Harmonix's Rob Kay Comments by Ellie Gibson

The one question I wish EG would have asked, even more than the timed exclusive one posted above, is simple: Why does the US get a pack including all three instruments and the game while the European relase requires the game to be purchased seperately? That really is the main issue here IMO as, if everything else were the same, then we'd be looking at £130 retail and £100 from the usual suspects which would have been fine for the majority of people. Still slightly overpriced but in-line with normal videogame practice at least.

I applaud him for trying however the game is still too damned expensive.

Why do people keep mentioning these four UK tracks? Oasis, Blur, Muse... What's the mystery fourth one?

What a pile of shit.

180 fucking quid!

If double pricing is a trend we can expect to see more of, it is probably cheaper for me to buy an American 360 and just import all my games. It may seem pricey, but it will pay itself off within 6 months in savings.

Reading that interview was like watching a maggot squirm on the end of a fishing hook.

The price is a joke.

If VAT etcetera is too blame, why is the DLC the same prices as in the United States? Really, Eurogamer, shame on you for accepting this kind of answer. It is really ridiculous too blame that the UK or Europe is more expensive? People here have checked US to GBP / EURO rates of everything (iPhones, Macbooks, Games, Computers) and not a single one does a $ = POUND exchange. I would say to Rob Kay go f*** yourself and leave the talking to EA.

And people.... please don't buy this game to let EA know that this is unacceptable. I won't be buying any game from EA for the rest of the year. I thought Apple and Sony were threating us badly but I guess they were pretty nice for Europe.

I think i will pop over to the states to buy it... will nearly be able to pay for the fare with the price difference

* laughs at the "I don't care people will still my my game mwahahahahahahahahaha" attitude *

Twat.

@toythatkills: I was going off of the Euro date article that mentions this:

The full list of Euro-exclusive songs can be found below.
English
"Beetlebum" by Blur
"Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis
"Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel
"Hysteria" by Muse

Still using the VAT route as an excuse.

He could've tried to be a little more creative and tried to sell us the "securing the rights to the music in European territories forced up the price" or something.

Must try harder.

Ahhhhhh! Why do people think the developer has no say in how much the game goes for? Of course we bloody do!

The full list of Euro-exclusive songs can be found below.
English
"Beetlebum" by Blur
"Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis
"Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel
"Hysteria" by Muse

LOL, so one of Rock Bands UK tracks is by German band, Tokio Hotel? Nice one MTV

It'd be more appropriate if it was "Money" - Pink Floyd.

Nice try EG, but this guy was never going to have the answers; frankly, I doubt there is any one single person who was in charge of making this call, and I'm CERTAIN there's no single person who'd actually be willing or able to tell us why it was made. EA/Harmonix's campaign time is over now, folks, and it's time for us to vote with our wallets. I know what I've decided....

Wow Eurogamer what a pointless interview.

You basically spent 1 and 3/4 pages getting a lengthened version of what we already knew. You hardly pushed him, in fact you didn't.

Nice one.

If VAT etcetera is too blame, why is the DLC the same prices as in the United States?

They're the same amount of points, we don't pay our VAT in MS Points, we pay it in the Sterling that the points cost. And GBP points are more expensive than in USD. Not 110% more expensive though.

The full list of Euro-exclusive songs can be found below.
English
"Beetlebum" by Blur
"Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis
"Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel
"Hysteria" by Muse

Ah! Now I see where all the money is going! O_o

Colour me unimpressed.

This reminds me of when the Sony chap said that the PS3 was worth it's price, and that people would save up for it. Which as we all know was bollocks - the PS3 didn't start selling until the price went south.

Having a re-read of the article I think a comedy interview with a random EA stooge would have been much more entertaining. We'd have had the same bullshit and backpedalling but with added buzzword bingo.

I wonder if they honestly thought people wouldn't care that they were getting so blatantly ripped off.

this interview was just damage control shame on EG for doing this.
i will not EVER be buying this game.
i guess guitar heroe will be the way to go.
the max price ffor anygame in my book is 100E it's still just a game.
and how many times will i have 4 friends over to play a game...
for tops ones a month i'm not buying this overpriced crap!

i do agree with the majority here, let´s just boycot Rockband and let EA suck it.

lol @ rockband.... first the waiting, now the pricing, tsk tsk

plenty of other good games around to spend your hard-earned money on... certainly by the time they release it on the PS3

hope it crashes and burns

ffcourse it's very interesting for them with the lousy dollar to charge us mainland EU folks 240 euros... ah well, here comes the boycott

I applaud Kay for doing the interview, so far it's more than what EA and MTV have done (shutting down Rock Band forum registrations, tut tut). However the price is still absolutely dispicable for a product that will be nearly 7 months old by the time it comes out here. 4 measly songs and some waffle about V.A.T. and 'having choice' certainly does not remove the aftertaste of yesterday's pricing.

Never before have I lost total interest and in a game in such a short space of time. The delay I could just about swallow, being treated as a second-class customer? Nah, EA/MTV keep your 'experience'.

No I think my highlight is their reason why you should buy it... "It gives you the awesome experience of making music with your friends."

Errr... You're not making anything. You are standing like a twat pushing buttons in the right order to music made by somebody else.

people can go and spend GBP 50 on the game, and maybe that's all they do - they can use a USB microphone, or the 360 headset, and they can have the whole singing Rock Band experience. Or they can buy the wireless Fender guitar, or just the drum set.

I thought it was just the Game, or the "Instrument Edition (without game)" that we could buy?

/is confused

me says boycott EA altogether *shrug*

While this whole thing with the price is appalling, the interview itself made me smile. I love the fact he didn't spot the sarcasm about Steps and Scooch being enough to make you pay £180.

Props to Eurogamer.

Rob kay is a fucking asshole. Just read through the first page of the interview. I am fucking angry right now. What fucking choice?? The word "choice" is so fucking meaningless nowadays. Thx to M$. I fucking hate rockband now. Assholes

Oh my God, seriously. Everything he says is bloody corporate lingo. But what did we expect? "We're sorry, seeing the internet's reaction has made us realise we were ripping you off!" ?

There is one way and only one way to fight this. Hurt them at retail. No matter how much you want this game, do not buy it in Europe. Force the retailers to cut the price in half so they can unload their initial shipments and they will in turn be very dissatisfied with EA and not willing to pay their price for the product.

Rock Band has a value. That value is $169.99. Or £87. This is what the product was launched at, this is what the product is worth.

If we add in the VAT of 17.5%, and then say round that up to cover VAT in some other European nations, along with shipping, let's say an increase of 30% over the US price should cover that. We then arrive at $221 or £112.

This leaves roughly £70 unaccounted for that Harmonix is pocketing, and pardon me but the 8 extra tracks the EU release contains is not worth £70.

So Rob, scurry back to EA and wait for the fiscal reports to (hopefully) come crashing down on you like the Sword of Damocles.

And again; for European gamers there is one way to show your dissatisfaction here: Do not buy Rock Band for anything more than the aforementioned £112 maximum. That is the product's value, and with a generous percentage added to cover their shipping costs. If you cannot find Rock Band at this price, then do not purchase it at all. That is the strongest message you can send to EA and Harmonix that you will not take this kind of blatant price-inflation.

"Yeah. Maybe I'd try it over at a friend's first, to see if I liked it or not."

Not if none of your friends have bought it you won't!

"Rock Band is a fantastic game for playing at a party, so lots of people will get that opportunity, and maybe they'll want to take that opportunity before they invest the money."

At this price, I'd need to charge my friends to play it with me to help cover the cost!

"I wouldn't blame them; it's not a cheap game, it really isn't."

However, the build quality of your peripherals IS cheap. I know, I have a US copy.

"But it's a game that delivers that much more in terms of its fun factor and the experience it gives you."

Yes it does, but is that experience what we are paying the extra money for? No, as it's no different from the US experience. Oh wait, we have a few "Euro-centric" songs. Who wants to start counting down with me until they're available as DLC in the US, and that'll negate that argument too.

Very amusing interview and I loved the way EG grilled Rob Kay about the price, well done! LOL

Anyway, ignoring the high price, I can see how the way they plan on selling Rock Band in Europe offers more choice for people who already own a guitar peripheral especially and/or a microphone/headset so those people aren't going to want to pay £130 for the instrument pack anyway, just maybe the drums which are sold separately. I'd imagine that even if the game and instruments had been £100-£120, the full experience would have only been of interest to a minority of people because how ever you look at it, £100+ is an awful lot of money to pay for one game that you might only play for a dozen hours. Better that you already have the guitar (and an Xbox LIVE headset) because you only really have to fork out £40 for the game.

One question, since I'm not interested in buying this game anyway, but considering you need other people to play the full thing properly has anyone considered sharing the price, say, with friends or family who also want to play the game?

@ peteb

I thought it was just the Game, or the "Instrument Edition (without game)" that we could buy?

you can buy components individually, so you might be able to use your guitar hero 3, guitar hero 2 and a random USB mic / XBOx Live headset, then just buy the game. You'd only be missing the drums so you could buy those separately (£70 or £80 at play), or just do rockband without the drums. Which is a bit pointless.

@Dunk360

Cool, thanks! Don't think I'll bother though, and hope my not buying it hurts them in some tiny tiny way.

@Darren: it is not just the the price is high and can be shared with friends.
The main concern is that it is 100% higher than the price in US which is ridiculous.

Particularly good plastered with GH3 adverts, yes.

ok,ok, I'll buy it if you add at least 3 more Jonathan coulton songs to the DLC...

I find it very annoying that people are blaming mostly EA. They are just the distributor, and probably don't have too much say in the final pricing. Most likely culprit, publisher MTV, is in very convenient place in the middle mostly forgotten, and EA as the distributor front is taking all the crap. It's just always so convenient to bash EA, whether they deserve it or not.

Yeah, the price is still outrageous. I was expecting something like 170 euros, which would be pretty much in line with what the European conversion usually would be. For that price I would've bought it on the day of release. Now I'm not in that much hurry, and researching import options. I just really want the game. It's just the shipping that hurts...

smoothn00dle, what MS has to do with this?
I mean, I was realy sad for Arsenal last night, should I blame on MS ?

@ Dunk360

GH2 and 3 controller are not compatable with Rock Band. If you want to play it you have to buy their Guitar. There was a big fall out between Activision and Harmonix's a little while ago about this very thing.

In the interview with Rob over on videogamer.com he confirms that they will not work with Rock Band.

£180 RRP is a joke and cannot be defended in any way at all.

So, if GH can provide a game and guitar for £65 why does RB cost $40 for game and £60 for a single instrument. Surely its possible to discount the disc or bundle it with the insturments anyway....

Somewhere the math doesn't work in any of the packages and none of Rob Kayy's excuses answer why.

EA are getting out of hand... extortion of Europe with Rock Band and charging people for menial things like guns in Battlefield: Bad Company. After slowly shrugging off their reputation for shit games, now they cause more bad PR.

great interview - if it was a video interview we could have all watched him squirm!

lol, only an idiot would pay that much money for this

So no real answers what so ever then. Frustrating. Although I appreciate he's a Harmonix guy, and so not really in charge of the whole pricing thing.

And well done for presenting some of the comments to him. If you could do that to a guy at EA that would be priceless.

Well

for £19 more than Rock Band you can get a return ticket from London to New York

In fact, there's a lot of comparisons that open up when you're game costs just shy of 200quid..

with Easyjet you could fly from London Gatwick to:
Majorca from £34.99
Alicante from £34.99
Malaga from £30.99
Faro from £37.99
Madrid from £30.99
Barcelona from £30.99

for £20 more than rock band...that's a 6 country tour, think of all the local music you could take in whilst there ;O) (and they're return flights so you don't have to do a 6 country tour all at once)


it costs more than the 360 you'd play it on...he he

That guy managed to say a whole lot without ever answering the question, hell yeah I love PR guys

I think I'll pick up GHIII and spend the other £110+ on GTA IV, Ninja Gaiden 2 and The Bourne Conspiracy.

I have barely been able to wait for Rock Band over the past couple of months but they can go fuck themselves if they're going to charge that. Even with Play.coms price it's still a bloody rip off.

If you've a got a match, then we've a got the gas, let's burn down harmonix and have ourselves a blast


kerannng!

+10 if you can name the band

"for £20 more than rock band...that's a 6 country tour"

... are you aware that all six destinations are actually in the same country?

You know, Spain?

:)