Europe Needs To Suck It Up, Rock Band Totally Worth It
Some of our European constituants may have frowned yesterday after reading Fruit Brute's article on the upcoming May 23 release of Rock Band and seeing the exorbitant prices attached to the full rig.
Here's a rundown:
- Instrument Pack (The guitar, drums and microphone.) = £129.99/€169.99
- Rock Band = £49.99/€69.99
Even I, a yank, had to look at those prices and wonder, "Who will be able to afford this? Scrooge McDuck's nefariously mustached European doppelgänger?" Harmonix's own Rob Kay was quick to point out that the pricing is not intended to be malicious, and that the quality and the content of Rock Band more than make up for the expense.
It is more expensive, when you just straight to straight convert the prices you see on the website for the US version but there's a myriad of these little differences that all add up. One thing is VAT, which is included in all the UK prices, 17.5%. There's no tax included in the US price because tax is different per state. There's a bunch of little reasons that add up to the price difference. We're not trying to screw people. We want to give people the chance to get into Rock Band and embrace it. We think that when they do play it then they'll be like then this is worth the money.This is a different experience. You cannot have a multi-player, multi-peripheral game be in the same price point as a regular game. What it delivers is so much bigger and so much better. We understand that people are going to feel a little bit aggrieved about it but we hope that playing the game will override that feeling.
It's hard to see how Harmonix is trying to give people a chance to get into Rock Band when it carries a net expense of £179.98/€239.98/~$380. Given that the $169.99 cost in the US was a pricey endeavor, just looking at the EU prices causes me to wonder how people outside of the US can even afford to get their game on.
Harmonix: "Rock Band worth the money" [Xboxic]
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Posted to Video Games on 9 April 2008
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: European Release, Expensive, Rock Band
Thats just the RRP though. Play.com already have it available for £99 for the instruments and £39 for the game, thats £139.98 in total.
Sure, its a bunch more than america, but we're used to that in here in the UK.
I'm sure amazon and the other major stores are going to have to price match play.com anyway. £140 is less that i expected it to be.
"Who will be able to afford this?"
Not me... I was curious and excited when the game was about to be released - before christmas - but now, I surely won't buy it. When you add all the costs of downloading tracks, this game costs more than a PS3...
My money will be well spent with all the great games arriving shortly:
And If I really want to buy an overpriced peripheral, I'll buy WiiFit which will cost 100€ here, in France. That's 158 $ at the current -laughable- exchange rate.
You can't convert prices like that. €1 is roughly worth to the average European what $1 is worth to the average American. The dollar is weak as shit right now and that's why the prices seem bloated for people in USA
It's the fact that if they can sell it for $169.99 then why cant they sell it for €106.953 (what $169.99 is worth atm)+ the US (average) tax rate rounded up?
For arguments sake lets say the tax rate of 17.5% (quoted above for the UK used) so thats €106.953 + €18.72 = €125.67
So where is the price of €239.98 coming from?
Why is there €114.31 extra being added on?
I was looking forward to this but there is no way in hell I'm paying that much for it, even though it was being split 3 ways between me and 2 friends its not worth paying.
I find it funny the US readers try to rationalise why stuff costs double in Europe, it's cheap to ship it here, the tax isn't much more, distribution is nearly the same price, we're just hit for miles more because unlike the US, euros just stand there and take these potshots to the cheeks like the chumps we are.
£50 premium on top of something put together for £15, already charged 8 times what it's worth, no thanks, it isn't worth it.
While you're at it, you might want to ask why Wii games in Europe cost half as much as in America. I'm not paying 45 for what is supposed to be only 30.
It's gotten so bad with prices for games that I've just given up.
I'm planning on only buying games over Amazon from now on. I've already bought a heap of new Xbox360 and Wii games for what is essentially a second hand price.
@Bearfamily: Like we have now 100% VAT... you just missed the news ;)
If it would be 169€ = 240$ I might have bought it, but thats too much.
I hope they change prices once they realiste that nobody is willing to buy it.
Tomorrow is MarioKart day... soo send Rockband to hell until it has a fair price.