29 réponses à ce sujet

[Loerwyn]

I've had this idea on/off for a few days now, and I'm wondering what people think.

At the end of Mass Effect 3's lifecycle, once the DLC and other content has been released, perhaps BioWare should release a 'complete' boxset of all the soundtracks. My idea is that it's not just a bunch of CDs, but a complete boxset with a running theme and all-new art work. The basic idea is that the box that holds all the CDs will be black, and each disc would be in its individual case. I, personally, like the idea of the cover for the cases being very simple. The track listing would be written plainly on the back in white, and the front cover would be the CD number in the style of the '2' in the Mass Effect 2 logo, with perhaps the colour changing depending on the disc. As for the box, I do think it'd be nice if there were pictures of, say, SR1 + SR2 on it, and maybe a Mass Relay. I think that no character should be on it, though, especially considering how we generally make our own Shepards. It'd look nicer, too. 

The CDs:
1-2. Mass Effect 1 Soundtrack + DLC (And also the 'Flux Dance' track) + Mass Effect: Galaxy Soundtrack
3-4. Mass Effect 2 Soundtrack
5(-6). Mass Effect 2 DLC + Combat/Atmospheric albums
6-7. Mass Effect 3 Soundtrack
8-9. Mass Effect 3 DLC
10. Bonus DVD - Making of, inspirations, trailers (Including the Blur trailer for ME2), interviews with the composers etc. Bonus materials, too, such as concepts and maybe even some unreleased tracks. 

It'd also be nice, in my opinion, if a booklet came with the set to finish it off. It could list the full credits for the soundtracks, along with some words from the composers and BioWare peeps involved in the soundtrack. Of course, pictures of the original covers for the soundtracks (Mass Effect 1 OST's cover, ME2 OST's cover etc) should form part of the booklet, perhaps a series of colour pictures in the middle? 

My guess is it'd sell for about $50-$80 (Or perhaps the equivalent of £50-80), or a little higher depending on the content and quality of the boxes.

I'm just wondering what others think about it?

Edit: Updated.

Modifié par OnlyShallow89, 06 mars 2011 - 09:21 .

[stardazzled]

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Modifié par stardazzled, 17 mars 2011 - 01:22 .

[Loerwyn]

I don't know, Stardazzled, BioWare have seemed increasingly shiny-based, especially with Dragon Age 2, so perhaps we will be lucky enough to get this. I think even as a limited thing (Say, 500 copies) it could be an excellent release for them to do. They please their fans, they make a profit (Hopefully) and we get to go "Yesssssss BioWare" as we listen to the tracks we love.

It just seems to me, considering how DA gets replica swords, letter openers, coasters - The whole shebang, really - something more practical and collectable would now be a much more realistic prospect.

Modifié par OnlyShallow89, 05 mars 2011 - 10:46 .

[Loerwyn]

Sorry to double post, but I've edited the contents of the CDs with two new additions. I've added Mass Effect Galaxy to the end of the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack, just to help fill out the second CD (Which would be ME1 tracks not found on the ME1 soundtrack, along with the DLC music and the 'Flux Dance' track.
The second addition was the addition of trailers to the bonus DVD, i.e. the game trailers we've seen. So there'd be some ME1 trailers, ME2 trailers (Including the brilliant Blur one involving Shep, Grunt & Thane), the ME3 reveal trailer (With the attack on London) and whatever trailers surface between now and then.

[Talon_Wu]

It's a great idea, and an item I'd gladly buy. I especially like your idea of the bonus DVD, all the trailers together would be fantastic!
But, unfortunately, they'll probably stick to digital downloads. The folks in charge of approving Mass Effect merchandise don't always listen with both ears. Treehouse does, but I'm not sure about higher up the chain. We ask for an ME2 art book, we get the CE version in a larger format. We ask for CDs and Normandy desktop models, we get "Deadliest SOB in Space" tshirts.

[stardazzled]

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Modifié par stardazzled, 17 mars 2011 - 01:22 .

[ThrakF]

This would be flippin brilliant. Unfortunately the chances seem to be fairly low, but possibly a bit higher seeing as it's a trilogy, possible collectors item, and something that will make a lot of money for the money grabbing people somewhere along the line (I've lost track of whether they're in bioware or EA, but I don't mean Jedi and all the very nice bioware store people ). I still doubt it though, but oh well, we can hope and dream can't we?

[Dsurian]

We can dream, i suppose...but it should be noted that the Bioware Store has nothing to do with selling the physical game, and likely wouldn't be involved directly with anything "trilogy pack", so this discussion really should be over in ME General Discussion or some such...maybe a mod can move it?

[Loerwyn]

Dsurian wrote...

We can dream, i suppose...but it should be noted that the Bioware Store has nothing to do with selling the physical game, and likely wouldn't be involved directly with anything "trilogy pack", so this discussion really should be over in ME General Discussion or some such...maybe a mod can move it?

Uh... We're not talking about selling the game series as a triple pack.

On topic; Thanks for the support, guys.

[Dsurian]

OnlyShallow89 wrote...

Uh... We're not talking about selling the game series as a triple pack.

Righteo - my bad (musta been super tired when i scanned this :/).  But still...soundtracks, like the games, arn't produced by the Bioware Store...i mean, there arn't even physical copies of them, as far as i know.  Now, EA might decide to produce CD's one day, and I hope they do, but it likely won't have anything to do with the 'Bioware Store', thus it might be better to post this in ME's General so that EA reps have a better chance of seeing it...thats all I'm saying...

Modifié par Dsurian, 08 mars 2011 - 01:35 .

[stardazzled]

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Modifié par stardazzled, 17 mars 2011 - 01:22 .

[Valcutio]

I wholeheartedly approve.

[Loerwyn]

Dsurian wrote...
Righteo - my bad (musta been super tired when i scanned this :/).  But still...soundtracks, like the games, arn't produced by the Bioware Store...i mean, there arn't even physical copies of them, as far as i know.  Now, EA might decide to produce CD's one day, and I hope they do, but it likely won't have anything to do with the 'Bioware Store', thus it might be better to post this in ME's General so that EA reps have a better chance of seeing it...thats all I'm saying...

Half of the BioWare merchandise on the store isn't produced by Treehouse, so I fail to see your point.

[ShepardOsiris]

I love the idea, I would definately be a buyer. Whether it will happen or not though is another question. Let's just say I doubt it, especially in as nice and complete a package as OP is suggesting. The fact that they can't even give us a ME 2 soundtrack on CD despite a reasonable demand for it, that alone tells us there is little to no real interest in putting in the kind of effort it would take to make the suggested package a reality.

I will say though, that as unfortunate as it is, Jack Wall being replaced with Clint Mansell, does give some kind of box set or at the very least a CD version of ME 3's soundtrack a much better chance of happening. There are some people that would buy his soundtracks without playing the game, so that kind of notoriety will help this particular cause.

[ThrakF]

Well, that's good and bad, but I personally would rather have Jack Wall than a CD version of the soundtrack for ME3.

[ShepardOsiris]

I'm very sad to see Jack go too, I'm a big fan of what he's done with the first 2 games. However, we haven't heard anything ME related from Mansell yet, and only a fool would say he doesn't have enormous talent and the potential to crank out a great score. So while I don't want to see Jack Wall go, I'm still excited to see what Mansell can do, and only time will tell if it was a good move or a bad move. Regardless, Mansell's notoriety will draw more attention to ME 3, no question.

[ThrakF]

Oh, I'm sure the score will be great, but for mass effect, there's great, and then there's Jack Wall, I just can't imagine that anyone else will be able to do a score for mass effect quite like he does, or quite as well. I'd just rather have Jack Wall. If by good or bad move you're talking about Jack Wall leaving, bad, but if you're talking about mansell as the next choice, I think that may be a good move, I would also imagine that having picked Jack Wall at first, bioware would think VERY hard about who to get for the music, as I'm sure they did with Jack, and their first choice of him went down brilliantly. Fair enough, notoriety gained, but from a fan point of view, and someone who loved the Jack Wall score, I'd still rather have Jack Wall above increased notoriety.

Edit: one other thing I've thought of, I seriously hope we get some of the Jack Wall original music put in mass effect 3 in some places, either sounding exactly the same, or slightly different, you know, they did that with a bit of the ME1 music in ME2.

Modifié par ThrakF, 15 mars 2011 - 01:37 .

[Loerwyn]

Continuing the unrelatedness for a moment; As I said to someone when discussing this, I feel that Jack Wall should have been kept for Mass Effect 3 just to keep the music uniform. This is, after all, the third and final part of Shepard's story, and we've had a lot of change over the years - Especially in terms of gameplay. It would have been nice if the music - Something that I think defines Mass Effect 1-2 as much as Shepard - was kept consistent.

However, I'm always open to change, and it'll be interesting to see what happens. It could be that this 'new' guy does to Mass Effect 3 what Inon Zur did to Fallout: New Vegas. Inon kept some of the FO3 music, and his new compositions blended old Fallout tracks with new things, so it still kept the 'classic' Fallout sound without sounding too different from either FO1&2 or FO3.

[Dsurian]

Tangent:  Yeah, Jack Wall was the man...just so much good music.  I can't believe that they switched composers and, like you said Shallow, i would have thought it would tie together the trilogy quite nicely.  Now, despite the raves about Clint "the-new-guy" Mansell, I have a feeling that it's going to sound too different.  And the rest of the BSN seems almost completely content with welcoming Mansell - though admitadley, it's not like we can do anything. :/

OnlyShallow89 wrote...

Half of the BioWare merchandise on the store isn't produced by Treehouse, so I fail to see your point.

Not purposely meaning to get back on this somewhat sour note, but my point: your suggesting that a company which primarily deals in the marketing of products starts producing a product that they don't have the right to produce (implied by you posting here). If not, then you are asking them to contact the people who have the rights (who, granted, are affiliated with the company) to make the product even though they seemingly don't have any contacts or sources on how to produce what you're suggesting.

Metaphor:  Let's say you and a couple of friends go to a grocery store that doesn't sell soy milk and you ask the dairy department clerk to please sell soy milk - the clerk (this forum) has to tell the boss (Treehouse CEO), the boss then has to contact the dairy distributor (Bioware) who knows jack [no pun] about soy milk (Audio Cd's), so they then have to figure out if they should build accomadations to produce it themselves or outsource the work...assuming they really care about what a couple people in some grocery store asked for.

I'll say again that I really do hope this idea pans out (kinda why im making this post - easy bump)...maybe people at Treehouse will tell their people at Bioware, and maybe those Bioware people will tell other Bioware people who could be more related to this, and maybe they'll actually make an effort to find a publisher or create an actual record lable, or w/e...but I'll still make the point that it would have a better chance with fewer connections (i.e. - posting in a forum closer to 'home').  Or we can keep bumping this so it stays on Pg.1 and hope someone takes note...either/or.  ^^

Modifié par Dsurian, 17 mars 2011 - 03:41 .

[Loerwyn]

Dsurian wrote...
Not purposely meaning to get back on this somewhat sour note, but my point: your suggesting that a company which primarily deals in the marketing of products starts producing a product that they don't have the right to produce (implied by you posting here).

My post implied no such thing. It's a speculative product, and if it existed it'd be a year or two into the future. What better item - an exclusive collector's item - to draw people to the BioWare store? The store, as we speak, carries products from IDW, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Tor US and DC Direct, so there's no reason why they couldn't carry this product.

We've been told there were no plans to release a physical ME2 soundtrack, but at no point was it ever mentioned that it couldn't happen. BioWare own the rights to the music - BioWare, thanks to EA, will have access to many companies who can product this boxset or perhaps even EA could do it themselves and apply it to other series. Maybe a DA boxset when DA2 is done? The possibilities are near endless.

[Loerwyn]

I fail to see how piracy is at all relevant to this, but perhaps this would even give some people a reason not to pirate the soundtracks. We're talking about basically reissuing and repackaging products that already exist, so a 'piracy' argument from EA would be a strawman. Games, films and music are all pirated in some form, yet they're still being released, reissued and so forth - Why should people downloading/copying things they may not necessarily buy anyway affect those of us who want to buy a legal and well made product? Don't punish the honest consumer for the transgressions of others. 

As for the mention of EA? Again, I'm not sure if it's relevant. Well, actually, considering EA/BioWare's Dragon Age merchandise, I wouldn't be surprised if a boxset like this actually has more of a chance. Dragon Age has swords (Real and letter-openers) and a lot of other merchandise, especially now Dragon Age 2 is out, so a boxset of the soundtracks can't be out of the question. EA will likely own the rights to most of the music (If not all), so what we're talking about is EA having to find a distributor for this set - And I doubt it'd be hard for them to do so.

However, I don't think bonus items for the games are really that good an idea for this, as it wouldn't make much sense when attributed to my vision at least. As it'd be a post-ME3 release, when ME3 is over and done with, there'd be no need for extra items, and there's no point trying to entice ME3 players to buy the boxset as the boxset itself would really only appeal to Mass Effect fans in the first place. Sure, it'd sweeten the deal a little, but is it really worth BioWare's doing? We'd have the game, we'd have the content and we'd have finished it. Any added content at that point, to me, seems a bit pointless.

To say there's no demand for the soundtracks would be wrong. Just by looking at this subforum, and the Mass Effect ones, there's clearly demands for the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack(s) in a physical form. If EA don't release a physical one for ME3, we'll see the same again. EA have released a lot of ME2 soundtracks recently, and they wouldn't do that if there was no demand for them. If EA can put together a boxset, one that's well made and well designed, then what better thing to say thank you to their fans, satisfy the demand for physical soundtracks and - of course - make some money? It probably wouldn't cost all that much to produce as I'm sure one of the marketing/graphics teams could whip up good looking box art, inlays etc in a short time, and of course production costs of CDs are low.  I don't know how much it'd cost them to make, of course, and I won't take a guess - But I can't see it being a huge amount. 

This boxset, in my mind, isn't about tempting people away from piracy, about drumming up sales for the series. It's about celebrating the excellent music of the series, and it's about finding out about the inspirations, the processes and even the production. The people who'd be buying this, like myself and others who've posted in this topic, are already hooked on the series, and something like this would be a win-win situation for all involved. 

[Loerwyn]

modjospinster wrote...

for the in game downloadables, i'm not so convinced. do i think they are kind of gimmicky and don't really add that much to a game? sure. your character was still a b.a when they didn't have that plus 4 to dexterity or 10% more health, so its not something that is gamebreaking. however, some people really dig that stuff and would like getting that extra item. remember, there are fans that play these games way after they are released, why not include something for in game? it cannot really take that much to make, and if the people like it then thats good, and if they don't care for it, then no harm done, its a bonus after all. (and after a while has passed perhaps make it a free downloadable) remember, the focus is on the actual music/dvd/booklet.

Because it takes away from the boxset. It shouldn't appeal to people because it adds to their gameplay, just as the current Mass Effect merchandise appeals to people because it's ME related. My Shepard doesn't have access to extra stuff because I have the Art of Mass Effect book next to me (Seriously, it's permanently on my desk). Not just that, by the time this set releases (In theory), the game's content will have ended, so adding to it would be pointless.

modjospinster wrote...
also, do you realize we are debating about a set they may or may not decide to make?

If we didn't discuss or debate about it, they wouldn't know we want it. That said, I've not actually met anyone who's thought or said "My love of the DA universe could only be completed by a letter-opener".