Wal-Mart is getting an exclusive deal on possibly the last AC/DC album Black Ice due out later this month. It doesn’t stop there as the New York Times is reporting another AC/DC exclusive: an AC/DC Rock Band game.

This is hot, we got teased by the Rock Band 2 AC/DC track "Let There Be Rock" and now there will be more:

Both Columbia and the band will make money on the game, which contains the songs from the popular DVD “AC/DC Live at Donnington.” The game, which will be available for all consoles in early November, will cost less than most new games, about $40 instead of about $60. That makes it an attractive product to Wal-Mart, which believes that lower prices drive demand.

Ahh, but what they don’t tell you in this snippet. Keep reading.

The track list for AC/DC Live At Donnington taken from 1992 DVD via Amazon:

1. Thunderstruck
2. Shoot To Thrill
3. Back in Black
4. Fire Your Guns
5. Jailbreak
6. The Jack
7. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
8. Money Talks
9. Hells Bells
10. High Voltage
11. Whole Lotta Rosie
12. You Shook Me All Night Long
13. T.N.T
14. Let There Be Rock
15. Highway To Hell
16. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Note: I’m pretty sure Wal-Mart sells another Live at Donnington (exclusive too?) so this might not be the exact track list of the game (it is NOT, stay with me). There is also an AC/DC Live at Donnington [Blu-ray] version of this concert — oh yea.

Even though it’s AC/DC there needs to be more than 16 songs for $40. I would expect 25 or more songs with some special Rock Band goodies exclusive to this game.

I checked the official Rock Band forums to see if they had any detailed information yet. Indeed, they did, providing the full press release with the actual AC/DC track list, which adds two more songs to the list above ("Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be" and "Heetseeker"):

AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will feature the master recordings from the best of the band’s live performances. The live recording was specially remixed for Rock Band by Mike Fraser. The game features 18 tracks, with more than 99 minutes of game play for each instrument:

"Thunderstruck"
"Shoot to Thrill"
"Back in Black"
"Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be"
"Heatseeker"
"Fire Your Guns"
"Jailbreak"
"The Jack"
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
"Moneytalks"
"Hells Bells"
"High Voltage"
"Whole Lotta Rosie"
"You Shook Me All Night Long"
"T.N.T."
"Let There Be Rock”
"Highway To Hell”
"For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”

Guitar Hero Aerosmith which sold well enough to spark a possible music trend: band-themed play our music games. There have been band video games before (I’m thinking about the Iron Maiden PC game quite some time ago) but they didn’t interact directly with the music like these crop of game. In the Aerosmith game players could rise through the club ranks playing Aerosmith songs along the way. It came with an Aerosmith-themed guitar. The problem with the GH: Aerosmith game was that it was a pretty short experience for experienced players and didn’t add anything that unique or new. My son got through the whole game in a few hours at the expert difficulty.

A Guitar Hero: Metallica game is in the works, presumably following the GH: Aerosmith formula. If GH and Metallica are smart, they’ll include some other goodies to sweeten the deal.

I’m guessing at $40 there will be no AC/DC guitar or other accessories. In fact, they are billing this as "The AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack" - which sounds like it’s going to be among the more expensive RB track packs released to date. Rock Band and Guitar Hero players are already paying a premium to play downloadable content songs. Would like to see an AC/DC themed Rock Band game for $20 more perhaps with an exclusive Angus axe.

Good news from the Wal-Mart sales page:

"Go Beyond the Disc! - The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions ship with a code on the back of the game manual that lets you import all of the songs into the Rock Band or Rock Band 2 game environment (Internet connection required)."

So that $40 will include an export code. And these are remixed tracks by Mike Fraser specially for Rock Band. Zing!

I’m not a Wal-Mart fan, but a huge AC/DC fan, so they’ll earn my business for both the Black Ice CD on October 20 (you can buy the CD from AC/DC website if you want) and AC/DC LIVE Rock Band Track Pack on November 2nd. Hat tip to great big geek, who was the first to turn me onto this New York Times article.

BTW, AC/DC is running a YouTube Give It All You Got contest at their website trying to find the best video cover of their song, "Rock and Roll Train" where you can win a Gibson guitar signed by the Young brothers.

Update 10/2/08 4:00pm PST: Harmonix employee Henry writes: “There will be unique achievements and trophies for this track pack, as well as several song specific achievements. They will rule.”

Did this post make you go hmm?

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