Gamertell

EA has finally announced the release date for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band for Europe, May 23, 2008. This is roughly six months after the North American release of the popular music title. The company also clarified that PS2, PS3 and Wii versions should be available before the end of Q3 2008. Despite the delay, this news would have caused much rejoicing, if it hadn’t been for the announcement which stated that the instruments would be sold separately for £129.99 ($255.81) from the £49.99 ($98.38) game. The Rock Band game and instrument bundle in North America costs only $169.99 (£86.34).

But never fear Europeans! You may have to pay a ridiculously high mark up to play the game, but EA has something special planned for your version of Rock Band! There are 9 additional songs from British, German and French groups which are only available in the European Rock Band game.

So let’s figure this out - the US version of Rock Band, with instruments included, would cost roughly £86.34. Since the only difference between the US version and the European version is the exclusive songs, those 9 songs must be responsible for the £267.85 mark-up. That comes out to roughly £29.76 per song. Pretty expensive, considering that a three song pack costs 440 Microsoft points on Xbox Live or $5.49 on the Playstation Network.

At this point, it would probably be cheaper for Europeans to import a console and copy of Rock Band rather than buy the European version. It truly is a pity that video game distributors treat European gamers so differently from Japanese and North American gamers. Of course, when it comes to Rock Band Australians may have it worst of all - the game still only has a tenantive September 2008 release date for Australia and no bundle deals announced.

Read [EuroGamer] Site [Rock Band]

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