Saturday, April 05, 2008

No, No, NOOOOOOO!!!!! *sob* :(

I have just read the most disturbing of rumours here:

Via Kotaku

This rumour states that the European release date for Rock Band is due in May... but just for the Xbox360! The PS3 version is dealyed until September!!!!????!!!!

That's September.... SEPTEMBER!!!!!!

Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this is of course a rumour, but these things have a history of becoming true. I just don't see why the PS3 version would be delayed. The PS3 is doing well in Europe when compared to the 360 (the same couldn't be said for the US) and it's not as if the game hasn't already been released months ago elsewhere...

Must calm down and await an official annoucement... grrrr....

5 comments:

Sinbad said...

Yeah, I heard this a while back but it's all just rumour for now, we'll see. If all the delay is about controllers I don't see why they would do this.

If it is the case it's odd, but if they *had* to pick one I could see why they would pick 360 first (and not just because I have one!). PS3 is selling well in Europe but it's still got a smaller total install base - not by much overall now, but still less. And, most 360's are in the UK, where the music industry is much bigger than in other European countries. And, the 360 attach rate is much higher, perhaps influenced by Americans and British people buying loads more games than the average European - that might be important with a game as expensive as this. At the end of the day, Rock Band is mostly a western style game, and the 360 sells bucketloads of those. The PS3 is a very Japanese console so you could say on the basis of a roughly equal install base a western game will sell better on the 360. So if they were *forced* to do a staged release because they couldn't source the peripherals again, I could sort of understand that decision. Sucks though, I hope that's not the case.

Bazlurgan said...

I can see your point of view and can agree with you, however, EA will just piss off so many people if they do this.

Surely it would be ebtter to have a limited launch on both consoles if it is the case of controllers, than snub one console for the other!

Sinbad said...

There's also the fact that the controllers are different anyway so I'm not even sure they'd have that kind of supply problem where launching for just 1 of the consoles would alleviate it. Plus they did it in the US, a much bigger market, at the same time.

Other theories I've heard include Sony EU licensing policies being stricter about localisation, or Microsoft paying a ton of money to secure it as an exclusive to help them in the EU. The latter is probably most plausible, if indeed the rumours are true, since MS do need to mobilise more people outside the UK. But then again, my German / French / Spanish friends seem to think most of the PS3 success in mainland Europe is down to brand loyalty from previous gens, and that's unlikely to shift just because of one game. Hmmm.

Sinbad said...

Ok, it's been confirmed then - and it sounds like it is something MS paid for.

Sorry :(

Bazlurgan said...

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*sob* :(