Vote with Your Wallet

I know this is now getting on for old news but I thought I'd just share my thoughts (which are also probably the thoughts of every other European gamer right now) on the recently announced pricing of Rock Band in Europe. The reason I'm doing this is to try to get the information out to as many people as possible.

We're pretty used to getting screwed over in Europe when it comes to games. More often than not we have to wait months following the American and Japanese releases to get our hands on games, and when they do come out, they tend to be more expensive (at least, in the UK they do). Usually the reason given for the former is that Europe requires a large deal of regionalisation, what with all the different languages and market-places that need catering for, and the reason for the latter is basically our trade-off for getting free(ish) health care. It's the way things are, and although I'm not very happy about it, I have to admit that recently things have been getting better in terms of release dates, what with big titles like Halo 3 and the soon to be released Grand Theft Auto 4 being debuting simultaneously in all markets (which is just as well, seeing as GTA4 was developed in Edinburgh).

But last week Electronic Arts took things to a whole new level of unfairness when they announced the pricing for the already inexplicably delayed Rock Band, which for those who don't know is like Guitar Hero except it also has drums and a microphone. They finally revealed that it would hit stores this side of the Atlantic on May 23rd, almost exactly seven months after the North American launch. It's anyone's guess what they were doing for all that time. Surely it doesn't take more than a week to translate the rather limited text of the menus into the usual continental languages? The excuse EA has used so far is that it's been working on a list of songs specially tailored for European tastes, which now turns out to be exactly the same as the American one, but with eight extra tracks, only three of which are by bands I've heard of and none of which were worth the wait. Here they are:

- Beetlebum (Blur)
- Rock 'n' Roll Star (Oasis)
- Hysteria (Muse)
- Manu Chao (Les Wamaps)
- New Wave (Playmo)
- Hier Kommt Alex (Die Toten Hosen)
- Perfekte Welle (Juli)
- Countdown to Insanity (H-Block X)

And just in case someone might think that Europe was in any way being shown a favour, all these tracks are going to be available in the US at the same time. The only benefit of being European is that we won't have to pay for the tracks, and believe me that's the same choice I'd make regardless of my situation.

The 'good news' part of EA's announcement last week was that we would be able to download all the songs that have become available for download in America since the launch. Oh, thank you EA! It's good to know that you managed to set aside a small nibble of the millions of dollars you rake in from selling the same football game to the same people each year to maintain some servers to give us the same amount of choice as America in the extras that you can sell us!

But the crotch-kickingly unjust part is this: the game is going to be twice as expensive to buy over here as it is in the US and Canada! The American Rock Band bundle, which includes the game disc, microphone, drum kit and one guitar, costs $169.99. The UK Rock Band bundle, which doesn't have the freaking disc included, costs £129.99, with the separate (and obviously mandatory) disc costing £49.99. Thus, to actually get the equivalent of the US bundle, you have to spend £179.98. What's amazing is that even before you convert to dollars, the value in pounds is larger! That's not a good sign.

At the current exchange rate then, Rock Band will set you back $354.84, more than twice the amount North American gamers are paying. What's the reason for this? EA have rather weakly said that there are lots of little factors that have driven the price up, such as VAT. News flash, EA. VAT is 17.5%, not 108%. There is no good reason for the difference in price. If there were, they would be being more open about it.

So I'm saying no. I was quite looking forward to Rock Band, but following the massive delay my excitement has dwindled, and this is simply EA being greedy at our expense. I want nothing to do with it. Until it drops to a reasonable price (as was rumoured might happen on Kotaku yesterday) I'm not buying it, and nor should anyone else unless they want EA to think that Europeans are a bunch of insular morons who will buy anything no matter the cost. Product development manager for Rock Band Greg LoPiccolo was quoted as saying:

"You may conclude that Rock Band isn't worth the price charged, and that is your prerogative. But it's not magically going to get cheaper because you wish it to be so,"

to which someone on Neogaf responded:

"Watch how it magically comes down in price when noone buys it". I certainly hope so.