Rock Band 4 PS4 DLC no-show drama rumbles on for another week

Last week we reported on the plight of players of the PlayStation 4 version of Rock Band 4, who at the time had been waiting for thousands of DLC tracks already available on Xbox One and the North American PlayStation Store to be released on the European PlayStation Store - three weeks after the game came out.

Now, it's four weeks.

This week's PlayStation Store update came and went without a mention of Rock Band 4 - and increasingly angry customers were quick to vent their anger on developer Harmonix's forum and the Rock Band subReddit.

This morning Eurogamer was contacted by a number of affected customers who asked us to follow-up on the ongoing issue.

Rock Band 4 launched on 6th October, and over half of the Legacy DLC as well as the Aerosmith DLC that launched three weeks ago are currently unavailable to buy from the EU PlayStation Store.

The availability of Legacy DLC for Rock Band 4 was one of the game's main selling points. It means those who have bought DLC for previous Rock Band games are able to re-download them to Rock Band 4.

There are a number of problems here that are upsetting players. One, the songs can be bought from the in-game music store, but when you try to download them from the PlayStation Store, you get a "content not available" message.

Two, a lack of communication from both sides: developer Harmonix and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Last week Mad Catz, the distributor of Rock Band 4, issued a statement to Eurogamer on the matter, saying the hold-up had to do with different territories having different technical requirements and specifications, which is why tracks appear on one PlayStation Store but not the other.

"I can assure you that we are in constant contact with first party and work hard to minimise any delay, however, some of the work involved in making the tracks live is beyond our control," Mad Catz's Alex Verrey told us at the time. When contacted this morning, Mad Catz declined to comment further.

We've also asked SCEE for comment, and will update if it responds.

It's worth pointing out Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) operates independently of Sony Computer Entertainment America, with its own set of technical requirements, its own submission processes and its own rules and regulations and terms and conditions (SCEE operates multiple mini-stores for each territory within Europe, for example).

Sony Computer Entertainment's set-up means developers often find themselves in the position of seeing their game and DLC approved for release in one territory, but denied release in another.

The delay may have to do with the way SCEE is set up, coupled with the sheer volume of tracks that must be worked through.

Here's hoping that next week's PlayStation Store update brings with it better news.