Harmonix Responds to Latest Rock Band Lawsuit, Labels It 'Opportunistic and Baseless'

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Rock Band developer Harmonix and owner MTV Games have responded to a $5 million-plus lawsuit regarding defective Rock Band kick pedals, labeling the charges "opportunistic and baseless."

In an e-mail to Shacknews, a company representative stated:

Harmonix and MTV Games are dedicated to consumers having an outstanding experience with our products. When used as directed, our drum pedals are designed to provide years of enjoyment. In addition, at the launch of Rock Band we offered consumers an extended opportunity return defective or broken hardware for any reason whatsoever--no questions asked. This litigation is opportunistic and baseless.

The class-action lawsuit, filed on November 18, suggests that Harmonix and MTV knew the original Rock Band drum pedals were defective and prone to snapping in half, but did not resolve the issue to encourage sales of the improved Rock Band 2 drum set.

In a conspiratorial tone, the lawsuit notes that MTV Games and Harmonix extended the replacement period for broken Rock Band hardware after the game released in November 2007, but drew that grace period to a close only four days before the announcement of Rock Band 2 and its metal-reinforced kick pedal.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 24, 2008 1:41 PM

    I don't think the pedals were intentionally poorly designed, but they were certainly poorly designed. Years of enjoyment? By a 2 year old?

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      November 24, 2008 1:46 PM

      Eh, when you get right down to it, it's a toy drum set. A lot of gamers were expecting "real drum" reliability out of $75 gear, and that's just not going to happen.

      The game certainly encourages you to play like a "real drummer", but the drums generally couldn't take the punishment of "real drumming". To claim that the drums were designed to break is just stupid, they are just cheap.

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        November 24, 2008 2:04 PM

        I agree. I knew my pedal would snap eventually.

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        November 24, 2008 2:14 PM

        I disagree. it takes about two seconds to look at the pedal and see where its going to break, they could have designed a stronger pedal without increasing cost by more than maybe a few cents.

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          November 24, 2008 2:34 PM

          Yeah, after a few days of light use you'll notice it starting to bend at the weak spot. Mine broke, and I still don't know why or how considering how much I babied it. They sent me a new one free of charge which I reinforced with a slab of wood so I'm satisfied.

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        November 24, 2008 2:21 PM

        [deleted]

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        November 24, 2008 2:53 PM

        Noone said they were designed to break. The claim is, they knew they were defective and didn't fix them. Not they were designed to break.

        In all honestly if they didn't know they were defective then I would be scared because that means their testers must of only tested the game about 5 times or less with a drum kit.

        If they are so dedicated to giving us such a good experience why won't they replace my drum pedal now?

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          November 24, 2008 3:13 PM

          why won't they replace it? they replaced mine longer after the warranty was up

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      November 24, 2008 2:50 PM

      i havent had one problem with my drum pedal. i checked it out saturday after some gaming with a brah and no signs of damage or cracking.

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