Rock Band man defends Euro price Comments by Ellie Gibson

Which is easier to believe?
A : That the evil corporation would set the price at such a point that fewer people could readily afford to buy it thus harming their profits.
B : The cost to manufacture and ship the plastic peripherals is considerably higher in Europe than in the US.

Just sayin.

Considering not buying it now, whereas yesterday it was a must own.

Still think that's definitely a more worthwhile experience than playing for some silly high scores in a video game...

Who are you to say what is and is not a 'worthwhile' use of my free time? I'm pretty comfortable with the frankly obvious observation that playing any computer game is a 'waste of time'. I still do it though, because it's fun. I reckon most people visiting this specialist computer games site would probably agree with me. Playing Guitar Hero with my friends is fun in a way that learning the guitar, or another language, or writing a novel won't ever be - rewarding though they all are in their own way.

And if we're all perfectly honest, you pratting around with a guitar isn't really that laudable. Could you not be studying a degree course, or working for a charity, or something worthwhile.

@cnlfailure
You forgot C
C : EA didn't make enough money on the US version of Rock Band either because of all the replacement peripherals they had to distribute or because DLC revenues are lower than expected, and now they want Europe to pay for it because they expect us to roll over and take this.

Also, don't expect these peripherals to be made in Europe. My Guitar Hero guitar is made in China and I very much expect Rock Band peripherals to be made in Asia too.

Edit:
Actually, shipping costs might not be that much higher in Europe too. Sure, gas prices are higher in Europe, but there's way less overland shipping. Most places in Europe aren't that far from the coast in comparison to the US, so a lot less fuel is needed to transport these games to inland European stores than it is to transport them to inland US stores.

Even buying just an individual drum kit and the game would set me back £100, which to be honest is a complete therefore NO SALE!

It may not be a regular game, but that doesn't give you fuckers reason to completly rip Europe off like this. We wait 6 months longer than the US, and then you pull this stunt? I just hope everyone in Europe see's sense and boycotts the game.

Playing guitar is completely worthwhile...it pays my bills and puts food in my belly.

Playing video games it also worthwhile...it puts a smile on my face and a chuckle in my heart.

Horses...Courses...

Ken?

^^^
L O L

107 to 240 that doesn't sound right. Especially not when combined with such a poor 'explanation'.

What's the problem if you don't like it you don't buy it..
[...]
people? why are you looking at me like that...
aahhhh
AAAHHH
*powww**

This guy is Joking !!!!
The same experience more expensive. He thinks, we are stupid. Put your game in your ass.
Why this guy is lying?.

Oh, the following URL has been posted before, but it might be good to keep repeating it every few posts.

http://www.petitiononline.com/RockBand/petition.html

Anyone who doesn't agree with EA's pricing strategy, please let them know what you think of this and sign the petition! ;)

"GBP 180 / EUR 240 - compared to USD 169 (GBP 85 / EUR 107)"

Over double the price. That's it, I'm out.

"This is an entirely new thing. What other game comes with three peripherals that are all different? It just makes sense for the experience we're trying to deliver."

How is any of that even remotely relevant to the difference in price between US and Euro/UK? What a load of shite.

"Kay cited VAT and the higher price of consumer electronics generally."

Would explain a price increase but nowhere like this one.

"Kay cited fact that european customers generally seem willing to pay more." Would be closer to the truth I think.

YOu can buy the instruments for £99 and game for £39.99 so total of £139.98 over at play.com just seen it !!

You can pretty much guarentee a fuck load of market research has gone into this.

Regardless of cost of manufacture, the only question which will have been put through focus groups will have been

'How much will people pay for this' -

the answer is £180.

If they could make it for £1 - the answer would still be the same, so be under no illusion that all at EA are really hard up and they HAVE to charge this. They are in business to make money. The more the better, and they will have been told by a hell of a lot of greasy, shiney suit wearing coke addled marketing types,

'The stupid fucks in europe will actually pay DOUBLE the price in the US! I know they are fucking nuts! Please make more - how about Gardening Team! or Cutlery Hero! - we could do a full 64 piece dinner service periferal!'


Utter utter twats.

Now I know I'm not going to buy it, I wish it was more expensive. Way more.

so its more or less £100 more.
Thats ridiculous! The american shops are going to have fun exporting all the copies of rock band lol :P

at play.com's price it comes back into temptation.

But only if they add Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey, Skullcrusher Mountain and RE: Your Brains to go alongside Still Alive.

AT LEAST

please?

Hmm. Does this make it more or less likely that they're going to release a 'Symphony Orchestra' version? I could probably afford the triangle.

Rock Band - EPIC FAIL

I truly hope that the game wont sell well in Europe, not that I dislike the game but that price just feels like a rape.
Consumers really need to start voting with their wallets rather than take it up the a** prison-style, game after game.

Oh, and extremely poorly defended by the wat. That just doesnt cut it.

First off its unfair to compare the US and UK/Euro price as there's a lot of complications.

The main thing to take into consideration is earnings relative to the country. For the end of the 2006 financial year the average american income was $26,036, the average British wage is £23,764.

So in relative terms the average american wage for 2006 was only £14150.

Whats the point? Well the average American wage was 59% of the UK average wage and with the US Rock Band at £85 (does this include tax or rebates?) it is only 60% of the Play.com price.

So, the Play.com price for Rock Band "costs" the same to the British public as it does to USA citizens. Now this is merely a rough idea as the 2007 financial year has only just finished so there's no average figures yet and I'm not comparing average disposable income (I don't have the time or atience to work that out).

Secondly, if you are going to buy the £140 set and let your mates play on it then you are far more generous than me. Me and my brother are splitting it 50/50, he gets the guitar, I keep the drums we both share the game and ignore the microphone so it works out at about the same price as GHIII.

Quite simply its not MTV, Harmonix or EA's fault that your friends are too stingy and you let them sponge off of you.

Still not buying it, nob.

Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble Rabble rabble rabble rabble

@Gastrian

You seem to be suggesting that they're somehow being "fair". They're not, they're charging what they think the public will pay. It's the way companies work.

I have to say that, as your figures fail to take into account cost of living and disposable income (which, according to a google search, is at it's lowest level in the UK for 25 years, apparently) then your argument seems kinda weak (it's also meaningless to convert US salaries to Sterling or Euro or Kroblackian Slobarfish or whatever your currency of choice is without taking this into account). Basically, it seems a bit... thin (also, I'm not sure where you got your average salaries but they seem a bit low).

In fact I suspect that you have it asswise and people in the US are still much "better off" than in the UK.

Same prices for the US and Europe now! Cmon, vat is like 12% not 100 fucking %

No game is £180 of good.
This is like Steel Battalion all over again.

lol reading through all this im not surprised people are pi$$ed!

Smelly -: dont fret, there is a job at EA for you if you want it? PR need all the help they can get lol.

Make a million reasons why something is justified at double the price for long enough and people might just give EA the benefit of the doubt, but lets just face the fact there a giant company trying every possible trick to get money out of us uk gamers. next thing you know they will charge double for the repair of drum kits and you can download new guitar skins for double the price compared to the US, when will it end? Sony are no better from the PS3 pi$$ take!

There's econimics and theres exploitation, dont see how anyone can justify paying more just because its a decent game and we happen to live in the UK.

I'm sorry, but the people who buy these peripherals and game for that GROSSLY inflated price deserve to be £180 odd poorer - if no one buys it at this price (and who in their right mind would?) then the price will come down to one more in-line with that of the US.

Its time we EU'ers stop taking it up the ass price/late release date wise. If we keep eating it all up they're gonna keep on ass-fucking.

There it is.

Boycott Rock Band.

@grussbarbar
Oh, the following URL has been posted before, but it might be good to keep repeating it every few posts.

http://www.petitiononline.com/RockBand/p...

Anyone who doesn't agree with EA's pricing strategy, please let them know what you think of this and sign the petition! ;)


You don't have to sign a stupid petition - just don't buy it. We live in a capitilist society. As soon as it starts not to sell the price will come down naturally.

@jebus

True. But if we're able to get the price down earlier by signing a petition, then we can enjoy the game earlier... ;)

Of course, it's a long shot, but still... Sam & Max is coming to Wii because of the e-mail campaigns and petitions. Sometimes developers and publishers do look at these things... =)

Dear EA,

Shove it up your stinking rip-off merchant holes.

Best regards,

Your friend,

Stephen.

So rock band for Wii will cost more than the actual console itself?

I quite fancied this but at this batshit crazy inflated price they just lost another customer, I'm moving to the states!

You can tell him I said this - no fookin chance.

I`m sticking with Guitar Hero for the forseeable, buddy. Shove your bullshit excuses up your jacksie.

@Gastrian

What utter nonsense. First off when a game comes out in your country of origin, it's actually created in a pressing plant in europe. It isn't physically shipped from the states or any idiocy like that. The publishers also tend to change from area to area for the same reasons i.e. A developers european publishing deal is handled by X while the american one is handled by Y. This is what a lot of those strange logos people don't recognise on the packaging are.

In other words, there is no physical reason why europe is paying 100% more for the game than America. It seems to me that Harmonix and EA simply wish to make the same physical amount of money as they did state side from a country containing 1/10th the people. The reality is that shops like Game should be selling ALL games at 34.99 yet some seem to be 39.99 and some even 44.99 depending on how popular they are. Strangely enough it's the un-popular ones they try to sell for more because they want to get an even spread ofmoney from each game.

Looking at this logically, the only reason to have the instruments sold seperately from the game is because the instruments are not produced in europe while the game is. They would have to assemble the packaging over here if they wished to do anything else.

Why people think there is any legitimate reason for the pricing structure is beyond me.

The other thing that people are forgetting about US taxes is that some States, like Oregon, don't have sales tax. So they're getting it at absolutely rock bottom.

Some GREAT points in here gents, especially the ipod and airbook price comparisons.

£130 for the instrument box would be acceptable (just about) if the game was included too, as with the US version. Absolutely bloody disgraceful strategy from EA.

@ Gastrian,

I lived and worked in the States for a couple of years, and even if the average US wage is half that of the UK, it's also true that the cost of living is CONSIDERABLY less. Also, for the equivalent 'professional' jobs such as engineering or IT, the US pays much better than the UK, in some cases double.

Anybody and I mean ANYBODY who pays more that 80 quid for a game should be shot in the head.
Dont buy it and send a message out to these people that we will not be ripped off.

Bullshit.

Wow, I wanted to make a point but they've already been made. Still to summarise-

@Gastrian- fair point, the Play.com price- a £40 reduction- is almost reasonable. And hopefully [Play.com] will make a killing by the time this news spreads, forcing the price at other online retailers down. Because apparently, Play think they can still make a profit will shaving 25% off their margin. I'm not just blaming EA and MTV, but Game and Gamestation too.

P.S.- Everyone seems to assume that you're American- you're either British right? I don't recall the last time I heard an American say mate (either that or a quite well planned plant).

@Jebus- bingo! Took the words right out of my mouth, if no-one buys the thing they'll have to lower the price. Remember the Xbox UK launch? Anyone? They dropped the price by a £100 within a month/! (I could swear it was 5 days, but can't remember well enough).

Rock band is continually being compared to a platform, and I think that will come with a platform holder's responsibility to look at the long term. Sure they're probably looking toward a sequel that'll include the keyboard they had to drop (come on 'I don't like Mondays'!) etc. But they also have to look at the profits and costs associated with their downloadable content. Every game they sell will be another person who can potentially buy each of their DLC packs. Perhaps EA/MTV/Harmonix would do well to learn a lesson from their big brothers- platform holders initially only make money through their games.

@Kokotoni-wif- that's a really good point. As much as I would like to play 'Can't stand losing you', 'Orange Crush', 'Don't Fear the Reaper' and 'Timmy and the Lord's of the Underworld'- I'd be much happier being able to play Super Mario Galaxy, No More Heroes, Wario Ware Smooth Moves and Lostwinds, I guess I like games more than I like music.

Inevitably, I'm sure I will buy Rock Band, when it comes down in price- and it will. Anyone else remember the phrase 'Real Arcade Light Gun'? £50 each on release (no game included), and you had to buy a PSX to use the damn thing with.

They we're down to £1 each in MVC before I bought my three.

They could always sell it as "the game that is worth more than your console" or perhaps "no money from army of two so rip you off too" or maybe "we are buying everyone up so you will have to pay us sooner or later". I never thought I would see the day where a game is more expensive than a game console... Bring back the good old days.... Only two bob in the days when I started gaming.... Aye they where the days....

@White_Westie
"Bring back the good old days.... Only two bob in the days when I started gaming.... Aye they where the days...."

Aye, there were no website here then, this were all trees!

There is absolutely no way in hell that I am paying more in £ than the price is in $. No. Forget it. Never. Harmonix/EA can shove the game and the controllers where the sun doesn't shine.

Oye!
Eurogamer chums.
Do us all a favour and give us an email address we can use to register our dissapointment.

Play the euroman

.....and post it as a sticky on yer homepage

Think I've posted on every one of these OMG YOU'RE HAVING A LAFF? threads so far so may as well add to this one too.

I think EA are secretly being employed by the US government to try and halt their financial downfall through the pockets of casual European gamers.

Seriously

(Not really seriously)

No way am I paying that they are taking the piss.

Rar rar rar... EA wankers.... Rar rar rar..... Exchange rate VAT bollocks..... rar rar rar

/carries pitchfork and feels part of the mob

I know this is a little late in the day and descution but it's just accured to me that the argument about consumer electronics prices doesn't compute

a 360 elite in the states is $450 and Rockback full bundle is $165 which mean that rock band in the state cost 37% of a 360 pro

so you should then have the same % difference between a 360 and rock band in europe too however:

360 elite cost 269.99 and Rock band instrument bundle plus game £180 which is 66%

which mean the relative mark up is way out!!!!!!! we should be getting charged £100

Zap!

I'm just simply going for the "I won't be buying", I guess if Rock Band isn't "normal" for video games then neither will it sales at this rate. I bet Nintendo are over the moon as everyone's forgot about the Wii Fit's price all of a sudden.

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Europe_Screw...

Let's show EA we're not going to stand for these ridiculous prices.