The death of Rock .......

Rock Band that is ......

All across the web a wave of discontent and disgust is heading in the direction of EA because of what they announced this week concerning this game.

The game was originally released in November last year for the US and since then the other markets have been waiting patiently to partake of the fun that this game has brought to our US brethren ....
This week they announced that date for us European types, May23rd.
Although it's going to be a "timed exclusive" and that date only applies to the Xbox 360.

"Great" thinks I .. "I was planning on getting it for that anyway" mainly due to the fact that the Guitar Hero guitars I have for the 360 will work with that version of Rock Band, so four player band based fun was going to be mine.

I say "was" ... Not because it's due out and I haven't got it yet, but because I no longer plan to buy this game which generated so much excitement in the US and here and looked to be a game I would be playing and buying DLC for for quite some time.

The reason behind this sudden about face in desire .... Compare the following ....

In the US right now on Amazon you can buy the "special edition" which is the game, a guitar, a USB microphone and a drum kit for $147.99 (and the RRP or "list price" is $169.99).
Using current conversion rates for the $ to £ that works out at around £85. Now I wasn't expecting that sort of price for all those goodies as it never works like that. I was expecting it to be around the £100/120 mark ....

I wasn't even close .......

EA in their infinite wisdom have decided release it in the following manner and to set the RRP for it to the following ....

An "instrument edition" that retails for £130 which consists of a guitar, USB microphone and drums BUT NO GAME !!! The game's set to retail for £50.

So in total to get the same Rock Band experience that the US got we'll have to shell out £180 ....

Quite frankly this is an attrocious choice of price point. I know various online retailers are going to cut money off the game itself bring it down to £40 and Play.com have already dropped the instrument bundle to £100, but that's still £20 more than I was prepared or able to justify paying for it.

Given the out cry that this has generated amongst European gamers (I'm not going to link anything here ... check any of the gaming blogs or even the forums on EA's website) I find it hard to believe that EA is going to sell all that many units.
Petitions are being created and apparently the EA forums have stopped accepting new accounts as many are registering just to voice their complaint.
I myself will be showing my displeasure at their decision by "hitting them in the wallet" and will refrain from purchasing any EA published games from here on.

Rock Band was going to be fantastic .... Guitar Hero was looking scared .... Today it seems to be switched.
With one announcement they appear to have sealed the fate of ,what was, one of the most eagerly anticipated games of this year .....

Rock and Roll may never die ... but I'm afraid, in Europe at least, Rock Band looks like it may ....