Box Set (2004) and the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City CD Soundtrack Box Set (2002), both of which were widely available through game stores, big box stores and music stores the world over.

The San Andreas soundtrack featured eight discs and retailed for $59.99. These eight discs contained exactly 129 tracks, which included 92 licensed songs, several station promos, fake commercials and more. If we assume that all 129 tracks are worth money, then you would be paying 47 cents per track. If you're only talking about the music (since it's unknown whether or not we will even be able to buy the fake commercials and DJ chatter) then it's 65 cents, exactly 24 cents less than Grand Theft Auto IV's system.

And it doesn't stop with San Andreas; we can also look at Rockstar Games' first multi-disc soundtrack. The Vice City soundtrack came on seven discs and retailed for $49.99. Like the San Andreas box set, Vice City featured a bunch of fake commercials, funny DJ stuff and 125 tracks. If we do the math we did with San Andreas, that makes each one of the 125 tracks worth 40 cents and if we limit ourselves to only music, then it's 58 cents, 31 cents cheaper than Amazon.com.

If you were the kind of guy who wanted to own every single song in the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack (assuming it has 150 tracks) it would cost you more than $130. That's twice the price of even the most expensive Grand Theft Auto box set. And not only is it more expensive to buy the MP3 version of each song, but you also aren't getting the potentially cool artwork and extras. That may not be a big deal to some people, but to collectors it really means something.

What's Wrong With this Argument? While it's true that it costs more per song, the truth is that most people aren't going to buy every Grand Theft Auto IV song. They are, in fact, only going to go after the songs they like, so it gets rid of a lot of the filler that clogged up the box sets. It's a shame that the songs are so expensive, but at least they aren't forcing you to get a lot of stuff you don't need. And it could be worse; Rockstar Games could have teamed with the more expensive iTunes, which actually uses DRM. Oh, and even if this is slightly overpriced, I like the synergy between the video game world and the real world.


People love their Halo, so it almost doesn't matter what Bungie decided to sell their extra levels for. But this analysis of the difference in physical versus digital wouldn't be complete if we didn't take a look at one of the biggest games of all time. Halo 2 was not only one of the biggest releases for the original Xbox, but it was also the first time most gamers seriously started taking notice of downloadable content. Sure there were other Xbox games that featured optional content, but up until Halo 2 most of those goodies were free. But Halo 2 changed all that, they actually had the gall to ask people to buy their product.

And wouldn't you know it? Gamers did. Halo 2 saw one map pack after another, each adding new layers to the product all while padding Bungie's (and Microsoft's) coffers. Eventually Microsoft decided to offer this content to all of the gamers who were too lazy to download them or couldn't afford a yearly Xbox Live subscription. This map pack was released halfway through 2005 for a suggested retail price of 19.99. This physical disc came with nine different maps for what amounts to $2.22 each.

Contrast the $2.22 maps with what we get now with Halo 3, a standard three maps for $9.99 (which averages out to $3.33 per map). Are these new maps that much better than what we saw in Halo 2? Not at all, I would argue that in a lot of ways the new maps are worse than the $2 maps released three years ago. But Bungie doesn't seem concerned about the naysayers, they know that the millions of Halo 3 players will buy what every they give them ... quality or not.

What's Wrong With this Argument? Of course the argument here is that all of the maps in question will be free at some point. At the time of the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack disc, all but four of the maps were free for Xbox Live subscribers. Others would bring up that Halo 3's maps are more versatile, offering you numerous ways of altering its layout and giving you multiple options to change the gameplay. Is that worth a buck extra per map? I don't think so, but then again I'm not the target audience for this kind of thing.