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| The guitar |
Like many of the peripherals for the game, as described here and elsewhere, the initial availability was either non-existent or in short supply. However, once the "RB3 Squier" became available on March 1st 2011, it was a Best Buy exclusive, for what was understood to be a month but was never officially stated in any consumer materials. Like all things though, dates slip and a more general availability was not seen starting in April. This has in some ways recently changed.
And in other ways, it hasn't.
A short perusal of the Fender site shows it still as an exclusive at "BB" and it's not carried in any major way at any other physical or online retailers. However, BB itself does not have these in most of their stores on the shelves and available to purchase, according to store searches for the item on their product page. They do however have it in stock and available for online purchase or ship to store, at Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price plus tax and when applicable, shipping.
As another indication of the situation, only a few (if that) are on auction sites. Beside the availability, in a large number of cases guitars are not actually sold at the list price. However, none of the few RB3 Squier guitars on eBay are under the MSRP. A few of the used ones are close though, especially if they've included the game and the MIDI Pro Adapter. But those guitars are both used and higher then MSRP for new.
Speaking of the MIDI Pro Adapter, it now appears to be in pretty good supply for all three consoles. The MPA is of course not needed to play the guitar through an amp or from its MIDI out, just in the Rock Band 3 game for the appropriate console. However that is one of the major selling points for the guitar and seemingly the only advertised or word-of-mouth method of really knowing about the guitar. So MPA availability being good is good.
Overall though, the guitar itself is not in great supply, which may explain the lack of a greater number of purchase choices. It may also explain a lack of advertising and promotion, and what amounts to no information on it anywhere; at least if televisions, radios, magazines, newspapers, and searches on the Internet are any indication.
Although it's also true that the lack of all those things may account for why the guitar is not in great supply. The question is which is the cause and which is the effect. The obvious answer is likely the correct one.
Yet all is not lost for those who play guitar and want to practice certain songs or techniques, those who work on Digital Audio Workstation software or otherwise need true guitar MIDI output, and those that want to learn guitar while having fun. Or even for those that just think a guitar that sends out all sorts of information about the frets and strings is cool. Aside from what seems to be a smattering of individual Fender dealers selling them in various places, both Music 123 and Musician's Friend have them for sale on the Amazon web site. Right now as of today, at least.
Yet at the same time, not all is rosy for those who might want to play, use or learn guitar. That's only two companies, and it is only through Amazon those two are selling the guitar; searches on their actual web sites turn up nothing. Plus that, there have been no official announcements of other availability aside than the existing BB availability and there aren't any major guitar or general retailers selling the guitars.
Nobody knows and nobody's saying if any of this is due to retail deals, manufacturing issues, corporate problems, ineptitude, ambivalence, or apathy. Yes, one might even get the impression that nobody cares about selling any. Some may believe that nobody's bothered to even investigate the large (or potentially large) market for something like this if it was only promoted -- that somebody's wrongly assuming that since the game "only" sold some 1.3 million copies new, there must be no market for such a product as this. As if the game was even the only use for this guitar even so. Things don't really make much sense.
It could be that Fender had a contractual obligation to produce only so many of these with no plans to build more. That might also explain the glaring lack of a bass guitar version. Yet why only so many and no other plans and no bass version and no promotion? Could it be that in actuality, a $100 guitar body can't be sold at $280 with the electronics and sensors; that the entire guitar cost more than $280 and that the item is in fact a loss leader or such to sell the games through some deal with one of the parent companies. That borders on conspiracy theory though. There's no information even suggesting that, and if a subsidy of some sort was the case, the guitar would almost certainly have been released before the game itself was and with wide availability of the MPA already in place. Then why would Electronic Arts release the game in October 2010 with none of the rest? It's illogical, non-sensical, and mind-boggling, or however one would put it.
Even more so, if there was only a limited number to be produced, why an exclusive at one retailer at all. Not just that. Why a lead time of 3 months from game release to announcing when it would go on sale. Why a lead time of 3 months from announcing the sale date until the sale date. And why an exclusive that just rather sits there doing nothing but yawning for more than 2 months so far.
At $280, a full-sized six-string guitar with MIDI out and just how it might be promoted and sold seems almost unlimited. Yet web or store searches for the item bring up just about nothing of substance.
If the claim is that nobody much is interested in one is true, maybe the reason for that is obvious -- and it's not that nobody wants one.
It's June now, and neither of those two sellers has it on Amazon any longer. The different third parties still selling it there are at $100 higher than list.
ReplyDeleteBest Buy still has it at list price, usually shipping within a day, and with in-store at about 20% to 30% of stores.