I
received a call from a representative from Electronic Arts'
Rock
Band
support team later in the second last week of July. He was calling to
address the issues I brought up in an article
the
week before
on the lack of support for Canadians who need replacements for their
Rock
Band
wireless
guitars. To begin, let's start with the good news. The policy that I
mentioned, which does not allow Canadian owners of defective
Rock
Band
wireless guitars to get a replacement actually only applies to the
Rock
Band
wireless guitars for Xbox 360, not
Rock
Band
wireless guitar for Playstation 2, Playstation 3 or Wii. If you live
in Canada and need a replacement for
your
Rock Band
wireless
guitar for any of those systems, it's not a problem.
Why
not the
Rock
Band
wireless
guitar for Xbox 360? The first reason I was given was that the Xbox
360 version of the
Rock
Band Special Edition
was the only version that did not include wireless guitars as part of
the bundle, and thus did not require players to call EA for a
replacement of their wireless guitars, which were only available as a
separate purchase anyway. Of course, this brought up the question I
mentioned in last week's article, pertaining to users who only found
out their wireless guitar were defective after the purchase store's
return policy date had passed. If their wireless guitar is still
under warranty, but past the purchase store's return policy date,
that store, officially speaking, has no obligation to provide a
replacement for that defective guitar.
The
representative answered that question as well, telling me that if the
store did not allow the player to return their wireless guitar,
simply because it was past the return policy date,
Rock
Band
support
would call and have the store authorize the replacement for the
player. Either way, the warranty for all
Rock
Band
hardware has been extended until
October
1
st
of this year, so if you have any piece of defective
Rock
Band
hardware, now is the time to get it replaced.
The
bad news is that the policy exists at all. Even if it only applies to
the
Rock
Band
wireless
guitars for Xbox 360, it still doesn't make very much sense.
Unfortunately, the representative did not have an answer to the
question of “Why are Americans allowed to get replacements for
their
Rock
Band
wireless
guitars for Xbox 360, while Canadians are not?”. So I checked in
with the
Rock
Band
public relations people last week to see what they had to say. I have
still not heard a word back from them yet.
Why
does such a policy exist, restricting Canadians access to the full
level of support that Americans get? I don't know. I am still hoping
that I will receive an answer to that question at some point. I am
still looking forward to the release of
Rock
Band 2
this fall, though. The poorly manufactured peripherals and sad level
of support that I myself, and a number of other people who have said
their piece across the Internet, have received from Electronic Arts
does not mean that a developer like Harmonix, whose software plays
brilliantly and works reliably, should suffer from consumers refusing
to purchase their games.
Electronic
Arts has a lot to think about over the summer, and a major competitor
to deal with in the fall. When
Guitar
Hero World Tour
releases
this October, Activision will already be working with guitars that
are tried, tested and true. If the drum kit and microphone in
Guitar
Hero World Tour
are
at least as reliable as the guitars from
Guitar
Hero
s
past, save for the
limp
whammy bars
on the Wii version of
Guitar
Hero III
,
some players may just pass up
Rock
Band 2
altogether. Even if players decide to pick up the Game Only version
of
Rock
Band 2
,
that still means that EA is missing out on peripheral sales, which
can still add up.
A
great game, reliable peripherals and good support puts together a
whole package. That package isn't something you can just throw stuff
into lazily. It's time large companies like EA started getting
serious about what they give their customers.