Shenanigans is Fun!

Sticking with BeatFreakers site for a bit. He posted a great article callings shenanigans. Personally I like anything that's called Shenanigans. Here is the article I copied and pasted here, a great read. If you like to check out some more of his stuff, go to the link below in the "Get Your PSN ID" post.

On quick comment on the last post, I did manage to get my PSN ID added to the site, yaaay for me a technology! But it does display a British flag, I guess that will update to the good ole Canadian flag soon enough. I think..maybe.

I Call Shenanigans Bobby Kotick

Recently you might remember an article coming from many of the leading gaming sites after an interview with Activision's chairman of games Bobby Kotick demanding Playstation drop the price of it's console. If it failed to do so by a decided date he stated that they would no longer support the hardware. Now with over 23 million PS3's on the market and what many would agree carries the best looking games, how could any one believe that this was a valuable section of the market. With many arguments stemming from total units sold you cannot argue that this system has the power to evolve farther than anything on the market at this time, but what many do not realize is the hard figures that many people are not aware of. For example lets break down the first few years in sales between the 360 and the Playstation 3, yes I am leaving the Wii out of the conversation and the amount sold no where near translates in to the amount that see daily use. So let's check out the figures using a simple equation of total units sold, divided by time on the market...

XBOX 360 (November 22, 2005) As of January 2009 28 million approx sold (38 months on the market for an average of 736,842 per month)
PS3 (November 11, 2006) As of January 2009 23 million sold (26 months on the market for an average of 884,615 per month)

Now correct me if I am wrong, but if we were to match up to two consoles to the exact same period lengths on the market, along side the current trend in sales the Playstation 3 is would move around 31-33 million units in the same period. To be exact it would amount to 33615370 units. That would be almost 6 million units more than Xbox currently has sold in the same amount of time. Factor in Microsoft's sales data and you can't help but wonder how many of those sales would be attributed to replacing RROD systems. Could this be why they have moved 28 million units yet have approx 9 million less subscribers to their online service according to their released information. In December Microsoft announced that it reached 19 million users and only 2 1/2 months later Sony announced that it had passed 20 million. I know both have their advantages but you cannot argue that those stats look great when up against a company that has more online experience than anyone and the infrustructure already in place to support it. You also cannot argue that Sony isn't building something great and soon many more will realize that. With many making valid comparrisions with all the systems you cannot argue that the Playstation doesn't exceed them from a technological standpoint.

However the more I thought about this after reading this article from Activision's chairman, the more I began looking at the company. So lets take a look at Activision a little closer. Activision over recent years have been come to be known as a "plastic" company, with the mass flooding of plastic peripherals starting with the release of Guitar Hero which will see it's fifth reboot along side the addition of even more plastic pieces. Now I know many have followed suit however, this isn't my arguement. My arguments stem from the amount they charge for these packages. Let's run through some of the packages that they currently or will have soon in stores near you.

Guitar Hero World Tour
Listed Price: $169.99
Sales Price: $129.00
Total: $150-200 After Taxes Approx.

DJ Hero:
Listed Price: $119.00
Total: $145 After Taxes Approx.

Tony Hawk Ride:
Listed Price: $119.00
Total: $145 After Taxes Approx.

Modern Warfare 2 "Prestige" Pack
Listed Price: $150.00
Total: $200 After Taxes Approx.

Total for 4 games: $690.00

Throw on top of this the fact that the Modern Warfare 2 title alone in the UK will run customers around $90.00 US after Activision just announced that it would be raising prices on the title. However the whooping $150 dollar price tag for the "Prestige" pack that comes with the title, steel game case, art book & what it deems as fully functional night vision goggles, you can't help but shake your head and wonder. Why would they do something like this? Considering most low-end NV solutions start at around $500 you can't help but wonder also how good the quality is for this addition to the package. Not to mention they do absolutely nothing for the game or how it plays, it seems like Bobby Kotick should look in the mirror before he makes harsh remarks about how another company charges. Everyone should know by now that their recent history has involved many good games with terrible quality peripherals that barely make it through the first year of use. So to operate this way and make statements like this in comparison to a company that is offering better quality in their products is like many of the old sayings in the day. Not to mention even Valve has stated it's interest in the system now after so much time of saying it is too hard to develop for. The truth is that it's not harder to develop for, it's just different. Once learned I have been told that it is much easier to develop for and can take many advantages that the other systems cannot.

So Bobby Kotick, I Call Shenanigans.