Dear Harmonix.

I came into this whole rhythm game thing a little late. I didn't have a PS2, so I couldn't get on the Guitar Hero bandwagon, but by the time Guitar Hero 2 was coming for the Xbox 360, I'd heard enough about the game that I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy.

Of course, I had to wait, because there were supply issues. Plus I live in Canada, so there were bigger supply issues. Not sure exactly what they were. Maybe you were misinformed that we Canadians are actually in the 21st century, with automobiles and airplanes and the internet and stuff like that, and so maybe you were trying to sled-dog the Guitar Hero 2 shipments to us. I'm not sure.

Either way, I finally got my hands on a copy earlier this year, and I gotta say, I fell immediately in love with it. Psychotically (though in an entirely platonic way) in love. Seriously. Ask my 360's blog about it.

And then I heard about Rock Band, and I think I almost died.

I've been a gamer for years. I played Doom on my 386. Shooters and RPGs have been my gaming style of choice for more than half my life. My lust for rhythm games is a testament to the awesomeness of your company and the products you develop.

So then I hear, a week or so ago, that you might have some difficulty keeping up with the demand for the game leading up to Christmas. I hear that you might not have quite enough inventory.

And I think...hm, that's odd. I mean, the interest in Rock Band has been pretty solid since its announcement. There's been a lot of coverage here on the Internet -- and there's a lot of gamers and, I suspect, game developers who are familiar with this whole internet thing. So it seems kind of strange that you wouldn't be aware of the rabid, foaming, demand for this game. And it seems sort of odd that you wouldn't, you know, put in the extra effort to meet that demand.

Then tonight I read that not having the supply to meet the demand is the least of my problems. I read that, up here in the great white north, Rock Band is delayed until Dec. 17. And that's just...god, I don't even know what to say about that.

One of the stories I read said something about having to create bilingual game cases -- that contain both english and french. But, seriously, come on, if you're translation staff is going to require four weeks to complete that project, I think it's possible that you've hired the wrong people. Maybe some germans or spaniards or something. Because there is no way it should take that long.

Another story I read speculated that what would have and should have been Canadian shipments of Rock Band have now been diverted back into the US to meet the demand that your current level of production is not able to meet. Which comes back to what I said earlier: Did you not notice that there was a rabid, foaming, passionate desire for your game? Did you not think it was maybe a good idea to produce enough copies to meet that rabid, foaming, passionate desire?

I know, it's your game, and you can do with it as you will. You could ship every copy to gaum. You could stick in a warehouse and never release it to the public. And if you should decide to keep out of Canada until Dec. 17 -- which, apparently, you have -- then that's your decision too. It's just that the whole thing just seems so tragically preventable.

Best regards,
Lewzr