Rock Band street date broken: special edition bundles sold at Wal-Mart

It looks like another high profile game has slipped the noose and found its way to Wal-Mart once again. This time it’s Harmonix‘s Rock Band that saw its scheduled November 20 release date broken.

Darklor, a member of the official Rock Band forums, reported buying a copy of Rock Band from a Wal-Mart branch in New York.

Read the entire article right after the jump!

It looks like another high profile game has slipped the noose and found its way to Wal-Mart once again. This time it’s Harmonix‘s Rock Band that saw its scheduled November 20 release date broken.

Darklor, a member of the official Rock Band forums, reported buying a copy of Rock Band from a Wal-Mart branch in New York. His copy of the Rock Band Special Edition bundle cost him a hefty US$ 169.99 after haggling it down from a US$ 200 price tag from the manager of the store.

He and his friends went back to try their luck on obtaining a second copy, but the second shift manager realized that they were breaking the street date and promptly disallowed the sale.

There have also been reports earlier this month of Rock Band Special Edition bundles being sold over eBay for over US$ 400. However, it seems that these were merely demo builds and not the final version of the game.

Harmonix explained what to look out for when looking to purchase one of these copies online:

These demo builds are kind of hobbled – for one the drums don’t have kick pedals. Some of the demos don’t have mics. And the build isn’t a full-real retail version of the game. It is hobbled a bit and, obviously, the bass drum autoplays since there is no pedal that comes with the demo.

With all the shady deals behind this game maybe patience is a virtue, afterall. In any case, upstanding citizens will have to wait until Rock Band is officially released this November 20 on the PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360 before they can jam up a storm on their respective consoles.

Buy: [Rock Band Special Edition (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Rock Band Special Edition (PS3)]