European Gamers Having Problems Accessing ‘Rock Band 4’ DLC

Rock Band 4 slid on stage on October 6th to the wild cheers of fans and critics alike. Most notable among its features was the inclusion of all previously purchased songs from past games’ libraries, totaling over 1700 additional tracks for the game. At least, that was the pitch.

Steadily increasing fan outcry over the actual availability of said DLC is reaching a fever pitch. While the US marketplace seems to be unaffected, consumers in Europe have been unable to access a large amount of the “legacy” DLC as advertised.

A week in, Harmonix released a statement to the fans on the official Rock Band forums. Three weeks after launch, however, there was still very little indication of real progress. MadCatz global PR and communications director Alex Verrey was more than a little vague about the situation, though adamant that it was being resolved: “Different territories have different technical requirements and specifications which must be adhered to in order for the individual tracks to appear online and make themselves available for download.”

Now we’re approaching a month past the game’s release, and things are still looking pretty rough. Threads on the official forums continue to go without response, and customer ire is building with every new page of dissatisfied consumers looking for an answer. The Rock Band 4 subreddit is getting the same treatment. As it stands, more than half of the legacy DLC, as well as the recently released Aerosmith DLC, are simply unavailable to buy from the EU PlayStation Store.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has remained silent on the issue, directing customer concerns back toward Harmonix and MadCatz during the process. In the meantime, we are left to wonder how a primary selling point for the resurrection of a major license wasn’t accounted for prior to launch.

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