I have really been looking forward to the release of Rock Band in the UK for quite some time now; seeing as it was released on the 20th November 2007 in the US, and a leap forward in time for the UK release on the 23rd May 2008.

So you may remember about the price drop. Well when EA first announced the crazy price for Rock Band originally it was somewhere in the region of £180, with software and instruments, which converts to $356 and with the US launch price at roughly $169 (£85 converted) more than doubling the price for no reason at all.

But that was last month, and people thought that the newly proposed price of around £120 would be far better, even thought that is $240 when converted anyway.

So I pop into a few retailers this afternoon to check out the prices, the bundles etc. I look in 3 retailers. They are GAME, HMV and Gamestation. Each and every one was selling the pack of instruments without the game (they were selling those separately), and every time I asked, “Can I get a pack with the game” they would say “Sorry, but you have to buy the game separately”

I suppose this plays into the EA motto of skews but I also did notice that HMV were selling the Drums & Guitar on there own too.

The prices are as follows:

1x Rock Band Set of 3 - Mic, Drums, Guitar - £129.99 ($255)
1x Rock Band Disc - £44.99 ($87)
TOTAL = £173 ($342)

What a bloody rip off, it’s even coming to the point where I can buy the XBOX 360 for cheaper, WITH THE HARD DRIVE.

I did some research and found out that the Rock Band instruments are made in China, then I found out the weight of the box WITH THE GAME costs a mere £15 ($30).

But the most annoying thing about this is that all these “apparent” fees that have been added onto the price of Rock Band are non-existent, the VAT for the UK is 17.5% meaning £129 = £22.58 VAT, so that’s £107, next is the shipping costs, so that’s -£15 = £92, so lets convert that.

£92 into USD iiisssssss…..$182!!!!

Tadaaaa!…and yet it’s still MORE expensive than the US version, which is now retailing on Amazon.com for a mere $149.

Bahh Humbug is all I can say.

PS: I was in a GAME shop and I quoted the prices from the US versions of Rock Band (with the game) and he said and I quote:

Well that’s America; everything’s cheap in America isn’t it

Right, now that I have your attention I can also talk about the crazy OLD lady who seems to hate cyclists. Well I am only blogging about this now as Jack Moore sits next to me scratching himself. Anyway’s to the story or else I will make you board.

It’s a wonderful cold wet day in rainy old England, and I find that cycling to school at around 8:20 AM in the martin is a bit tiring and also very annoying. So the worst thing to happen to you is to get in a argument with an old lady about getting onto the road.

Now eager readers of the blog will know that I have been hit by a car recently and being on the crazy mean road freaks me out, so staying on the pavement is my sweet haven.

This old lady wears to paint a picture, some horrible old glasses that cover the whole of your face, like they were designed in the mid of 1st century AD and later on carried onto the later world.

She seems to like to dress all in blue and hunch up all over the place, so I am cycling down the pavement, not really very fast, past the bus station with all the fag eating cancer getting people who smoke and down past the very large TESCOS that looms above.

She seems to now see me, she might be blind but I doubt it, and stays smack bang in the middle of the pavement, to the right is the road, to the left is a bush full of very stingy brambles that will hurt.

So she complains that I should “GET ON THE ROAD”.

I hate some people… anyway the following day I am cycling along minding my own self and all again, and I pass her…again, and she starts doing this tutting thing, like I was some sort of offender and I was a mindless idiot to all humanity.

So instead of just going on and ignoring it, I karate chopped her face and kicked her to death, oh well. Tut, tut, tut.