Great i will be able to play these once i'm unband from xbox live. Even though i did nothing, thanks alot.

Dude! This has been a long time coming for sure. I can't wait to rock out on it tonight.

You can't really compare the US prices directly to your prices, Xebu. While the total size of the market is quite large, it's a very segmented market, both by language and culture. Costs of distribution differ, localization costs differ, and taxes (for the importers/distributors) differ. Not to mention the legal requirements about having games available in certain languages! The higher the cost of bringing a game to your region, the more you will have to pay, because the costs are always passed down to the consumer. In the US, games only need to be produced in English, and the costs of distribution are much lower. The US is a consumer culture, and buy buy buy only happens when the price is as low low low as possible. Thankfully because the total cost of getting the game out there is lower, those savings are passed on to the consumer. We could also talk about the issue of the licensed songs in the game, and how licensing them for use in the US is one thing, but in Europe it's completely different. You may very well get different base tracks if songs couldn't be licensed, or if there are songs that are more appropriate for your area.

Also, (not to be forgotten) is that games are also priced at what the market will bear. If the average game in your area was £59.99, a new game would likely be released at that price, because consumers are buying games at that price. The special edition of Rock Band is likely going to be priced approx 2 to 2.5 times the price of a normal retail game - after all, it includes a drum kit, guitar and microphone. The game costs $170 + 13% sales tax here in Canada ($192.10CDN). For us, and our currency/economny, that's a really expensive game. For $305 (taxes in) you'd be able to buy a Wii, if you could find one! Normally, Xbox 360 games cost anywhere from $49.99-$69.99, with the vast majority sitting at $59.99. In your currency that's not a lot, but you forget to factor in all of the extra costs in getting games to you.

I agree with you that it sucks, but it's not as if Microsoft and Harmonix are conspiring against Europe! The game is still really hard to find here - I imagine that part of the process involved in getting the game to you in the first place is stockpiling enough inventory so they can actually have some to sell to you. That's always hard when the demand for the game is practically frothing where it's already available. You'll get the game of course, and it's a shame you miss out on having it when the Americans do, but to be fair that's also not uncommon or strange for Europeans to deal with. The vast majority of games release later for you, and many are due to the extra costs I mentioned above. I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, just trying to explain that sometimes the reasons for a delay are reasons you wouldn't necessarily think of. It would be wonderful if every game could have a worldwide release so we could all play together, but fact is all but the biggest studios simply don't have the funds/resources to ensure their game meets the requirements for every region at launch.

Still no update regaring American Idol Encore downloads.  We saw Inside Xbox and know you play, Major!