Rock Band might not rock Australia

Evidence is mounting that upcoming music game Rock Band will not be released in Australia – at least not before the sequel, Rock Band 2.

Rock Band is a highly anticipated game, and it’s easy to see why – add the popularity of Guitar Hero, but throw in a microphone and a drum kit and everyone can have fun together.

Unfortunately, Rock Band has been plagued with issues from the start. Larger than anticipated demand has forced its distributor, Electronic Arts, to delay the game’s release. Harmonix, the developer, admitted that more delays were caused by being forced to produce bi-lingual documentation and having to recode the game to improve poor graphics on the Playstation 3 caused even more issues. Now it’s being confirmed that Rock Band might not arrive in Australia at all, and the sequel may be released in Australia instead.

Kotaku followed up an anonymous tip and reported that Rock Band is now being listed as “discontinued” in retail game stores. On top of that, Rock Band 2 received a classification of PG by the Office of Film, Literature and Classification – on the 21st of August, which is usually issued a few months before the release date.

If this comes as news to you, don’t worry – Kotaku reported that the staffers they called to confirm had no idea Rock Band had been discontinued from their database. It’s a shame to see, but any Rock Band is better than none, although it looks like Guitar Hero: World Tour will come out on top this Christmas.

Source: Kotaku

Additional material: Rock Band 2 classification (from OFLC website)