PSA: Beatles: Rock Band 'Special Value Edition' isn't such a special value

by JC Fletcher on Sep 3rd 2009 11:15PM

In addition to the fancy Premium Bundle of The Beatles: Rock Band, which features the new Beatles replica instruments, the game is available in a "Special Value Edition" for those unwilling or unable to drop $250 for a single game. The bundle contains the game and some regular Rock Band instruments for $160 -- a price that is cut by $20 on Amazon. MTV confirmed to us that the instruments included with the bundle are those from Rock Band 1.

Here's the thing about this bundle: despite the fact that it says "special value" on the box, it's not the best value on a Beatles: Rock Band set you can get. If you want the superior Rock Band 2 instruments, you can get the RB2 bundle right now for $100. Purchase a separate Beatles disc, and you've got two games and one set of (nice) instruments for the same $160.

If you don't care which instruments you get, and you're planning to buy on 360 or PS3, you can go even cheaper and grab the $79 Rock Band/Rock Band 2 game pack, which includes the Rock Band 1 instruments and Rock Band 1 and 2. Throw a $60 Beatles in and you have three Rock Band games for the price of one Special Value bundle.

Of course, this information is mostly valuable for people planning ahead. The real place of the Special Value Edition is in stores, as a single box that makes an attractive impulse purchase.

Source

Tags: beatles-rock-band, ea, Electronic-Arts, harmonix, Microsoft, mtv-games, Nintendo, rock-band, rock-band-2, special-value-bundle, the-beatles-rock-band, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (63)

true dat!

I guess they still have RB1 instruments they need to clear out.

...The UK has only seen RB1 instruments.. same probably goes for the EU too.. we can buy the RB2 drum cymbals, but no kit.. I've looked on Amazon, and they won't import (the kits at least)..

Are they selling the special replicas by themselves? I haven't made the plastic peripheral plunge and i want the beatles guitars to be my first. I just don't want the 250 bundle.

I'm under the impression that they are, minus Paul's bass.

Seeing as it's the Limited Edition bundle, I have a feeling they might NOT be packaged separately.

"minus Paul's bass."

WHY?!? That's the one I NEED to have!!!

Yeah, the Limited Edition only comes with the bass and drums, and the two guitars are sold seperately. Pretty sure you can't buy just the bass or drums. This may change post-release though.

$100 for a RB2 bundle? Jesus, I wish I lived in the US.

We don't even have the awesome RB2 periphs in europe yet, and it's £80 for a box of RB1 instruments (no game included),

If you have a Smyth's Toy Store near by they were selling the RB1 instruments pack for £34.99 recently. Other than that, Amazon and HMV both have the RB1 packs for £59.99. HMV were selling them for £49.99 in-store the last time I looked (last week I believe).

Pays to look around.

Fair enough. I had a look when I was posting and the PS3 set seems to be more expensive, £80 was literally the cheapest I could find.

Or you could just get a used X-Plorer for a few bucks at Gamestop and have the best guitar ever made, and then buy the game separately.

Did Joey tell you that? cause he's wrong

The GH1 Black SG is the best plastic guitar ever

youre both right...i cant decide

I don't ever listen to Joey. He's a fucking moron.

But yeah, I actually agree with you. The thing is, I doubt many people are going to be buying this game on the PS2.

My xplorer was a champ, till the strum bar decided to randomly double/triple/even quadruple strum even if you breathed on it.

Then my friend had one which it's blue and red just suddenly stopped working. And then he got another one which does the double strum thing.

Minus the part of the Xplorer being the best guitar. Easily my least favorite. The buttons on the thing would fuck you over every time unless you pushed them just right. God forbid if you try to push them with your fingers even slightly angled.

I've used my X-plorer pretty exclusively because it's been all around the best one for me, but the new GH5 wireless guitar is pretty good. If the strum bar stays working it might become my new main one.

X-Plorer for the win.

Related: Can anyone tell me if there's any difference at all between the GHWT bundled guitar and the GH5 bundled guitar?

Thats some nice price shopping JC.

The "Special Value Edition" reminds me of Joystiq's DIY of Modern Warfare 2: Prestige Edition

So... the Joystiq sweatshop is responsible for these crappy bundles?

I'd just like to know how 3 mics, 2 guitars and one set of drums work.

Three Six Tee, Mr. Que.

I think third-party USB hubs might be supported. If you mean on-screen, then the three vocal tracks are all displayed in different colours on the same chart.

Hardware wise. I can't believe we're less than a week away and we still have no idea what the hardware situation is on the most innovative aspect of this product. Sloppy by Harmonix standards.

ScottyG... since you're on the box that Microsoft built, you're unfamiliar with what we and our monolithic slabs had to do.

USB hubs, yo.
PS3 had to use USB hubs for Rock Band, and now, so do you!

only if we can find 3 people who want to sing. Never happen.

Do we think the new Beatles instruments will be improvements over the RB2 instruments? I am counting pennies on the verge of buying the new Special Edition but can't decide.

I forget which website I read it (may have been Gamespot), but there was an E3 Hands-On previewer who said that the instruments feel a lot sturdier than RB2's instruments. But other than that, I don't think they're all that different.

They're certainly expensive enough to imply quality. Really though, you have to wait a few weeks to see how sturdy these things are.

Or in the case of the GH:WT guitar, a few hours.

Personally I perfered the rock band 1 drums (i reenforced my own petal with better metal then the rock band two petal) and my friends perfer the rock band 1 guitar so "If you want the superior Rock Band 2 instruments" really is up for the people to deside

The RB2 drums do have quieter pads though. Pretty sure you can just plug in any pedal and it won't know the difference too.

Actually it was the pads I didn't like from the rock band two drums they didn't seem to be as responsive

Oh snap!

That's really bad, especially when EA is turning out both the "Value" pack and the RB1/RB2 combo.

Good way to confuse consumers and save a couple bucks.

Still can't wait for The Beatles Rock Band though. If you look on YouTube, somebody has been uploading all of the songs in the game as they got it early somehow. Its worth a look - the crowd animations are amazing and a vast improvement to anything Rock Band or Guitar Hero has offered yet.

It's amazing how they price some of these bundles at the same cost of cheap, real instruments. Ironic that we have the big three battling out the console wars with price cuts and here we have these peripherals selling for around a half of what the actual game console sells for. No "special value" there at all. The game itself looks fantastic as usual. I am excited to see the game next week in its entirety. I've been considering just getting the Hofner controller though. They did a great job replicating it.

Speaking of RB add-ons, I'd love to see some of The Beatles' solo material make it into some DLC packs. Some tracks from All Things Must Pass and from the Wings please.

From the interviews with the developer guy that looks like the meek assistant in HOT ROD (yeah, weird reference), they stuck with all music that included all four members only. Even for DLC.

I could not help it. Apparently his name is Jorma Taccone. Last time I make such an obscure reference. However, he does appear to be in the new MACGRUBER movie.

But if there's demand, they may have a change of heart. The only problems though would be with all the licensing, with all the different independent rights holders these days.

Either way, I love all their work, wish there could have been more. Man, I'm still pissed at Yoko.

Fun fact you might not have known: Jorma Taccone is part of the three-part group The Lonely Island, creators of such fine songs as Jizz in my Pants and I'm On A Boat.

Jorma's crazy awesome.

He also makes I Love You, Man slightly more awesome. And that's a feat, given that the whole thing is basically a tribute to Rush.

@The Baron

If you're referencing Paul Rudd's gay brother, that's Andy Samberg. One of the Lonely Island, but not Jorma. Btw, that movie was awesome, the Rush tribute just made it better.

@The Barron

Sorry, I read your post wrong. Clearly you were praising the movie. It's late. Time for sleep.

Trying to praise it, but mixing up the Lonely Island duo in the process.

sorry to be off-topic, but is joystiq showing a dragon age background every once in a while? http://s926.photobucket.com/albums/ad103/slycooper_rocker/?action=view¤t=wtf.jpg

Yeah I see it too. It's kind of horrendous.

So much for a clean looking page, but I guess they had to do what they had to do.

I didn't even notice it :O Adblock plus + Noscript.

i have adblock too. still see it.

I actually think its pretty cool they are doing this bundle.. there will be alot of people buying this game that never had rock band before, never really played games before.. and ya the original instruments had flaws but i dont think the people harmonix put this bundle together for will really care much.. they just want a good price on the thing. and Harmonix is probably sitting on a large amount of RB1 instruments, and this is a good way for them to get rid of their stock to people that dont mind getting older instruments

What the fuck is the special suprise inside? What is it that makes the price of the Limited Edition $50 more expensive?

The RB1 drums are so noisy, I could never use them in my apartment. My RB2 drums are much better, and easier to control the bounce, too.

And picking up replacement RB2 drums and getting the game and a guitar and mic for the same price is a deal, in the US. We could sell the extra instruments to people in other countries, I guess.

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PSA: Beatles: Rock Band 'Special Value Edition' isn't such a special value

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