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Not this again: ROCK BAND 2 is REGION-LOCKED for US Xbox 360s.

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Not this again.

Disclaimer: I actually own a US Xbox 360, but I also am not happy about this news. I'm not pleased to hear that ROCK BAND 2 will be Region-Locked for US Xbox 360s only.

A lot of the players in the Pinoyxbox community have Asian Xbox 360s and for good reason....they want to support what is officially the Xbox 360 for Asia, and they're benefitting from the lower-priced games. A lot of them have expressed interest in getting ROCK BAND; unfortunately, the first game was region-locked. Not everyone can afford to (EXPENSIVELY) import a second system just to play one game.

And now, I've received word that Rock Band 2 is NOT going to be region-free. I can't believe this. Rock Band on the Playstation 3 is region-free....anyone with a Playstation 3 in any part of the world can play that game. Any kind of Playstation 3 can play it (whether you bought it from Japan, the UK or the US). If you travel around the world, you don't have to deal with the hassle of knowing about region coding, let alone understanding the reasoning behind it.

So why do Xbox 360 owners around the world have to deal with this crap?

Don't give me that 'licensing for music is per-country' bullshit. If Sony can do it, why not Microsoft? Why isn't anyone attacking Sony for their region-free policy with Rock Band or every other game? How can Sony get away with it? Simply put, it doesn't make any sense that they can do it and Microsoft can't.

This region-coding thing doesn't help gamers at all. I think it isn't good for Microsoft, too. Rock Band 2 is going to be one of those games that can help win the casual gaming market for Microsoft. It's a very important game; losing an entire market of an obviously immensely profitable demographic because of some lousy region-coding issue is a horrible oversight and an absolutely incompetent business decision.

Because Rock Band 2 is region-locked on the Xbox 360: Rock Band 2 is now officially an exclusive Playstation 3 game for markets outside of the United States.

There goes another opportunity for Microsoft to gain ground in the Asian marketplace. Way to go....

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