When GameCyte broke the news Thursday that the makers of Rock Band were under legal fire for producing flimsy plastic drum pedals, we expected that Harmonix and company would realize the value in keeping such matters relatively quiet so as not to spark any online ire. Faced with the likely choice between hearing "We do not comment on pending litigation," and getting a head start on our next, unrelated article, we decided to begin writing rather than make the call.
Too bad, because if we had -- like GameSpot -- we would have received the following statement from MTV Games.
"Harmonix and MTV Games are dedicated to consumers having an outstanding experience with our products. When used as directed, our drum pedals are designed to provide years of enjoyment," said an MTV Games spokesperson. "In addition, at the launch of Rock Band we offered consumers an extended opportunity [to] return defective or broken hardware for any reason whatsoever--no questions asked. This litigation is opportunistic and baseless."
If you've read our brief overview of the case, you'll know that while the primary complaint is that the Rock Band pedals were defective by design, much of what the plaintiff is trying to prove revolves around the exact extended warranty the MTV Games spokesperson is talking about... so is it really the best idea for MTV to remind us about it here?
GameCyte anticipates that the phrase "years of enjoyment" will soon make its way into angry forum threads, where it will be repeatedly trod on.
We have contacted lawyers for lead plaintiff Monte Morgan, and hope to have an opposing statement from them soon.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Years...Paah! Years of enjoyment....right. Maybe the disc or after you play the crap out of it, get bored with it, stash it, let it collect dust and come back to it years later, perhaps. And even then this wouldn't constitute as years of enjoyment simply some moderate of fluxuating enjoyment. PoS if you ask me.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:45 am
I have tried to return my pedel to Gamestop in Amherst, New York and was told that they do not have replacement parts and that I would have to PURCHASE the NEW version.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:33 am
What frustrates me is the fact that EA makes millions of dollars off of consumers who purchase their games and their products, and that they have the nerve to give a 60 day warranty on their Rock Band and Rock Band 2 products. I spoke with an EA representative over the phone yesterday stating that both my kick pedal and drum heads were cracked. This isn't from abusing the drums; it's from constant use, which to me seems fairly reasonable, because eventually, they will break. They're plastic, and they're manufactured cheaply. The statement claiming that if the kick pedal is used "Correctly," the user can get years of enjoyment. That statement is a lie, because obviously, EA doesn't play Rock Band. Two songs that require stress on the kick pedal from Rock Band 2 are Painkiller, by Judas Priest, and Panic Attack, by Dream Theater. If the user goes to the tutorials section in Rock Band 2, the way they tell the user to use the kick pedal is virtually impossible on those songs. It would tire the entire leg and cause users to have a major decrease in scores. If EA were smart, they wouldn't have ended the warranty extension on October 1, 2008.
February 9th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
By the way, my pedal never cracked, it just stopped working. Twice. And EA charged my credit card even though the defective pedal arrived back at their location within the proper time alotment. Then it took me an hour on the phone to get an idiot to aurthorize a refund only to tell me it would take 10 to 15 days + the banks time to get the charge back. I followed that call with one to my credit card company complaining about EA's service and 2 days later received a credit. Ea's customer service people suck(at least this one did), I had to do most of his job for him in order to get off the phone in a hour even though all of my information was tied to an RA#.