Well, now it’s official. Signs had pointed to a late-October release for Rock Band 3, but now Harmonix has confirmed that the game will be shipping to retailers on October 26. Set your countdown clocks now.
But that’s not all! Harmonix has also revealed pre-order bonuses for three big retailers. Let’s break them down, shall we?
Amazon
The web-commerce giant has two incentives to lure you into pre-ordering a 360, PS3, or Wii version from them: First you’ll get a $10 off coupon for a future videogame purchase. And second, you’ll get an exclusive in-game guitar. This guitar:
Sold? here
GameStop
Customers who pre-order the PS3 or 360 version at GameStop will get three free tracks from the Rock Band Music Store. These three:
| Deftones | My Own Summer |   |
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| New Order | Blue Monday |  |
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| Talking Heads | Burning Down the House |  |
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Now, these are described as “downloadable Rock Band songs,” so it’s not entirely clear whether these will be specifically for Rock Band 3. I’m looking for confirmation, but I think it’s a pretty safe assumption.
Here‘s the link if this is the deal for you.
Wal-Mart
Finally, if you pre-order the 360, PS3, or Wii version at Walmart.com, you’ll get yourself a $10 “eGift card.” The link? It’s here.
If any of these deals strike your fancy, you’d best jump on them — they’re all only valid for a limited time.
Does anybody know if you get the gamestop songs when you pre-order the game or when you pick it up?
You’ll get it almost always (or always?) when you pick up the game, not when you preorder.
Does the pre-order bonus at Amazon apply to the game-only and bundle? The $10 credit and in-game guitar only seem to show up under the game-only edition.
Most of Gamestop’s pre-order stuff is packaged along with the game when it’s released.
And eh… All those specials don’t seem all that spectacular, and I’ll wait to see if Best Buy offers anything.
Yeah, for now the Amazon deal seems to be for the game only, so if you want the keyboard you’d only net the in game guitar. Amazon hasn’t updated the release date for the bundle either, so maybe this will change.
Gamestop deal appears to apply to the bundle as well which they show releasing the 26, but still has the keyboard by itself on the 31st.
I would like to do the Gamestop thing but nooooooo! Wii gets the shaft once again! They could at least give us a voucher for 600 wii points, kind of like the Pepsi DLC last year.