Canada release date a blessing?

[J-Rock]

If Rock Band had come out yesterday in Canada I would have bought it. Now, I'm not so sure I will buy it at all.

With the many hardware issues, the fact that the GHIII guitar does not work and with the outrageous DLC prices (we pay a lot more here in Canada, up to 65% more and eventually 120% more) I must say that I don't mind not having Rock Band at the moment.

Harmonix/EA has a month to fix all of those issues. Until then, I have to seriously reconsider buying Rock Band. Harmonix makes great games but I want to have my money's worth.

[smashedbunny]

Ha I bet they just ship all their defective crap up here to sell to us.. seeing how much they love us!

[JackBNimble]

If they were to stop production and make some quality perifs, we wouldn't see RB till spring.I can't see them making better quality perifs for the Canadian release,do you?

[SteppinRazor]

I feel confident that with time (I have no idea how much time, mind you) that the companies involved can fix the hardware problems. It seems to me that they probably had to make a tough choice between launching with yet-to-be-perfected hardware and delaying to early 2008, and chose to go the quick-money route (we know EA's got cashflow probs). Tough call, because the sooner they get it out the door, especially for Xmas 07, the sooner they can start making profit of it, but if (as seems to be the case) the hw bugs and flaws strike a considerable portion of the audience, they might scare off future sales.

Dillemas like that make me happy I'm not in charge of a multi million dollar project.

The Canadian pricing for DLC will need to be fixed. There is just no way those prices are going to fly.

What I am worried by are the number of people who intend to return their peripherals, because I wonder which will take priority -- putting new equipment in boxes and shipping them to Canada, or exchanging existing American customer's malfunctioning equipment?

Given the 'make money over time on DLC' theory behind Rockband (which I think is just great in general), if I were in their position, I would probably serve the warranty/replacement people first, and new customers second.

It makes better business sense to me to hedge on keeping the customers you already have so you can sell them music for years to come, and let potential-customers salivate and wait a little longer.

Now I said it makes sense, but it makes me sad, because the rational choice screws us all.

So, rather than be happy to see the US being used as a massive beta test, as another poster in this thread suggested, I think of every return/exchanging being one less new bundle unit hitting the road any time soon.

But, I am a pessimist by nature, and I really hope (against logic, which is never a great bet) that this isn't the case, and that I'll be rocking out before they stop selling egg nog.

[Admiralwiggin]

i still find it interesting that with the "shortage there are still people with 6+ each throwing em up on ebay... there are actually so many bundles on ebay that the price is getting cheaper to sell them , which is a first!

[SteppinRazor]

there are actually so many bundles on ebay that the price is getting cheaper to sell them , which is a first!

Hey, the invisible hand of the market kinda works, once in a while. Abit.

Maybe it was just a fluke.

I don't buy ish off Ebay on general principle, but its nice to hear the prices are declining for those who would buy them.

The goddamn scalper mentality of these Ebayers just pisses me off to no end. I try not to dwell on it, but of all the 'fast money' schemes out there, this is just low.

Who are the goddam store clerks that let them walk away with a palate of in-demand inventory? Bah, where are my pills...

I just don't like the EBay people who ransom hard-to-aquire items as though they were financial geniuses when all they are is opportunistic louts.

[slayer15]

i don't know about the 360, but on the ps3 you can say you are from america, so then the dlc will cost the american price, so it's not really a big deal what they charge on the canadian store. again, maybe that's not the case with 360.

[Rock_Starman]

Yes but your credit card won't work.

It's not so bad on XBL but it won't work there either. It's in points so it'd still be 160 and 440 points but our point cards are different and point cards only work for where you're from,can't even DL a movie trailer in the US marketplace.

I guess it's a blessing in that sense as I would've bought it on PS3,opened it,played untill the DLC came out and then I wouldn't have been able to take it back or anything. Unless they change the price I'm getting it on 360.

[J-Rock]

All in all for people who own both a Xbox 360 and a PS3, now that the issues with the Guitar Hero III controller and the DLC prices are out, those who might have gotten the game for the PS3 will probably shun Sony and go for a 360 version. Seriously, which one would you like to biu more? The one on the system where your other guitar will not work and who has outrageous prices for single song downloads or for the other system where your other guitar does work and where the prices are not so outrageous.

Harmonix just might have cost Sony a lot of money.

[angry-boss]

I posted something similar to this. Rock Band was supposed to be the ultimate rythm game ever, but might it be thwarted by hardware problems???? I live in Canada and will not touch the dl content until it matches the US price, and Im also seriously reconsidering purchasing Rock Band. I think the delay might have truly been a blessing in disguise. Sure I was dissapointed but I would have been more dissapointed getting it home and realizing nothing works, or my kick pedal breaks in an hour. I don't want to blame Harmonix because making all of those peripherals error free seems like a hard task especialy at the relatively great price point they set for the game, but unfortunately if the hardware doesn't last, then you can have the greatest game on earth and it means nothing. It's quite sad but we'll see how this works out in the end.

[WiredRacing]

Meh, regardless of how I feel about the lack of DLC available to the Canadian market right now, I'm thouroughly enjoying my Rock Band goodness north of the border. :) Mind you... if the gear wasn't working... I'd probably feel a little differently about that right now. But it is working, so .. yey! On an untouched launch 360 too! *knocks on wood*

[Symbiosis]

Well, the only reason you're hearing about so much hardware issues is because everyone that has problems is going to post them here. And there isn't as much people going to come on here to brag about their working set.

I bought mine yesterday. (I live in Canada) and mine works fine.

[espher]

Meh, regardless of how I feel about the lack of DLC available to the Canadian market right now, I'm thouroughly enjoying my Rock Band goodness north of the border. :) Mind you... if the gear wasn't working... I'd probably feel a little differently about that right now. But it is working, so .. yey! On an untouched launch 360 too! *knocks on wood*

This. ^ _ ^

[oddroot]

Well, the only reason you're hearing about so much hardware issues is because everyone that has problems is going to post them here. And there isn't as much people going to come on here to brag about their working set.

I bought mine yesterday. (I live in Canada) and mine works fine.

Mine works fine too, but I tell ya, my buddy who also has RB here in Canada asked if he could borrow my guitar for an RB party, and with the way the RMA policy is currently there is no way I'm going to lend it out... I'd have no recourse if it was broken.

DLC prices on the PS3, and the GH3 LP issues better get resolved though. It hurts to be ps3 at the moment. (atleast on the LP part)

[J-Rock]

I'm starting to wonder why I ever bought one at all. Still waiting on Metal Gear Solid 4 and I'm still undecided on Rock Band.