Did Rock Band 2 flop in Europe because of supply issues?
Earlier this week, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian singled out Rock Band 2 as performing poorly at retail alongside Need for Speed: Undercover and Mirror’s Edge, and predicted that EA would “announce further cuts in headcount and the development pipeline (including existing franchises) over the coming quarters.”
The analyst’s report was backed up this morning by EA’s CEO John Riccitiello, announcing that the company will be cutting jobs and reducing its portfolio as a result of lower than expected sales.
“While we saw significant improvement in the overall quality of our key products this year, we are disappointed that our holiday slate is not meeting our sales expectations,” said Riccitiello. “Given this performance and the uncertain economic environment, we are taking steps to reduce our cost structure and improve the profitability of our business.”
At a time of economic crisis, the news isn’t particularly surprising. But while NFS: Undercover and Mirror’s Edge’s slower sales are somewhat excused for being abysmal and quirky respectively, Rock Band 2’s poor sales are a mystery. Harmonix’s latest music title was reportedly the best-selling game in North America in September 2008, selling 363,000 copies, and currently has a Metacritic rating of 92. So the question is, why isn’t it selling in Europe?
Pre-order customers at Gameplay.co.uk and parent company GAME were originally told that the game wouldn’t reach them in time for release due to supply issues, and at the time of writing Rock Band 2 is out of stock at most online retailers, including Play.com, Shopto.net, Amazon.co.uk and Sendit.com among others. After a traipse around our hometown, it doesn’t appear to be available in any brick & mortar stores either, with one Gamestation employee informing us that the store had “only had two or three copies in since release”. It’s an odd position for any high profile release to be in at any time of year, let alone during the holiday season.
Both Sebastian’s and Riccitiello’s comments suggest that demand for the game simply isn’t there, but is the reality of it that EA haven’t provided the supply that the game deserved? Why is a copy of Rock Band 2 so hard to come by if consumers really aren’t interested, and what does this mean for the future of the franchise?
We’ve contacted EA for comment.
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This is hardly surprising. Despite being first to market with the whole band-in-a-box idea, EA/Harmonix/MTV have shot themselves in the foot and have unwittingly handed the European market to Guitar Hero.
Rock Band was released in Europe nearly a full year later than in North America when much of the excitement and novelty had died down. When it was released it was way too expensive (whatever EA may have to say about shipping costs of plastic instruments). EA failed, in the European context, to make use of it’s platform being first to market.
Almost as soon as Rock Band was shipped to Europe, Rock Band 2 was released in North America, so some Europeans may have waited for this with it’s new more robust instruments. However Rock Band 2 has only just turned up in Europe. In addition to all these delays, EA also managed to alienate Europe’s large PS3 user base by releasing both versions of Rock Band as timed Xbox exclusives. I’m sure EA have received a hefty cheque from Microsoft but considering Rock Band was always going to be dragged into a platform war with Guitar Hero this was an unwise strategy.
While Rock Band has struggled to gain momentum in Europe, Activision has released it’s own version of Rock Band, Guitar Hero: World Tour, for every major home console. The Guitar Hero package costs less, and belongs to the much better known franchise, and has been backed up by solid advertising and availability.
The damage to Rock Band’s market penetration, from both the delayed European software releases and the timed exclusivity, considering the strength of Guitar Hero brand, now seems permanent.
Does this mean that the instruments will not be released in the UK?
What is a mystery is how HMX could be so mindnumbingly stupid about it.. Hey guys, we have competition, we better sell our game in europe too. Sure, but not the instruments..
If you look at their forums, there are people -begging- to be allowed to give HMX their money in return for a few pieces of plastic.. The fact that they are not at all responding to this demand is why the game is failing, because nobody is willing to buy half an experience..
“Harmonix’s latest music title was reportedly the best-selling game in North America in September 2008, selling 363,000 copies, and currently has a Metacritic rating of 92. So the question is, why isn’t it selling in Europe?”
…well EA, let me tell you why your game isn’t selling very good in Europe, 1’st you cant buy the game unless you know some very shady people 2′nd you can’t buy the instruments even if you know some shady people. my 2 cents
I wonder how real the published release date for the European version of Rock Band 2 on the PS3 is… Wikipedia says February 5th 2009 but I’m guessing that it’s a typo and that PS3 users can expect it around February 5th 3009. The date is quoted from a German website, so I’m figuring something got lost in translation.
The germans and french have got it, but what about us other Euro-gamers with PS3. Isn’t we allowed to play such an awsome game?? I will wait, but is there any point ofgiving RB2 a timed exclusive for 360 by 3-4 months in Norway? That is not a win-win situation for HMX, since the 360 gamers don’t even get the instruments.
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