Rock Band coming to Europe

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

iapetus2k2 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:51:01 GMT

We've seen a lot of arguments about how the price is inflated over the US retail price, but what it comes down to at the end of the day is this:

Things are more expensive in Europe than in the US. We know this. You can take a look at a range of gaming equipment and software, and compare the US RRP to the UK RRP and you'll see that on average they tend to be 40-50% more expensive. That accounts for VAT, import duty (where relevant), extra cost of retail, shipping etc. It's more than people like to pay, but it's pretty well established and pretty standard across the board. Want to buy a PS3? It'll cost you 50% more in the UK than the US. A Wii? 50% more than in the US. An Xbox 360? Well, 12% more than in the US, actually, because we've had a recent price cut and they haven't. Guitar Hero III? About 50% more than in the US. Anyone remember Steel Battalion, with its giant heavy controller that was made in the US and shipped to the UK? About 50% more than in the US.

Want Rock Band? That'll be 110% more than in the US.

And nothing that Harmonix have put forward to explain it seems to do so. The only thing that they suggest that I can even remotely see having an impact is shipping. Someone went to get a quote for shipping 450 units of Rock Band from China to the UK - they were quoted a price that came to £4/unit. Even if the US units get from China to America by magic fairy dust, that's still only an extra £4 per unit - and that's without benefits of volume and big-company leverage that EA have. I've bought Chinese manufactured goods that were bulkier and heavier than Rock Band where the *total cost* was less than £20. Even if the product itself was free to produce and the retailer made 100% loss on the shipping that doesn't come to the amount by which Rock Band is marked up above and beyond the norm.

Meanwhile EA are hiding behind the developers and making no effort to address the issue - they're hoping that everyone will forget about it and buy the game anyway, and they'll have quietly set the precedent for charging over double the amount in the UK for this sort of game. They're hoping they'll be able to use European gamers to pay for the warranty issues they suffered in the US. I'm hoping people have enough sense not to let them get away with that. And the only way to do that is not to buy the game. Doesn't matter whether you can afford it. Doesn't matter whether you want it. The moment you put your money down for a copy of Rock Band, you're saying to EA that you don't mind paying double what the rest of the world is charged in the future, and they'll be doing just that.

And the money off we're seeing at places like Play and Amazon? Largely irrelevant. Part of the normal 50% markup we see represents a higher cost of retail which these companies partly pass on to the consumer. In other words, although games have a higher RRP in the UK, they tend not to sell for that full price. This is built into the standard prices that are set. Play should be discounting *from* £130, not *to* £130.

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

Coolits — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:29:27 GMT

I'm so disappointed by the price, I defiantly wont be lining EA's pockets at this price point. How can they possibly expect the average gamer to subscribe to paying this price for a game, you could buy a 2nd 360 for less lol.

My initial thoughts is that this will make what sounds like a really cool game a flop in Europe.

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

anon 991 — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:43:12 GMT

Buy the instrument off ebay, and the game in a shop

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

irish ace 2k7 — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:25:58 GMT

First IRAQ gets screwed over, now europe? lol...

Check this bulls**t out, it explains the ggame being sold seperately, fair enough, but the high prices are a load of bolox, i hope the pricing manager (or wtf) get fired so bad they get 1st degree burns

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

SPARKY123 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:03:07 GMT

Just to echo most of the existing comments. Complete rip off. I waited patiently for months to get this kick in the love spuds :(

Time to dust of the PS3 and import that version (due to the 360 region locking). Looks like that's a shed load of DLC money that'll be going to Sony for a change.

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

Mark Bygroves — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:26:49 GMT

I too won't be buying this game now. I don't see how Harmonix can blame the VAT on this ridiculous high price when VAT is only 17.5% and sometimes as low as 5% depending on the product/service I'm sorry but how can EA charge so much for software & 3 instruments when microsoft can develop/build and ship an arcade 360 for £150 (probably less if you shop around) instead of going for a massive price for the hardware and game why not just sell them at cost price safe in the knowledge that people will be buying plenty of downloadable content anyway (if your in Europe at twice the price of our stateside brothers 160 MS points as opposed to 80 MS points!!!)

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

Svobz — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:47:18 GMT

not buying it for that price, dl content for this game will be also overpriced for europeans

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

TidalPhoenix — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:13:49 GMT

I wouldn't expect anything less from EA. They are the ugly wart on the gaming world's buttock. So it's not a surprise at least.

I was prepared to pay £100 for this but almost £200?? You can get a Wii for less! In fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do. The day the game is released for £180 I'm going into town to buy a wii...wife's wanted one for ages anyway and it's only me that's been resisting.

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

Rockettpunk — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:55:27 GMT

Gamestation (www.gamestation.co.uk/product.asp) has got the game advertised at pre-order for £39 (€50), no news on the instuments tho.

Man. If the price for the instruments is that much thats gonna suck so bad!

Does anyone know if the US instruments will work with the UK game (That could be an option...)

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

sd99 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:20:03 GMT

Re Anon 191: "I just preordered mine for 99 pounds and 99 pence from Play.com. When you consider the mark up on games and everything else in the UK, this seems like a reasonable price to me for the game and instruments. No-one pays the RRP any more. Unless they don't have web access.........." That's £100 for just the instruments. If you want the game as well, it's another £40. This is the problem we are all complaining about.

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

PNReynard — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:49:28 GMT

Major.

What is Microsoft's stance with this issue as they have paid for Timed Exclusivity for this game in Europe?

Do you feel it was money well spent after seeing all these Negitive Comments?

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

DrDaveWatford — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:41:58 GMT

I just preordered mine for 99 pounds and 99 pence from Play.com. When you consider the mark up on games and everything else in the UK, this seems like a reasonable price to me for the game and instruments. No-one pays the RRP any more. Unless they don't have web access..........

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

Till X360 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Guys, get this:

HARMONIX THINKS THE PRICING IN EUROPE IS "FAIR"

www.digitalspy.co.uk/.../harmonix-uk-rock-band-price-is-fair.html

__________________

When asked why the game is £95 more expensive in the UK than the US, Kay blamed VAT and the general cost of electronics as the main factors.

"These are definitely not excuses so much as contributing reasons," Kay said. "I can't talk to the explicit pricing - how it gets split down between retailers and distributors and the whole chain - because I don't actually know that much about it."

__________________

Blame VAT, blame cost of electronics (sure, Chinese costs vary depending on DESTINATION, yah right), and then just admit that you don't know jack.

SCREW EA, SCREW HARMONIX. They are taking a piss here.

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

ShapeThrower — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:10:23 GMT

I'm going to jump in here and echo the sentiments already expressed above .... I'm not buying this ....

I, like many others, have been waiting patiently for months for the release of Rock Band in the UK. I was planning on purchasing it on the 360 as I've already got GH2 & GH3 so I've got some extra hardware that'll work with it. Then we were told the price ... and that just killed my excitement and anticipation. Not to release the pack the US got is harsh in it's own right. But to do a pretty much just swap the $ sign for a £ sign on the price tag is criminal. I'm guessing the production costs for the kit and game aren't all that different from the US release so how come the price is so high for us European types?

The dreaded tax man has been mentioned as a cause of this but I refuse to believe that the v.a.t. here in the UK is the cause of this inflated figure ...

Given the region free nature of the PS3 it looks like if I want to get my RockBand fix I'll have to import that (for a cost of approx. £100 for the ENTIRE bundle), that's providing I decide to shelve my disgust with EA's decision and deem them worthy of my hard earned money once again. Until that day comes ..... I declare that I will purchase no more EA published games on any platform. I urge others to follow suite ....

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

UK Guy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:52:18 GMT

Well I wonder if this inflated price is because EA decided to make the weapons free in BFBC. I guess they gotta make up for the loss somewhere. And where better then they're favourite cash cow - Europe..

re: Rock Band coming to Europe

Jax Demon — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:21:44 GMT

£130 FOR A FEW BITS OF PLASTIC THAT IS PROBABLY MADE IN CHINA FOR ABOUT £4 EACH

Bits of plastic that have had to be replaced in the US because they broke or just did not work

Lol £180

Plenty of things I could buy that will entertain my family for that amount of cash could probbaly max out my daughters Disney cars collection and watch her have even more fun playing with them.

I wont even buy a movie over Xbox live for over 500 points because I can only watch it so many times withing 24 hours before its deleted.

MS say download is the future well yes it could be if we was not ripped off by big companies Like Ms and Ea