A while back it was confirmed that the Nintendo Wii version of Electronic Arts’ Rock Band would not support either online play or downloadable content in the form of new songs to jam along to. And, according to developer Harmonix’s design director, the decision was taken to leave it out due to the console’s lack of a hard drive. He also stood up to defend what many in Europe are calling a ridiculous price tag for the title.

Here’s what Rob Kay had to say:

“Come on Nintendo, we need a hard drive,” Kay said when asked about the issue in a chat with CVG. “That’s what we want. The whole problem is there’s nowhere to store it.”

He added: “If the platform could do it, we’d jump on it. It’s something that we championed to Nintendo, that we’d like to do it. Who knows what will happen down the line, I don’t know what’s coming down the line, but that’s the reason there’s no DLC in Wii Rock Band.”

As for the issue of pricing of the game (which was announced yesterday, seeing European players paying twice as much as their American cousins), Kay told Eurogamer that they weren’t “trying to rip anybody off.”

“The combined price, if you add all that up and decide you want that full experience, is quite high. It’s not something that is normal in videogames.

But Rock Band isn’t normal in videogames. This is an entirely new thing. What other game comes with three peripherals that are all different? It just makes sense for the experience we’re trying to deliver.”

He added that VAT and and the higher price of consumer electronics in general were the reason for the massive price hike, conceding that players might be a “a bit put off”, but concluding by explaining that “I firmly believe that if people do [buy it] they’ll have an amazing experience they couldn’t get anywhere else.”

Strong words on two fronts from Kay there, then. The hard drive issue we can understand, but the cost of Rock Band in Europe, we feel, is still taking the Michael just a bit.