Rock Band has traditionally struggled in Australia — with delays, with pricing. Technically Rock Band 2 never released in Australia. Earlier this year we predicted that Rock Band 4 might have similar issues. And it looks like the game has suffered a last minute delay — albeit a relatively short one.
Rock Band 4 was scheduled for an October 6 release date, but that has been pushed back October 15. A representative at Home Entertainment Suppliers, the local distributor, confirmed this to us.
The delay is negligible, but is sure to disappoint those who were hoping to play Rock Band 4 at the same time as the rest of the world.
And when you combine the delay with the pricing issue, it’s not a great look. Australians are being asked to pay $499.95 for the band in the box bundle when it costs US$249.95 in the States. Not ideal, but perhaps a little more understandable in this day and age with the weak Australian dollar.
HES wouldn’t expand on the reason for the last minute delay.
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27 responses to “Rock Band 4 Has Been Delayed In Australia”
The just wanted to reduce their order to one unit… Because that’s all they are gonna sell at that price point.
all of this is pretty much killing the game. When they first announced a new rock band I was ecstatic as I thought it was better than guitar hero especially with all the dlc allowing you to have actually decent songs that fit my taste. But with the ridiculous price and now a delay I don’t know if it is going to do very well. My only hope now is if target sells it for cheap in a similar way to what they have been doing with other games.
I still play the older games but was really looking forward to getting new instruments as mine are all worn and looking for new ones always has pickup only no delivery or super overpriced delivery charges on places like ebay.
Unfortuntaely, Target will not be stocking the game.
Why, was there a petition against it?
Between this and not stocking 2K brands (Borderlands at least) I think Target won’t stock if they can’t get a discount from the distributor
that’s interesting i normally go there because they’re the cheapest but they don’t stock nba 2k16 either.
Interestingly I have noted lately Big W have better range and prices than Target. As for KMart…. they have a games section?
Kmart has in the past four years morphed into the reject shop!
However they’ve got cheap T Shirts though because they pass the slavings onto you…
Did they provide any news on what is happening with the Xbox One version of the game? The stand alone version has disappeared from the EB Games website, and there’s no word on whether we will get the legacy adaptor to use 360 instruments with it, either on its own or in a bundle. I want to know if I’m going to have to start looking at importing.
From what I’d read, HSE aren’t stocking the adaptor in Australia, and as a result EB have de-listed the stand-alone game because no-one will be able to play it without the adaptor.
I didn’t think you could buy the stand alone game WITHOUT the adapter coming in the box.
Do you know if this will affect the digital version of the game or just the physical one?
It’ll probably affect both, they’ll delay the release of the digital version to match the release date of the retail version.
Isn’t the digital version bound to the EU digital version, at least for PSN? Is the same Sony store. That’d be bad news for the entity of Europe.
You know what? I don’t care that it’s more expensive. Once you factor in tax, currency conversion, and shipping, it works out around the same.
But announcing a two-week delay 2 business days before the game comes out – and not providing any kind of explanation – is pretty shitty.
It’s literally double the price. US$249.95 vs AU$499.95. At current exchange rates that’s $354. So there’s a premium of almost $150 on top of the exchange rate. They can get stuffed.
Also, yay Australia tax.
Ever shipped a box that big from the US to Australia? You might still be saving money, but I highly doubt it will be more than $50 saving (unless you ship it by sea freight and wait a month or two).
Even then, you still had to wait a week or more for it to ship from the US, it might get damaged in transit, if you ever have issues and need to send it back for warranty you are up for shipping all the way back to the US.
Just saying, there’s a bit more to it than just $354 vs $499.
Mine was $400 for the whole set from Amazon, and that includes their most expensive express courier shipping. You could knock another $30 – $40 off if you took the cheaper shipping, and even the cheaper shipping gets it to you within a couple of weeks. Theres no real excuse for it to be so blatantly overpriced here.
I stand corrected. You still have the warranty return thing, but it’s harder to put a monetary value on that.
Your argument would make sense if the rock band instruments were actually manufactured in the US. But they aren’t…they are in fact manufactured in China. So they actually need to travel FURTHER to get to the US shelves than they do to get here. Remember we are talking about the price difference between buying them from retail here, compared to the US retail price, not importing.
This is pure and simple price gouging.
It’s pure idiocy – no-one is going to buy plastic instruments that cost more than a brand new console – Rock Band is DOA in Australia
Fair enough you make a good point.
It absolutely doesn’t work out the same. I ordered it from Amazon, and even with the bad exchange rate AND shipping from the US to here, its still over $100 cheaper than buying it here. Thats just ludicrous.
Thankfully I ordered the bundle and the stand alone game from Amazon. I wonder what it means for digital pre-orders 😛
there wont be digital preorders for PS4-users in Australia (or EU).
No one outside the US is stocking the adapter, sounds like MadCatz/Harmonix aren’t allowing global distribution.
So you can order it from amazon standalone or in the box.
Mighty Ape Here in NZ is selling it bundled with the game but that is delayed until the 20th
https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/Rock-Band-4–Xbox-One-Adapter-Xbox-One/23064323
Odd that the rest of them are only delayed until the 9th.
Just makes the desicion not to get it that much more solid for me. Would have really enjoyed the game, but the price was enough to push me away, but the delay with no reason is the final nail in the coffin
This is fucked.