Okay so as a European, I'm used to being fucked up the pooper by the American film and gaming industries on a daily basis. The following, however, I could not foresee, as it is by far the most ridiculous thing I've come across in a good while.
Rock Band was released in the US in late 2007 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2. The Wii version will be released in the US on June 22. The bundle with a guitar, a microphone, a drumkit and the game itself costs 169 USD, which is about 110 EUR.
Harmonix took their sweet time announcing the European release, which we now know will happen in late May. I'm a patient guy and I don't mind a little waiting, so I would've been okay with that, but it was then announced that it will only be released for the Xbox 360 in May, and the other platforms will get the game August 29. Okay, so I thought it probably can't get any worse than this for a Wii owner so I didn't get too fired up at this point. As for the price, I was thinking that since in the US it costs 169 USD, they'll probably do what they always do, which is make a direct conversion to euros, making the price 169 EUR (260 USD). That's a bit much for just one game so I was still considering whether I would buy it or not. Then Harmonix dropped the real bomb: For a European, the whole package would cost
240 EUR. At first I thought that they made an error somewhere, that this is such a ridiculous number that it can't be true, that this must be part of some sadistic, leg pulling competition that game companies use to scare the shit out of their customers so they'll happily go back to buying games that are already ridiculously expensive. But it seems they're completely serious. 240 EUR for a game that costs 110 EUR in the US? To quote a wise man, what a shitload of fuck.
Of course, it doesn't end there, oh no. To really cram that fist deeper into our non-American asses, they decided to first only release the game in Germany, France and the UK and see how it does before releasing it in any other European countries. No release date has been given for an all-European release. To make things even more expensive for their European friends, even the downloadable songs cost more in Europe.
So how do they justify this subtle increase in price you ask? Well, it's the taxes and the shipping costs of course. There's an additional 17.5% VAT in Europe that doesn't exist in the US, so that's a 17.5% addition to the price right there. So yeah, it's completely logical that there's a 130% increase because of the 17.5% tax + shipping and localization costs. Right.
Because the European pricetag is almost impotence-inducing in its full glory, the bundle will be sold in parts. That's right, you simply CANNOT purchase the whole set in one piece, you must buy the peripherals separately from the game. At first I thought that this might be a good thing, I could maybe just buy the game and play just the guitar parts with my GH3 guitar, if it happens to be compatible (yeah, that'll happen). But no, they took the final ray of hope from me when I saw the pricetag for JUST THE GAME: 70 EUR. Holy fucking shitstains Batman, have they no shame? For GH3 most of the price consists of the peripheral, and you can buy just the game for 30 EUR, so I thought it would be reasonable to assume that the same goes for RB as well. Well of course I should have known better.
I sincerely hope that every single unit is left on the shelves untouched and that Harmonix and EA take a crippling financial blow that makes them bankcrupt and forces their managers to resort to prostituting themselves for food. That's what I have to say for now, any other thoughts?
