Torn

Okay, I loves me some Left 4 Dead – on those rare occasions I can find a local match and it’s actually playable.

So I’d love to sample a whole extra campaign.

But paying $15 for something that’s free on the PC? What the hell is the justification? Why does Microsoft deserve that cash – particularly given that the version on its expensive network doesn’t provide any of the PC methods for finding a local game? They charge for a crappier version, and think they’ll get away with it just because my laptop isn’t good enough to run the game.

It had better be one SPECTACULAR campaign, that’s all I’m saying.

UPDATE: There’s another issue: I’m rapidly running out of room on my 20GB 360 hard drive. Since I don’t really feel like paying Microsoft’s offensive gouging prices for an upgraded hard disk (particularly when I’ve got a 120GB PS3 sitting on the other side of the cabinet), and I don’t want to download content I’ve paid for, I might just have to start buying cross-platform games on the PS3 instead.

UPDATE (4/10): Still haven’t succumbed to temptation and allowed myself to be ripped off by buying it. I am being strong. I think I’ll be able to resist indefinitely, now. Yay me.

Sony’s greed will kill the PSP-Go

The EB Games Australia boss on what he sees as the problem with the PSP Go business model, and why his chain may well not stock it:

“The old business model where you sell hardware for a loss because you’re going to sell games doesn’t really work [with the download-only PSP-Go] – so we’re just trying to work out a model that allows us to make some money selling the hardware,” Wilson said.

Well, that’s of course the case for retailers, but the profit on games for the system is still going to be there – in fact, somebody’s going to be making a mint (provided that enough of the devices find their way into people’s hands), selling download-only games at the same price as retail games but without distribution, middleman and packaging costs. That somebody, of course, is Sony.

So whilst the retailers won’t want to sell the thing at a loss as usual, Sony should be selling it at even more of a loss than the earlier version. Because its business model is all about getting as many of those things in people’s homes as possible, then raking in the cash by ripping off customers by selling downloaded games at full price. Even if it had to discount them a little (because I hope consumers aren’t gullible enough to pay full price for a lesser product), it’s still cutting out the stores. If it was sensible, and not just self-destructively greedy, Sony would cut the wholesale price of the new hardware to stores significantly to give them enough profit to make stocking the Go worthwhile on its own.

The old business model still works, it’s just that Sony hasn’t clicked that it’s trying to swap the roles around – it’s taking over the role of retailer of games – and that that requires some change on its previous behaviour.

Assuming it doesn’t want the whole thing to be an enormous, well-deserved flop, that is. And given Sony’s form to date (let’s not even get started on the debacle that is not enabling existing PSP owners to get digital versions of the games they already own on UMD, and the farcical retail price of the system, $450 – even more of an insult to Australians, since it’s $US250 overseas – as if it were a new platform, not just a redesign of an existing one), maybe that’s a bigger call than you’d think.

ELSEWHERE: A big SCREW YOU to Nintendo Australia, refusing to pass on a $US 50 price cut on the Wii because, well, because Nintendo Australia likes to rip Australians off. While we’re there, how’s that Australian version of “Club Nintendo” going? Still offering absolutely nothing to loyal customers? Yup. Seriously, who works at Nintendo Australia, and why do they hate us so much?

AND BACK ON THE PSP-GO: Another area where Sony has screwed over customers to try to protect itself.

FURTHER: Making sure that the PSP ports of iphone games cost more and have fewer features is hardly a winning move, either.

UPDATE (4/10): One consumer’s thrilling evening with his new PSP-Go.

Cowbear is still the worst thing in the world

Topic. That is all.

They don’t have a clue

Sony executive asked about download pricing:

Destructoid: How do you guys determine pricing with digital distribution, because I’ve seen that you can get a physical copy of a game, and for the same price you can get a digital copy. Some people aren’t necessarily happy about that. What do you have to say about that?

Lempel: Basically, we have pricing parity right now, and it is part of our strategy. We’d like to keep it that way, keep a level playing field, and again, there’s not that much more to say on that topic.

There’s plenty more to say on that topic. Like, how can you justify charging the same when your costs are so much lower and consumers are getting less? What makes you think that is in any way a viable strategy that will entice people to your product?

“Part of our strategy” isn’t an answer of any sort.

We don’t actually NEED Atkinson’s vote – the other AGs are using him to distract us from their own inaction

There’s a lot of noise being made at the moment about Australia finally rectifying the silly inconsistency between how we rate most media – films, television, books, music – and how we regulate videogames. Notably, the lack of an R18 rating, meaning that adult content gets shoehorned into MA15+ and made available to kids instead. And the fact that whilst major releases like Left 4 Dead 2 are refused classification, there’s been no movement forward by any of the governments responsible.

“We can’t do anything,” they say, “because all the state Attorneys-General need to agree, and Michael Atkinson from South Australia just refuses to let us move forward.”

And, because that’s been the way it’s worked in the past, that’s been allowed to be the final answer on the subject.

Only – there’s no sense to it. The National Classification Code which sets out the ratings is a Schedule (amended in the Gazette with Guidelines) to the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995, a piece of Federal legislation.

Now, unless an argument can be made that the Commonwealth has the power under s51 of the Constitution with respect to classification – perhaps (ix) on quarantine or, after WorkChoices, (xx) on corporations – then its only power in this respect is granted by each of the states. In which case, all our state AGs can simply opt-out and bring in their own R18+ rating.

Here’s the point: the state and federal AGs are using Atkinson as a useful punching-bag to avoid doing anything. But he has NO POWER over anyone but South Australians that our own representatives don’t grant him. In Victoria, Hulls could simply opt out of the Commonwealth code. We could adopt an equivalent code but with an R18 rating. Same for the other states. And if the Commonwealth has a problem with that, and thinks it can should the show nationally, then it can do so and ignore Atkinson. The Constitutional question of whether it really is a Commonwealth power or not should only affect South Australians – if it’s not, then they’re at Atkinson’s mercy; if it is, then the Commonwealth should override him.

For the rest of us, we should be asking real questions of our actual representatives, both state and federal. One or both of them has the power, Atkinson notwithstanding. We should compel them to use it.

UPDATE: An uplifting continuation of this discussion on the AG forums. There are some angry people over there.

ELSEWHERE: Yahtzee’s thoughts on the Left 4 Dead 2 ban.

A late afternoon on Highway 17

It’s weird. It’s clearly an absolutely horrible place to be, filled with monsters, tyrants, and a thousand awful ways to die – but I can’t help being drawn to the beautiful, stark world of Half Life 2. Particularly the countryside – that late afternoon driving along Highway 17, the forests of Episode Two, the sunset over the dam at the end of Water Hazard… even the crumbling city itself. There’s just something incredibly special about the atmosphere Valve’s artists have managed to invoke.

I’m not even sure screenshots adequately convey what it’s like in motion, with the sound of the ocean crashing and sea birds crying in the background. It’s both lonely and stunning. You’ve really just got to experience it.

I think that’s one of the main reasons why I’ve played through the game so many times – on PC, on Xbox, on 360, and why I’m going through again, this time hunting for Lambda caches. I just enjoy being there. Even the psychotic Combine can’t ruin it for me.

Why limit the ripoff to purchasers?

One of these days, I’m going to take the camera down to the shopping centre and get a shot of some of the ludicrously misleading console advertisements in front of EB Games and GAME. You know the ones – $150 for a PS3!!!*

*If you give us your old PS3 and two current $100 games.

It’s deceptive and stupid – and insulting – but I’ll post on that when I’ve got a photo to go with it.

In the meantime, via Kotaku:

The weirdest thing about that? That they limit their ripoff “offer” to those who buy a PS3 from them. Surely if you’re charging the equivalent of $AU 200 for ten minutes’ low-skilled “work”, you’d want to make it available to as many suckers customers suckers as possible?

Email to Brendan O’Connor, in whose hands the R18 rating debacle presently sits

To: brendan.o’connor.mp@aph.gov.au (Minister for Home Affairs):
Subject: Sick of waiting – R18 category needed to keep adult videogames away from impressionable teenagers

Dear Mr O’Connor

I am certain you will have received many, many submissions begging you to remedy the ludicrous disparity between the way the Australian Government regulates films, television and other modern media with the way it regulates interactive content (ie, no adult rating for videogames).

And it will have been pointed out to you how the present system puts children and teenagers at risk.

My single question to you is this: when can we expect some movement? There doesn’t seem to have been any progress at all. We’ve heard nothing. Your government’s response to the whole issue, which is of some importance to many Australian voters, seems to have disappeared into the bureaucracy.

How long do you expect this industry (whose jobs the present inaction is threatening) and this audience (who are adult voters sick of being shabbily treated by this government) to sit by and put up with the frankly ludicrous status quo?

I just want one single response to this email. Not the vacuous restatement of the law you gave GameSpot – an answer as to when you will remedy this situation. Times. Australians are sick of waiting.

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Sear.

Oh, for god sake. L4D2 refused classification

I’ll let the ludicrous announcement speak for itself:

LEFT 4 DEAD 2 CG (Multi Platform)
Classification RC

I’d write more, but -

(a) What more needs to be said? Australian adults can’t play a zombie game? What kind of a nanny state is this?

and, more importantly

(b) The spacebar on my laptop has just died and it’s making typing almost as annoying as.. well, as the OFLC.

UPDATE: This is the most recent news on the long-overdue implementation of an R18+ category for videogames – nothing but bullshit stalling.

Shadow Complex pretty awesome, akshully

Okay, I might have been wrong about Shadow Complex. It’s worth the $25.

Even if it is locked to your gamertag so you can never resell it.