How..... Interesting?

This is mostly all conjecture on our part, based upon information gathered from publicly available sources, including emails sent by Fender to their dealers and customers, press releases, random Internet speculation, the behavior of various on-line and in-person retailers, and what the participants / non-participants (Fender, Viacom, MTV Games, Electronic Arts, Harmonix, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Best Buy, Amazon, Guitar Center, Music123, Musician's Friend, eBay, etc) have said, not said, or failed to say.    It's in some ways an interesting story in how things really work in the background.   That is, shrouded in secrecy, with little or no information on anything.    So we guess.


Every indication so far is that there were never any plans to produce the Squier by Fender Stratocaster Guitar and Controller over the first run.   That when Viacom made the decision to sell Harmonix some time before Rock Band 3 was released, it sealed the doom of the guitar.    Although that still leaves a big question, other than "because of contractual obligations" as the answer.     The announcement of release date and release came the next year after game release.   Curious to continue?   Perhaps not really.  One of the big selling points of the game (if not the biggest and only important one) was the ability to play a real guitar; bad form for the reputation and perhaps even future of  these companies and for all the DownLoadable Content (DLC).   So maybe it wasn't so curious at all; if you wanted one, you could find one somehow, and nobody could really complain they didn't fulfill their promise.  That it was a rather lackluster frustrating process is another story and another argument.

It appears there was some sort of deal hammered out between Viacom and Fender (one guesses those two would be the ones primarily involved, even if ostensibly through their agents) on the "RB3 Squier" the year or so before the game was released. Although the guitar itself might be considered an entry level item retailing for some $200 or so; the specialized body, the electronics for interfacing with the Wii and the PS3, and the MIDI sensors and MIDI electronics would certainly seem to push just the manufacturing costs of the item over that of the list price. That says nothing of the support and other costs (repair, spare parts, warranty work, returns, production issues, shipping, R&D, etc) involved.  (Much less any advertising or promotion costs, perhaps explaining why there was basically none.)

With the almost total lack of advertising or sales information on the SbFSGaC, the seeming loss of the item on the primary retailer's website, the narrow market to which it was presented even in its limited terms, and the things that Fender has told others leaves little doubt in our minds that the guitar production was subsidized, and that by the time it was released, nobody much cared about selling any of them.

Now, with Rocksmith on the horizon, supposedly with the ability to connect any guitar to the game (which is perhaps more of a tutor and trainer) the question of the need for the RB3 Squier (and what anyone in the Rock Band "camp" knew about Ubisoft's plans for Rocksmith ahead of time) is on the table.   But like most slow moving things, the answer to that remains to be seen in the next few months after release of that game.

On the Rock Band guitar, what we are left with though is a product that seems it was scheduled for execution before it was created.   Yet it still sold however many copies it sold, with some amount of unfulfilled demand in those places it wasn't directly for sale (but on a limited basis if at all) which is basically the entire world outside of the United States.

Now with news (or at least rumors) of some sort of reboot for Guitar Hero next year or the next, all there is to do is wait and see what comes out of all of this.   One answer is pretty certain though; not any more of this guitar.