Bend Over

Unfortunately, all three systems have problems. Some, like the PS3's price, are are inexplicable, but will dissipate with time. Others, like the Wii's horrible hardware, are not going to change and will look worse over time as development improves on the other two platforms. It seemed like up to this point, Microsoft has positioned them well with XB360. It came out a year too early, it still has and old optical media format, and god knows why it can't run Doom III engine games as well as my three year old PC, but the mistakes like that don't grab headlines the way the PS3/Wii issues do. However, and this is a gigantic however, Microsoft is promoting something that is far worse in the long run, perhaps almost half as bad as Nintendo's promotion on non-games: Micro Transactions.

Long story short: developers are going to keep leaving content off of the disc if morons keep paying extra for it later. Activision, one of the worst companies out there, is leading the charge:

$1 Million in Gouging

According to estimates by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, sales of downloadable content for hit Xbox 360 title Call of Duty 2 have generated USD1 million for the company.

Speaking to investors and analysts last week, as reported by GameSpot, Kotick said "approximately USD 1 million" had been generated - which he described as "a critical first step in exploiting online revenue potential and extending the shelf life of our games".

Activision has released a pair of premium packs for the best-selling World War II shooter, priced at USD 5 and USD 10. The cheaper of the two sold 105,000 times while the more expensive managed 66,000, according to Kotick.

Xbox 360 has been widely used already as a platform for the distribution of premium downloadable content, but Activision is the first to claim seven-figure success.

Other content released through the service includes a raft of downloadables for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (all of which were released at an equivalent price on the PC), new map content for THQ's The Outfit and downloadable car-packs for Project Gotham Racing 3.

I'm now quite glad that I rented Call of Duty 2 for the PC rather than buying a 360 and that version of the game to go along with it. Developers doing this crap can go fuck themselves.