For those of us who got our faces melted right off our skulls by the price tag Harmonix is affixing the upcoming European version of Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii), fret not: Harmonix totally understands you, but as it is, they can't reduce the price simply because the fans want them to. This particular statement comes direct from Harmonix development manager Greg LoPiccolo, who made quite the long comment about this issue in the game's official forums.

So why can't Harmonix lower the price of Rock Band in Europe? Well, it seems that the reason is tied to two things: VAT and shipping, with the later more so because of the size of the game's peripherals. Here's Greg's own quotes, first about the shipping trouble:

For a box the size of the RB box, shipping costs are really high, and far higher than in the US. Why so high? I have no idea; I make games for a living and have no deep knowledge of the world of European shipping. But it’s a fixed cost that doesn’t apply to conventional games, for which shipping costs are a far smaller percentage of the retail price.

Then about the VAT:

The European SRP incorporates the VAT tax, but AFAIK, there aren’t any further taxes piled on at retail. In the US, the SRP doesn’t include state and local sales taxes. These vary from state to state, (and don’t exist at all in a few states), but a reasonable rule of thumb is that US customers are paying an additional 5% on top of the SRP.

Well, there you have it. The fact that the European version of Rock Band costs just a bit more than its North American counterpart is because 1) it costs an absurd amount of money to ship the game itself because of the peripherals, and 2) Value-Added Tax just piles on the costs.

It's a shame that Harmonix can't show us their exact cost structure, so we'd find out just what numbers are involved - but as it is, we'll just have to take Harmonix' word for it. After all, Greg says so himself that they're not out to gouge people. Another quote:

To recap my main point: we’re not gouging you, primarily because doing so doesn’t serve our interests. We can only build our franchise if you buy our games. You may conclude that Rock Band isn’t worth the price charged, and that is your prerogative. But it’s not magically going to get cheaper because you wish it to be so.

Indeed. Updates as we get them, and you can check out his full statement in the via link below.

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