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

In case you’ve been banged up in some Cuban jail for the past 2 weeks or so, here is the lowdown with this story.

For the first time, a small gaming satire blog has come out of the woodwork to speak their mind, and at all but Battlefield Bad Company, a game that EA seemed to have a little too much control over, and were selling extra guns that they said “…don’t unbalance the game.”

Doc Adam’s a founder of Sarcastic Gamer told fans “…what is the point of having to buy a gun if they don’t DO ANYTHING ANYWAY!!!!” in blind rage another founder Lono, decided to start the Sarcastic Gamer boycott. Videos, and endless emails where made to different gaming blogs to spread the word, and even “propaganda” you could say was posted left right and centre all over the website.

Recently after posting, the firestorm of crazy angry and more than that but pissed off users emailed almost every possible source to spread the SG boycott, then after 2 podcasts of dictatorship and screaming to the “9,000 listeners” to go and do something about it, IGN finally found a loose end with EA.

“IGN: So there’s no charge for the Gold Edition guns?

Karl-Magnus: No, there’s no charge for any of the guns in the game. All of the guns in the game can be achieved without purchasing them. All guns are available to everyone. However, we want to give some exclusivity to those who buy the Gold Edition. They will get the five Gold Edition weapons from Day One when they put the disc in. People that don’t buy the Gold Edition can get the five additional weapons by getting to the final rank in the game. There will be a golden, shiny five-weapon unlock when they hit level 25 in the game.”

So that’s a WIN for the little guys of the internet, now those who purchase the Gold Edition will receive the weapons out of the box, while all others will gain access to the weapons by ranking up their online personas to the maximum level.

What do you think this will cause further down the line, EA may have lost some profit, and they would have given the guns away for free eventually.