Am I the only one who doesn't care about Rock Band?

[Image: rock band]Harmonix recently announced that, in an appropriately rock-band themed move, they’re going on a country-wide tour with the game that everyone and their donkey is salivating over:

New York, NY – September 6, 2007 – Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), announced today that Rock Bandâ„¢ is hitting the road on a coast-to-coast tour to give consumers the chance to try the award winning game everyone is talking about before it comes out. In addition, budding musicians can choose to participate in a “Rock Off” audition for an opportunity to appear on MTV’s TRL. Two selected bands will participate in a live “Battle of the Bands,” with the top group being asked to open for one of rock’s biggest bands at the Rock Band launch concert this Holiday 2007.

Maybe it’s because I’m on a one-man crusade against the (re)-rise of console game prices, especially when most of that is going to offset the costs of idiotic marketing and packaging costs, and developers are starting to see additional revenue from advertisements (but drop the box price because the game is subsidized…oh no! never!)

Maybe it’s because I’m actually a drummer, and I have a real drum kit.

Maybe it’s because I checked the game out at PAX, and it looked like a prettier version of Guitar Hero (with, I’ll grant you, some amazing songs) and a line that was WAY out of proportion for the game.

Maybe it’s because Rock Band just feels like taking a good idea too far.

For whatever reason, I’m really not excited about Rock Band. I don’t plan to buy it. I might play it at someone else’s place if they have it.

The more I hear about it, the more I find myself going “seriously? that’s worth $200?”