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How much do game companies love you?

Wii love you! They don’t. Well, they do love you for your money though, so no surprises there, I guess.

But I’m becoming more and more concerned about the direction the game industry is taking with regards the next-gen consoles (how much, Mr Sony?) and micropayments (Microsoft and EA). Ok, well EA is evil personified, we all know that already, but Microsoft is really hot footing its way down the milking-the poor addicted saps gamers-for-every-cent-they’re-worth path with its Xbox Live Marketplace content, and in particular the recently released Lumines Live.

Right, Lumines Live. Here is an extract from an IGN interview with Lumines’s creator Mr Mizuguchi:

IGN: There is the base pack, and then there are all these other packs gamers can buy. Do you think that…how should I phrase this… is the reason that there are so many addition packs because of technical restriction of size, or is it part of a monetary plan?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: So first, we have the technical issue. We have to include everything into 50 MB. But we have another reason. We want people to customize Lumines. We want people to look at Lumines and, depending on the artist, or the season, or the music, we want to give them different reasons to consider buying the game. So, we have two reasons

Ok, I accept the technical issue, but I’m still a little unclear on the whole charging people for content that would be in the game had you not been restricted to 50mb? Total crap. I will not buy a micropayment game from Xbox Live and a quick straw poll of my housemate and I has us both firmly on the side of “screw you Microsoft and your micropayments rubbish”.

Now as for Sony, I think they are trying to make us hate them as much as possible so we never buy another Sony product ever again. But I can’t work out what they are gaining from this behaviour, as it certainly won’t be my money. Or is it simply that Sony’s PR department is populated by idiots, as that’s what the evidence seems to support.

A Sony spokesperson commenting on the recent ruling in favour of Sony against LikSang.com and grey imports (PSP):

Ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not – in PS3’s case – backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty.

I’m sorry, did he say protecting the consumers against buying cheaper hardware and not being ripped off by a money grabbing, faceless corporation? Oh, no he didn’t. Sorry my mistake. Consumer 0 : Evil Company 1.

Which leaves us with Nintendo. Ah, Nintendo :-)

2 new Zelda games and a cheap console, fantastic! Where have you been all this time? Personally I’m going Nintendo mad and buying a DS and a Wii (on pre-order) in the next 6 weeks with Zelda – The Phantom Hourglass (DS) on pre-order too. Then I can get down to some serious – and overdue – Nintendo lovin’.