Total lack of UK promotion

[chrissyandrew]

I'm a massive fan of the Rock Band franchise, as I'm sure most people on these forums are. The problem I have is that I know people who like these sorts of games and didn't know that Lego:RB existed until I told them. I've not seen it advertised in any format and really don't understand why. Can anyone explain this, or tell me that I've somehow just missed the promotion, but it seems like a missed opportunity at christmas.

[Maghook]

At least you have RB2.

[white-ti]

i completely agree, Guitar Hero dominates here mainly due to people simply not knowing what rock band is (and 95% of my friends who have both think rock band is superior) but ah well, LB was outselling BandHero at tesco which has got to be good!

[chrissyandrew]

It really is frustrating the lack of public knowledge about the franchise. A friend of mine bought GH5 cos of the "variety" in the game, totally unaware of the 1000+ downloadable tracks available on RB, he was impressed with the 83 artists on the GH disc. It's just annoying to have really embraced the franchise and for it's uptake in this country be held back by lack of promotion.

[Mutley93]

I saw a cardboard cut out of Lego Rock Band in my local gamestation and thats good enough for me But i'm afraid its in my bedroom now ^^

[CPT BJ]

Ive not seen much promtion for any of the RB games over here really although i did see an advert TB:RB the other day

[chrissyandrew]

Yeah. I saw that. I thought the low-budget, family in the sitting room affair was a brave attempt at battling the Travis Barker, Pete Wentz, Rivers Cuomo and Taylor Swift GH advert. I just don't understand the total contrast between the levels of marketing that takes place in this country between GH and RB. Either it costs more than it makes, or vice-versa. Why does each company adopt such opposing strategies? I can't get past it.

[Graffin]

I'm in Australia and we've only had the one television advertisement, and that was for The Beatles Rock Band (which was only broadcast a few times for about a week before the game's release).

Apart from that, nothing.

Quite sad really. I own Band Hero and all the Guitar Hero games as well, but the Rock Band games (and DLC) are far superior, yet here, Rock Band is looked upon as being a Guitar Hero rip-off.

All we got is Rock Band 1, the AC/DC Live disc, The Beatles and LEGO Rock Band. All of which seem to be sitting on store shelves.

We've got Boxing Day clearances of the RB1 instrument bundles together with the original RB1 or AC/DC Live disc for $49.95. A huge drop from the $229 I paid for RB1 when it was released in November 2008.

I guess it's MTV's fault.

Rather than release Rock Band 2 here (and the Export Key), instead we get a year old game and instruments (of questionable quality).

Had they released RB1 and RB2 together, it would've put a serious dent in GH sales. But, the games need some heavy promoting to get past that perception that they're a GH clone.

Why can't they run promotions (such as the Pepsi & Energizer ones) in Australia, Europe and the UK?

Surely these companies would love to sell more of their products and in-turn provide more attention/awareness of the Rock Band DLC. What better way to get people hooked on Rock Band than giving them something for free?

It makes me wonder what goes on in the minds of the marketing department. I know they consider countries like Australia as being virtually insignificant, but they'd still make money on us.

Hell, they produced a PAL Rock Band 2 disc, complete with an Australian OFLC PG ratings logo on the disc (it got approval for release by the Australian classification board back in Aug. 2008), but it still hasn't been released here, and may never be. Would it have killed them to release it here when they released it in the UK?

I don't get it. It's the very same disc. It works perfectly on our consoles, so why not release it?

By not releasing RB2 here, all they've done is push more gamers into buying the competitor's games.

If they're even thinking of making a Rock Band 3, then for heavens sake... release the Rock Band 2 game and instruments in Australia (and other regions that don't have it) ASAP, and promote the hell out of it, otherwise the PAL regions just won't care how good RB3 will be.

[lanky316]

The RB team constantly shoot themselves in the foot in large markets then wonder why profits aren't on a huge scale. It makes you laugh, this month I saw a mention of TB:RB in a tiny little "favourite game of 2009" part from the editor. Next page huge spread on Band Hero just showing the difference, even when people want to promote RB whomever has any say over marketing neglects to bother, sadly marketing executives were not mentioned in the lay offs.

HMX/EA/MTV need to look at themselves and bolster there work ethic. Equal treatment (as much as tech will allow) across platforms and then continents. THEN they might get the recognition they deserve commercially and critically. Otherwise they kill the franchise.

[JPSChampagne]

What's hysterical about a lack of promotion in England is that this game is almost entirely aimed at British people. The soundtrack is completely aimed at people who'd have a good knowledge of English rock. Astounding that they wouldn't advertise in the market the soundtrack is so obviously aimed at.