Rock Band man defends Euro price Comments by Ellie Gibson

I spent several years at school trying to get my French teacher to help me with my gripping and strokes. Sadly she was never up for it.

I actually LOLd at that, much to the confusion of the rest of my office :)

of course its a rip off...the peripherals themselves will be made for buttons in the far east then shipped by the thousand in huge containers for next to nowt..then we pay through the nose for them...lies and plain robbery from both EA and harmonix making excuses for them

Nobody would be complaining if the Instrument Pack included the game, but as is it's just an inexplicable extortion. Doing the maths using Guitar Hero sets the bar at £120- so this is an extra 50% on the top. How can that be justified in any way?

If they weren't so greedy with the instruments, they'd have made a good profit with all the DLC people would've downloaded over time. Screw 'em.

Hmm - just wanted to point out that I have (and a lot of other people on here) have paid a lot more for one type of game in the past.

"WoW come on down" (and all the other MMO's out there)

Monthly sub £9 (ish) and been out for almost 3 years = around £300 if you have subscribed from near the start.

/cancels WoW

/starts money fight

"If you had 4 people you knew who were prepared to spend this sort of money each then you could start your own fecking band."

Exactly. And don't forget the time investment required to make something of the game...

You really think those plastic drums will last 3 years?

@L0cky

Probably - will only play it for a few months then get bored of it and put it in the loft :D

If anyone is feeling vociferous -

Fight the power

Simple, don't buy the game and wait for the fire-sale as EA try to clear warehouse full of plastic guitars & drum kits.

The whole debacle of Activision/EA/Gibson bitching with each other since they've realised that there's money in the rthyme/action genre and they intend to screw the consumer for every penny they can get, makes me want to see this whole thing implode on the greedy fuckers.

But unfortunately they're raking in the cash, so it's more likely that this disgusting behaviour will continue.

I'd need to get a loan to buy this game. :(

@kangarootoo

Yes they'll make millions off the many who are easily parted from their hard earned cash, but as I also said in the same post, they'll probably only make the same amount if not less than what they would've had Rock Band been more reasonably priced.

Everybody loses out really, including hopefully a few EA Marketing jobs in the process.

@Seto

But you're paying monthly compared to a big one time wad of cash there and then.

Posted elsewhere on the site -

"Look out for our interview with developer Harmonix later today. It might just have the answers you seek."


New direction with which to spout bile, chaps?

Here's an idea, buy a fucking real guitar, and learn a useful skill.

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores...

If I had a pound for every person who's said 'buy a real guitar/drumset' then I could afford Rock Band...

Personally, i was 100% sold on this. i bought GH2 on the 360, i even got a 2nd guitar to play with my mate. I pre-ordered GH3 (no guitars needed though), and now.....

Well, as said in another thread, i'm just gonna wait for the price to drop. I'm never an early adopter, i never buy a console when it comes out as it is a waste of money. Rock Band won't get worse over time, it'll just get cheaper, and when i can get the game, drumkit and probably mic for around £80, i'll get it.

Until then, i'll just play something else.

Wii + Pro Evo looks interesting as does PS3 + Disgaea 3.

We all waited long enough for it in the first place, lets just wait for the stock to build up, it gets sold off cheap and buy it then.

I predict that no way will it get the sales of GH2 and 3, and that is a shame, as the design of the game deserves high sales. Maybe it'll be worth it when rock Band 2 comes out, and you can buy a 'super rock band' pack for the same price with another 70 songs?

COwER UNDER OUR INFERNO OF HATE ALL YOU FUCKTARDS AT MTV, EA AND HARMONIX!!!

Why are you talking to a game designer? By his own admission he doesn't have the answers. Get one of the suits!

Here's an idea, buy a fucking real guitar, and learn a useful skill.

Here's an idea, fuck off and stop peddling out tired old lines of macho trolling bullshit.

"I firmly believe that if people do [buy it] they'll have an amazing experience they couldn't get anywhere else." -- the experience of grabbing your ankles and EA going in dry?

@oreillymj: hilarious!

Still no Sale here i'm afraid. Might just import the PS3 version but not sure i can even be bothered to do that!

Re: Rob Kay:

Fuck right off.

"I can't talk to the explicit pricing - how it gets split down between retailers and distributors and the whole chain - because I don't actually know that much about it."

Well that was the most fucking worthless article ever written then - the issue isn't if it's a good game, it's the price of the thing. So go speak to the retailers, distributors and the whole chain. What's next? Interviewing Will Wright about how much a PC that will run Spore will cost?

"Here's an idea, fuck off and stop peddling out tired old lines of macho trolling bullshit."

He's right, to be fair.

Nothing can touch the experience of using a proper guitar.

"Might be a bit put off?"

No.. really? You think people might be put off by it costing as much as a BRAND NEW 360 Pro? Fucking genius.

I'm voting with my wallet and not buying this (even though I want it so) until I can get it for £150 at least.

When I was working at GAME a lot of people were very wary of the Guitar Hero price as it was, often commenting on how much it was as they reluctantly bought it for their sons and daughters.

I can't see them stomaching this price whatsoever.

So, the "hardcore" gaming crowd shout rip off and I suspect so will the casuals.

Who the hell is going to buy this game then? Hopefully no-one will.

He's right, to be fair.

Nothing can touch the experience of using a proper guitar.

So what? Nothing can touch the experience of about a million and one things I choose not to do. What that has to do with my decision whether or not to play any given computer game, I have absolutely no idea.

Do you really think I'm unaware of the existence of real guitars? That I'm playing a rhythm action game because I'm oblivious to the alternative? Or is it just possible that it's an entirely alternative and largely unconnected entertainment experience, with completely different demands and rewards?

Yeah but whether you have a real guitar or not (I do, an acoustic) it's still great fun to blast out some of your favourite tunes with you mates is it not? I loved GH for that reason and am really looking forward to drumming while a mate wails on the guitarin RB...

In fact it was GH3 that inspired me to pick up a real guitar and start learning to play for real, so get off your high horse. You could use the same argument for wii fit, tennis, olympics etc.....

It takes months minimum to become any sort of decent playing a real instrument (despite the claims of one poster in a rock band thread for a mate who learned in one weekend). The appeal of these games is having fun with your mates pretending to play your favourite tunes.

All that said £130 is the maximum i'm prepared to consider playing. £180 is quite ridiculous.

They are not ripping anybody off.... since nobody is going to buy their game.

It's a joke/

As many ppl have said, we are being ripped off plain and simple.

Britain constantly gets ripped off. It's true, and the reason is because we are so "civilised" - or idiotic, take your pick.

I choose the latter. It's about time something was done about this.

WILL NOT be buying this game anymore.

€240 for the whole lot, that's way too expensive. Even if the periphearals are all different. And I'm sure some retailers will up that price a bit more. Don't see many people forking out that much for it.
Can you use the Guitar Hero guitars with it?? I'd probably get the game on its own if it was compatible. I think that'd be the only saving grace and people would buy the game on its own if they already had the Guitars that work with it.
I'll bide my time, I can see this being reduced in price quite quickly once the retailers see how much dust they are gathering and how much room they are taking up.

nekotcha: and instead of spending £40 on VF5, you could go out into the street and punch someone in the face FOR FREE!

Can't wait for the EG 'interview' later, the guy can spout all the PR bullshit in the world, there's absolutely no way he can spin this into something even remotely positive.
It's one gigantic fooking rip off, end of.
Customers that shop in my store laughed a few weeks back when I told them it would probably cost around £130 for the full set, expressing silly amounts of disgust, with the vast majority saying that they'd rather wait and no doubt it'll cost less a few months down the line.
I wonder how they're reacting to this now :)
A few posters on here are saying that it isn't us more negative hardcore gamers they're pushing this towards, it's the more casual market. I have to disagree, surely it's the more hardcore of us (The ones who don't think twice about buying the latest over priced gadgets on Day one) that WOULD HAVE been snapping this up come release date.
This isn't a casual market RRP, the casual market likes cheap and cheerful, I can now, thanks to the price point, honestly see this being one gigantic flop.

I hope Eurogamer do keep pressing on this. It is literally offensive.

It was my understanding that the pricing structure behind Rock Band was a low/ subsidised price for the Game and Instruments, to encourage people to pick them up, on the basis there was going to be lots and lots of DLC for them to make money off for the years to come.

This now seems to be EA/ MTV (and apparently from the comments made by this rep from Harmonix themselves as well) trying to get their cake and eat it.

The list of reasons are a joke, you want to start giving out weak excuses for for a price thats 230% more?! Adjust for a weak dollar add VA, the cost of a CE mark, I am sure it still comes nowhere near the mark. Even the base price of just the disc is a smack in the face to loyal fans who have been ravenous for this game. How the hell is the disc more expensive?


I played Rock Band at the Play.com event last month, that solidified for me how much I wanted this game. but at £180 I literally cannot afford that. I know Play have knocked some cash off it but its still too much when you figure in the cost of at least 2-3000 MS points to get the full experiance and cherry pick some great tracks for it.

I hope people are emailing BBC Tech, and other mainstream news ageancies that would love to run another 'Rip Off Britain' story. I feel that they are just going to ignore the hardcore because they assume we will just shut up and eat it. Mainstream press is one of the only ways to get them to see sense on this.

For the 1st time in a while I am gonna feel sorry for people in Game(station) HMV who are gonna have to justify the pricing to customers.

The Hardcore read the Internets, and know its offensive, the casual wont wanna put down that much for an 'Experiance'

Sorry Harmonix / MTV / EA you have lost at least 6 sales from people in RL that I have already talked to. Even non-gamers cannot believe it when I have shown them the numbers.

How can this be remotely pushed at the casual market. I don't know any Mr or Mrs Smith who is going to buy what amounts to a full on band kit and set that up in their house for little Johnny and friends to play on. At 180 quid all in, that's just silly money.

"a bit put off"

Regardless of the whys of the price for this entire package,it is just way too rich for my blood.It is simply unreasonable to ask such a high price in the present economic climate.I hate to say it but I hope it fails as potential customers should not be seen to fleeced to such a extent.

Hey Jeff, I work in Game, and believe me I'm not going to be standing around looking like a twat, trying to justify the asking price for this game.
It's pretty much an impossible task really, I mean if someone wants it, then fine. But if a customer comes in umming and aaahhing about the purchase it's probably best they dont come and talk to me, as they'll be leaving without it.
I'm one of the few Game employees that's stupidly honest, if someone does ask for my opinion on something, say like the new Conflict game, before they buy it, sadly Game's just lost a £40 sale.

I too have to come to the conclusion that EA have simply screwed up here, and done so royally. I've read about 500 comments on EG since this news broke, comments from committed gamers with genuine awareness and enthusiasm for the game, and I can count the number of people willing to actually BUY the thing at this price point on the fingers of one hand. If that's the case amongst the hardcore elite and early adopters, how on earth do they expect to attract anyone else? The casual audience might not be savvy enough to realise the difference between the UK and US price points, but all they'll need to do is look at the shelf to see how unfavourably the price compares to Guitar Hero and Singstar, two games which they will see as being broadly similar to Rock Band, or indeed to the Nintendo Wii, the most popular mainstream home console. To them, Rock Band is suddenly no longer an impulse purchase or fun party accessory; it's an expensive large-scale investment, intended primarily for a specialist audience. Except that specialist audience is us, and we've already said that we're not going to buy it either.

Who knows? Maye I'm judging the market totally wrong here, and the casual games-buying market are far more affluent and committed to their part-time gaming hobby than I think they are, but from where I'm standing right now it appears as though EA have just dug their own graves. I guess time will tell...

Everyone saying "Buy a real guitar, learn to play it" is missing quite a few valid points.

Firstly, it takes bloody years to learn how to play a guitar properly. In the meantime, you know how to play a guitar badly, which is more annoying and embarassing than useful in any way.

Secondly, "useful skill" playing a guitar is not. Everyone and their dog has a guitar these days. Maybe if you're really lucky you'll be good at it and get into a reasonably successful band.

More likely, though, is that you'll do what everyone else does, and end up in a "band" that consists of three guys that meet once a month to badly play someone else's songs and eventually forget all about it by after a year or so.

And can people stop calling learning to play the guitar a "valuable life skill".

I play guitar, and bass, and drums and I tinker on piano. But I will be first to say these are NOT valuable life skills.

First aid is a valuable life skill. Defensive driving is a valuable life skill. Learning another language is a valuable life skill.

Playing a musical instrument, for almost everybody on the planet (i.e. everyone who doens't make their living from it), is a "very pleasant thing to do". Much like juggling and having a snooze.

and gaming, obviously.

"More likely, though, is that you'll do what everyone else does, and end up in a "band" that consists of three guys that meet once a month to badly play someone else's songs and eventually forget all about it by after a year or so."

Still think that's definitely a more worthwhile experience than playing for some silly high scores in a video game... At least it will teach you that making music is hard and that contrary to popular opinion, it's not so easy to create a hit song and earn billions.

Possibly, but it contributes nothing to the debate onwhy there is such a disparity in pricing!

At least it will learn you

Oh my...

that making music is hard and that contrary to popular opinion, it's not so easy to create a hit song and earn billions.

'Hit songs' are written around mathematical formulae and are very, very easy if you know what you're doing. But a) most people don't want to be the suit who writes the Girls Aloud songs and hides in the back, and b) you have to be in the right place at the right time to get the very rare opportunity. For most people being in an original band requires huge amounts of time and endless dedication, not to mention usual significant financial loss, not to mention the constant frustration and heartache as your investments prove fruitless and you spend an eternity playing up and down the country in pubs to audiences of 10 uninterested people, desperate for that lucky break that never materialises. Being in a covers band is utterly pointless and ultimately emphasises the band's inability to write decent music (being an exceptionally good tribute band is the exception to this, I bet Off The Wall and the Bootleg Beatles make a killing).

And I don't think most people with any sense need to play in a band to know that getting big in music isn't easy.

I was going to buy Rock Band right up until I saw the price.

For all the mileage we'd get out of it at home even I can't justify spending that much on a game. And this from the man who imported a Final Fantasy edition Wonderswan not all that long ago.

If anyone 'serious' about their hobby thinks twice at that price, then what the hell is John Q Argos going to think?

Nice one EA. Sink that game.

god i miss the days of the Amiga 500 and Commodore 64. I think the most I ever paid for a game was about 10 quid. Even then people were moaning that was too expensive!!

Everyone saying "Go buy a real guitar..." are really missing the point of games in general.

By the same logic, why don't I also go buy a real Skateboard instead of playing Tony Hawks? Or go play football for real instead of playing Pro Evo? Or go buy a real gun and.... well, you get the picture.

"At least it will learn you

Oh my... "

Fixed. Not a native speaker and was in a hurry...

"'Hit songs' are written around mathematical formulae and are very, very easy if you know what you're doing."

I would argue that most things are very, very easy "if you know what you're doing"... Fact is that there is no easy way to consistently create hit songs. Of course factors like marketing/PR are nowadays about as important as the actual music, which distorts the view a bit.