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January 28th, 2009

Dear Harmonix,

I am an avid Harmonix fan. Alas, living in Europe makes it difficult for me to keep supporting you.

The first Rock Band was delayed for 7 months before making the trip from US to Europe. The same with Rock Band 2, which suddenly arrived on shelves after a half year of intense silence from the distributor EA, only with the additional problem that the instruments for Rock Band 2 still has not appeared in Europe -- even though an official press release sent out by EA at the end of October 2008 stated that they would indeed appear in December 2008. On top of this, still no word on the PAL PS3 release of Rock Band 2.

Personally, I resorted to buying Ion's 300 dollar drum set in order to be able to play Rock Band 2 on my Xbox 360 (and using an assortment of your old GH guitars together with a Logitech USB microphone).

I am of the opinion that Rock Band/Rock Band 2 are far superior games compared to GHWT as far as playability, career mode and fun factor are concerned. However, in Europe the only viable option for music-loving consumers with 200 dollars in their pockets is the GHWT kit. It just pains me to see people picking GHWT up when they should have been able to walk out of the store with a complete RB2 kit instead.

I want to spread the word about RB2, but there is nothing to say, apart from the fact that you, Harmonix and MTV Games and your distributor EA, have never communicated a single word to us, your fans, during this whole time. We are growing increasingly worried. We have money. We love you and your games. But you stop us from buying your games, and worse yet, you make us feel totally irrelevant and you treat us with disrespect.

Really, all we need is that you acknowledge us and say something. Anything. Troubles producing all of the hardware fast enough because of high demand in the US? Licensing issues with European music companies? Fine. Just tell us. And let us know when the complete game (including the new instruments) will be available here in Europe.

Or, if you have indeed deemed Europe unworthy of your attention, do tell us that much, so we can choose Activision's products instead. The fact that you have not communicated anything with the European gaming community on this issue is perplexing. Especially for someone like me who has loved your work from your early days and consider myself a big fan and, well, Harmonix evangelist.

I have the money. I still love your work. But my patience, and the patience of gamers in Europe as a whole, is nearing its end. Please communicate with us. And above all, please do not let GHWT reign supreme at retailers. It is a shame, and you know it.

I honestly do not think you will ever answer this. You track record on dealing with your European fans is not exactly stellar. But if you could just acknowledge that you have a problem and tell us what your long-term plan is (however bleak) for this territory, I would very much appreciate it.

Copied from your website:
"We want to know what you think of our games, so that we can make our next ones even better!"
Answer: You can release them in Europe.

Sincerely yours,
Tommy Rydling
Stockholm, Sweden

P.S.
I also think your idea of letting Rock Band users create their own figurines based on their Rock Band characters is awesome. I wanted to buy several. Of course I cannot, since you do not ship to Europe. I would be happy to pay for the postage and packaging, you know.

#blogg

Såvitt jag vet funkar inte GH-instrument i RB på PS3. Däremot kan man använda GH-instrument i RB på 360. Jag kör till exempel med gitarrer från GHII och GHIII när jag spelar Rock Band 2 på 360.

Rock Band 1 och GHWT kostar strax under 2 000 kronor var, inklusive instrument.

Hmmm. Jag läste att spelen bara var kompatibla på 360, men mycket kan ju ha hänt sedan jag läste det. Och eftersom jag inte på 360 har jag inte efterforskat saken i detalj sedan dess.

Fint, Kelet!