Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Harmonix and Rock Band Guitar Controller Issues

From 1UP:
The launch shipment of Rock Band guitars have certainly run into their fair share of issues. A large number of gamers have been reporting problems with the guitar's strum completely breaking down within a few days -- or less -- of use. Electronic Arts' warranty program has been reliably fast for most people so far, albeit now a bit backed up from all the guitar swapping going on, and Harmonix has now released a statement admitting some early guitars may suffer from this issue.

"Many of you have contacted us regarding your guitar controllers. As sometimes happens when new products first go into manufacturing, we discovered an imperfection with the strum bar in an early production run of guitars that were shipped at launch. We want to inform you that we have since identified and fixed the issue in all subsequent production runs of the guitars," said the studio.

"If you are experiencing a problem with your guitar or any of your other Rock Band instruments, simply visit the
customer support website and we will send a replacement immediately. Harmonix is dedicated to creating 100% customer satisfaction and to those of you who've encountered any hardware issues, we are sorry for the hassle."

That's the right thing for Harmonix to do--acknowledge the issue quickly. Pretending that there wasn't a problem or issuing vague non-denial denials would have been a waste of time.

The question now is how effective is the replacement program. I've asked a few of you to contact me when you receive your replacements, so I'll keep everyone updated.

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