EA announces Rock Band 2 Euro plans

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 October, 2008

360-exclusive disc in Nov, kit in Dec.

EA has announced that Rock Band 2 will "begin shipping" in Europe on 14th November exclusively for Xbox 360 for a limited time.

The software will be released in the UK on 21st November, and the standalone bundle of new instruments will be at retail "beginning in December".

Rock Band 2 solus discs will go for GBP 49.99 / EUR 69.99 but there's no immediate word on instrument prices. The Rock Band 1 "Band in a Box" pack currently goes for GBP 99.99 on 360 and GBP 79.99 on PS3 and Wii.

To say the news comes out of the blue is to put it mildly. Yesterday EA distanced itself from the suggestion the game would be out "this side of Christmas".

But it's bad news for Activision, publisher of Guitar Hero World Tour, reviewed this week, which has yet to officially announce its release plans.

World Tour, which features its own range of instruments, is expected to hit in mid-November as well - and now that the excellent Rock Band 2, reviewed on import recently, is ready for release, it's going to be hard work for Activision to fight off the appeal of EA's decent instruments, excellent software and massive DLC archive.

As we wrote in conclusion when we took on Guitar Hero World Tour, "Were Rock Band 2 on the market today, the decision would be more difficult, as the gap between instrument quality would be reduced and the software battle would go in Rock Band 2's favour."

As well as all that DLC, the on-disc soundtrack for Rock Band 2 is over 100 deep, there's a Drum Trainer and No Fail mode for people who want to play without punishment, and it's possible to import dozens of the original Rock Band's songs for a small fee.

However, the silver lining for Activision is that Guitar Hero World Tour should be available with its instruments in mid-November and Rock Band 2's won't be around until a month later, and also that Microsoft has paid for another exclusivity period, giving it a free run on the PS3, PS2 and Wii.

For anyone who can't be arsed to wait a month on 360, or longer on the other formats, a GHWT bundle and Rock Band 2 solus disc later would be a powerful combo. No doubt it's a subject we'll dig into further as the release plans are brought into sharper focus.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (55) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    "Rock Band 2 solus discs will go for GBP 49.99"

    No thanks.

  • Toothball #2 3 years ago

    Excellent news, although how is the 14th involved? Don't really mind about the instruments as I got one of those Ion drum kits and the Mad Catz bass.
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/08 @ 13:03

  • muftak #3 3 years ago

    "Excellent news"

    not really

  • Garwoofoo #4 3 years ago

    Fantastic. I was really starting to think this would slip till after Christmas.

  • Charlie3487 #5 3 years ago

    I'll stick with my Guitar Hero II and III controllers, USB Mic and forget the drums...so I'll get the Solus discs both and save...

    So not bad news for me then, eh?

  • Nuggie #6 3 years ago

    @ DFawkes

    You do know that pretty much Xbox 360 game has a RRP of £49.99 but most retailers will charge at most £45; the most common price for 360 games is £39.99
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/08 @ 13:12

  • Eighthours #7 3 years ago

    Yeah, if you don't have a drum kit at all yet, then the GHWT band bundle and Rock Band 2 solus edition would seem to be the best way to go.

  • Les #8 3 years ago

    I wonder how much longer these new 'FIFA'-like yearly iterations will be successful in ripping people off...

  • Joco84 #9 3 years ago

    I'm with Eighthours on this one.

    GHWT Band Pack and then Rock Band 2 solus some time after.

    Being a PS3 owner and hearing about the exclusivity deal seals it for me, which is a shame, because I might have just gone for RB2 on its own if I could get it this side of Xmas.

    Oh well.... roll on November!

  • Charlie3487 #10 3 years ago

    No, I meant forget the drums altogether! Two guitars and the mic only for me...took me ages to realise that Rock Band worked with the old GH guitars...

    Worked for Ralph McTell and Roger Whittaker....

  • IneptPercy #11 3 years ago

    Great stuff, GHWT for me with a bit of RB2 solus later, happy days.

  • dsf #12 3 years ago

    buying both games solus, confused by the talk of decisions and choices

  • Beano #13 3 years ago

    I wonder how long the 360 exclusive period will be?

  • Rodafowa #14 3 years ago

    I wonder how much longer these new 'FIFA'-like yearly iterations will be successful in ripping people off...

    Even if you completely discount the apparently-excellent new tweaks and general tidying up of the game, it's effectively an 80-track song pack for 40 quid. How on earth do you describe that as "ripping people off"? From where I'm standing, it looks like the best gaming bargain since The Orange Box.

    Buffoon.

  • Mr_Dodger #15 3 years ago

    You beat me to it Rodafowa, that's exactly what I was going to post. For fans of the game it's definitely worth the money.

  • Nick #16 3 years ago

    I've already got Rock Band instruments plus GHIII guitar, so which should I buy first, RB2 or GH:WT solus? I'm inclining towards RB2 at the moment...

  • Harrihotpants #17 3 years ago

    Surely anyone with a PS3 will boycott RB from now on and stick with GHWT after consistently poor treatment....

  • Garulon #18 3 years ago

    (Enourmous sigh of relief)

  • kangarootoo #19 3 years ago

    @Harrihotpants

    Wasn't it Activision that were preventing Harmonix from making RB compatible with GH controllers?

  • kangarootoo #20 3 years ago

    "I wonder how much longer these new 'FIFA'-like yearly iterations will be successful in ripping people off... "

    Anyone who gets "ripped off" in that context or either an addict or an idiot (or a buffoon - great word, much underused).

  • Aggesan #21 3 years ago

    FU MS for constantly bribing the publishers/developers!!! Instead of creating good games through internal studios, all MS can do is to wave their filthy Windows dollars in hope for the 3'rd part companies to take the bait. The sad thing is that it works. Soulless motherfu**ers!

  • Eraysor #22 3 years ago

    Oh happy days. Except now I have to buy GH and RB2 within a week of each other.

  • MrMarbles #23 3 years ago

    "Surely anyone with a PS3 will boycott RB from now on and stick with GHWT after consistently poor treatment.... "

    Either that, or they would've ordered it from VG+ last week and be playing it already... It's only the 360 version that's region locked...

  • DFawkes #24 3 years ago

    @Nuggie

    Yes. The no thanks was to the combined prospect of "Rock Band 2", "solus disc" and the RRP. I don't want the second one when they pissed about with the first, I don't want the disc on its own as that makes it more like an expansion pack (which are usually cheaper), and that RRP i quite close to the word "rape". If people can go on about Brand and Ross' stupid prank, I can whine about this! I know I'm being unreasonable. That's how I am.

    Activision must be celebrating the fact this deal MS have done means they'll have an more open market for a while.

  • andywilkie35 #25 3 years ago

    I own Rock Band and was going to get the Solus GHWT after hearing it works with RB instruments, but now I think I'll leave that and get the RB2 disc, wahey!

  • Freelancepolice #26 3 years ago

    As soon as this is up on gameplay.com, consider it pre ordered - great news

  • Saturn_Ascends #27 3 years ago

    Pre-ordered mine from Amazon last night \o/

  • Toothball #28 3 years ago

    I've just booked the day off work, and my band will be doing the same. Probably pre-order somewhere nearby anyway for good measure.

  • nickthegun #29 3 years ago

    "I wonder how much longer these new 'FIFA'-like yearly iterations will be successful in ripping people off..."

    40 quid for a hundred tunes isnt bad, y'know.

  • optimusprym8 #30 3 years ago

    RB2 solus for me, don't like Neversoft's note charts in GHIII

    "Small fee" to copy RB1 tracks to HDD means I can trade in RB solus right?

  • mjhoward #31 3 years ago

    FU MS for constantly bribing the publishers/developers!!! Instead of creating good games through internal studios, all MS can do is to wave their filthy Windows dollars in hope for the 3'rd part companies to take the bait. The sad thing is that it works. Soulless motherfu**ers!

    Yes it works, and it's also exactly how Sony operated with the PS1 and PS2.

  • Toothball #32 3 years ago

    @optimusprym8

    That seems to be the case, although there's four songs that you won't get. Although I don't really see myself using the Rock Band 1 disc much after this either.
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/08 @ 14:43

  • MikeN #33 3 years ago

    @ Toothball

    Aye, how does the 14th figure into the timetable? Is that when the discs begin shipping from the warehouses in which case why bother mentioning it?

  • kinky_mong #34 3 years ago

    As far as I'm aware the ones that can't be copied over are Enter Sandman, Run The Hills, Paranoid, and that Tokio Hotel one. So in other words they've dropped three of the worst songs.

    This will be a definite purchase for me as long as the rumours of the drum kit chewing through batteries aren't true.

  • Freelancepolice #35 3 years ago

    worst songs?!

    Are you mental?

    Anyway, it's probably due to licensing issues and having to redo the license for those particular artists

  • LiamK #36 3 years ago

    Maybe the 14th is the date the combined set ships, with the other two dates the solus/intruments-only editions ship?

  • MrMarbles #37 3 years ago

    To be honest, I can't see myself ever putting the RB1 disc in my PS3 again - as fun as they were to play, I really haven't found myself missing Enter Sandman, Paranoid and Run to the Hills at all, what with a whole wealth of new songs to get through.

    The new interface is so polished, everything is so user-friendly and smooth and, frankly, it's slightly disappointing when RB1 songs crop up in a random setlist as you just want to play the new stuff.

    In my opinion the Metallica and Maiden DLC were songs that were more fun to play than Enter Sandman and Run to the Hills anyway - perhaps another reason why I don't miss them.

  • HSH25 #38 3 years ago

    I'm not exactly sure how this release date has surprised anyone, there have been adverts saying the game would be out on 360 in November going around for ages.

  • stampax #39 3 years ago

    Dont understand the whole exclusivity - just think how much MS must have to pay them to keep it exclusive, as it'll clearly cost them a fortune in lost sales and then lost dlc money as ps3 owners will buy the only one available - rock band.
    MS must really be spending money on this.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #40 3 years ago

    Why do they release the instruments later? Well at least the game will be here before Christmas.

  • kangarootoo #41 3 years ago

    @stampax

    Exclusivity on a big title costs shedloads. $10m would not be unreasonable for complete platform exclusivity, so I don't know what a timed exclusive such as this might cost. Less obviously, but still probably 7 digits*

    * massive guess

  • Garulon #42 3 years ago

    "as it'll clearly cost them a fortune in lost sales and then lost dlc money as ps3 owners will buy the only one available - rock band."

    DLC is forwards compatible (so no real DLC loss), PS3 owners seem to pirate the shit out of Rock Band tracks anyway. In the US they released the 360 version because it was finished first and I imagine if they had to patch (because of the amazing stuff you can do on their clunky website now) they only wanted to worry about one console being patched. Over here I think they want to run down RB1 units on PS3/Wii before releasing the new version. I'm just rilly rilly glad we have a release date now :)

  • mutdlegend #43 3 years ago

    great news and guitar hero as been dated ts coming out on the 14th a got an email today saying that gh is currantly been held and will be sent out for its release date of the 4 november but deffinantly getting rb2 now WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  • stampax #44 3 years ago

    You can pirate dlc content on the ps3? Time to start googling.....

  • Dizzy #45 3 years ago

    "Dont understand the whole exclusivity - just think how much MS must have to pay them to keep it exclusive"

    MS gives them bigger margins (on selected titles) and includes them in ads... especially EA is happy with that. Maybe Peter Moore has something to do with that.

  • JahB #46 3 years ago

    that's awesome, GHWT bundle, RB2 disc, drunk fun well into 2009

  • Joco84 #47 3 years ago

    @ MrMarbles

    You could import it for Ps3, but from what I've heard, UK PSN Store does not work with imported games, so you can't get more songs unless you

    a. Own a US bank account
    b. Use something like Entropay (think thats what its called)

    Either way its a hassle.

    Please can someone confirm my suspicions?

  • Garulon #48 3 years ago

    "You can pirate dlc content on the ps3? Time to start googling....."

    It's mostly people doing BRAIN-DAMAGED IDIOCY like "sharing" thier PSN account info, Sony haven't a clue about DRM so just lock all content to the downloaded console and let you download x times, people "share" their x downloads with each other. It's queasy, queasy stuff.

  • Jonny5Alive7 #49 3 years ago

    You have repeated quite a few times that you didn't know when Rock Band 2 was going to come out. The advert on television has been saying November for ages.

  • William #50 3 years ago

    @ Joco84:
    >You could import it for Ps3, but from what I've heard, UK PSN Store does not work with imported games, so you can't get more songs unless you

    Correct. Imported Rock Band last December. Couldn't buy songs from US store. Songs bought from Euro store aren't recognized. Bought EU Rock band which recognizes Euro store songs. Had to restart career and band since these aren't copied from the US saved games.
    The games do conflict with their on-line band presence. I still have to rename my first band (AD/BC) in the US version so I can use this name for my new (Euro).

  • MrMarbles #51 3 years ago

    "b. Use something like Entropay (think thats what its called)

    Either way its a hassle. "

    I set up an Entropay account a while back, true, but it's a one-time registration and I find it no more difficult to add funds to my US store wallet than to my UK store wallet. I've nabbed well over 200 DLC tracks from the US store so it can't have been that much of a hassle (as I'm a lazy bugger).

    If you know anyone in the US, you could always get them to purchase a PSN card on your behalf too, although that's borderline inconvenience.

    I've never had the urge to use the UK store to download DLC so I honestly didn't know the UK store didn't work with the US version of the game. I've truly learnt something today :)



  • KreyAtiv #52 3 years ago

    Not really worth the €69.99 price tag in my opinion.

  • MrMarbles #53 3 years ago

    Yeah, because over a hundred songs (playable with four different instruments) for what will undoubtedly turn out to be a £40 price tag (or over 150 songs if you spend an extra fiver) is such a rip-off.

    In other news: 95% of games on the shelves at the moment aren't worth the asking price tag.

  • andycloud #54 3 years ago

    You know I never had any real interest in these music rhythm games, until, last week I played GH on the Wii, awesome!

    So, now I want my own on the 360, so, can any of you decent folks tell me the best approach, but the gh kit or the rb2 kit, which is better?

  • captainwoohoo #55 3 years ago

    You cannot knock the value of this disc especially since you can transfer all but 3 or 4 songs from the previous disc.
    However it would be nice to be able to get hold of the new instrument bundle in the UK this side of Christmas.
    Anyone got any idea when they'll be released? They don't seem to be listed with any retailers online or instore.