I just read that EA has decided to drop the RRP of Rock Band in Europe ahead of the PS3 / PS2 / Wii release this Friday, to £109 instead of £129 for the instruments edition (game is still extra).
This is good, but I’m not sure whether it will be reflected in the practical price you pay; Play.com were already selling the instruments bundle for less than this lower RRP (£99) right from release in May (on 360), and Amazon matched it fairly quickly. Whether they will also reflect this RRP price drop I’m not sure, I guess it depends if anyone goes first.
There was such a massive backlash against the Rock Band pricing in Europe, which is somewhat understandable but lessened somewhat when you take into account that a) the shockingly high £189.99 RRP isn’t actually what you end up paying (I paid £133), b) we always pay more in Europe anyway, thanks to languages and regulations, it’s why $59.99 games are £49.99 here when they should be more like £35 c) the US exchange rate has come off its highs now, denting the conversion calculations to some degree; but as yet I’ve heard pretty much no consternation about the GH:WT price, which – shock – is pretty much comparable. Play & Amazon have it listed at £159.99, which is £20 more expensive than they’re selling Rock Band for (before any potential reduction from today’s announcement) once you add in the game. They are however bundling a bass guitar which would normally cost an extra £30-60 (depending on which one you buy) so that does make it cheaper if you had needed to buy all 4 instruments. But, if you already own a guitar from GH3 I’m sure you’d rather have the £30-60 off rather than the bundled bass – but of course the reduction in price wouldn’t be anywhere near that large without the bundling, since they’re no doubt doing it at cost. My guess is that eBay will be awash with unwanted GH:WT wireless bass guitars come the November release date.
Whichever way you slice it, there’s not that much difference in the prices. These games are expensive, which sucks, but if you want this unique experience, you have to pay the ante; bitching about it and crying ‘boycott’ will in practice do very little except deny yourself that experience while all the people who do choose to save up for it have a great time. Supply & demand rules apply – despite the vocal boycott brigade, most people will make their own decisions on whether they think it’s worth it. I’m glad I had a load of PS2 Guitar Hero stuff to sell on eBay to help fund my Rock Band experience, but even if I didn’t I would still have bought it, and I haven’t regretted the outlay one iota. The disc hasn’t left my 360 since May and we’ve had hours and hours of collective fun with it. The way I look at it, it cost me the equivalent of about 3.5 normal full-price games, and I strongly believe it’s given me at least that multiple in enjoyment compared to any other single game I own – more so when you add in the collective enjoyment on social occasions. And I don’t see us stopping playing it any time soon – GH2 lasted us a year, and that was without the weekly DLC that makes Rock Band so rich with variety. It may just be a silly game with expensive plastic instruments, but my goodness it delivers a damn fine dollop of fun 
September 8th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
The WAF is very low for Rockband for me… and unfortunetly lounge is so small I don’t know where we would put all the plastic fisher price instruments anyway :-/
Still it’s a blast playing at someone with enough space for it though. Or at lunch in one of the meeting rooms at work
Impressed that it’s been the only game in your 360 for months, that is quite the personal endorsment.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Yeah, we’re fortunate to have a good sized living room, we just have to clear the coffee table out the way. Some of the reason Rock Band hasn’t moved from the drive is that I got 3 games for my birthday in between, but all were for Wii or DS. Those, plus Rock Band and recently Geometry Wars 2 from XBLA have given me more than enough to play.
Rock Band’s had the largest number of hours though, probably because I play it with my wife and with friends a lot. I’m ‘in’ 2 bands: “Irritable Monkey Syndrome” with my wife and “Über Syrup” which consists of me, my wife, a friend and his wife, which is great fun. We also have quickplay games with other friends very regularly. I love it – I’m less of a hardcore gamer than I was when I was in my 20s and combining playing + socialising is perfect – I very rarely sit down alone for hours and hours to play games these days. Sure I could play online with people, but for me that’s not even close in terms of enjoyment. Lounge social gaming with ‘real’ friends beats online gaming hands down.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Indeed, social gaming in person is best, followed by online and then single player… for me at any rate.
Visited some friends in Dorset on the weekend, we had quite a few goes on Scene It on the 360. Tried Wits and Wagers too, but it didn’t really seem that great.
They had Guitar Hero actually, but only one Guitar. I had a go on playing co-op on a pad… man that’s hard! The pad maps the triggers out to be the coloured buttons rather then the coloured buttons.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Heh, I’ve never tried it on a pad, that’s gotta be weird. I’m sure there’s someone out there on the intertubes who has mastered it though
I think my next ‘full’ game on 360 is likely to be Fable 2, which my wife and I are looking forward to playing co-op on, if it turns out as well as it’s looking (Edge had a nice article on it this month). You’ll have an entirely impartial view on that of course
September 9th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Yeah I’d noticed that the price drop had been announced with the release of the PS3 and Wii version…
I may eventually get the stand alone game without the instuments, as it does have a good track list and great DLC. Also the latest patch for Rock band means that the GH3 PS3 guitar will now also work for Rock Band, which is a bonus.
However, my time may be taken up for the next few weeks by Disgaea 3, which has just today arrived (imported) in the post for me… Wooh… SRPG nirvana
September 9th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Yeah, it’s great that Activision finally wised up and let Harmonix publish this patch, which they’ve had available for a year now but Activision refused to let them release (another reason I have little respect for them – they clearly prefer making money to helping players out).
Disgaea, hmm – you’re such a JRPG geek
September 9th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for the add, wasn’t going to presume to do it myself, as I’m only a reader and all