Dear Activision,

In light of recent events, I have decided to cease my recreational contract with you.

Effective immediately, my purchases will no longer pad your bottom line.

And I do mean pad.

In light of the hissy fit you threw over Steam pricing, well aware of the fact that it would be outrageous for Australian consumers to pay, literally, the US dollar equivalent for your titles, you instead opted to increase the price from US$50 (roughly $60 Australian, given current favourable exchange rates) to more than $85.

Bear in mind, this price increase reflects only one title on Steam. Your own. This was a decision, made by you and your people, to effectively rape my wallet for granting me the "privilege” of playing your newest title.

And from what I've heard, it's good. Single player, while short, is fun. Multiplayer, while a stat-whore fest, is also fun, despite breaking the cardinal rule of an equal playing ground for everyone.

But I won't be playing it and I won't be paying for it.

My friends, who have decidedly less scruples than myself, will be playing it.

But like me, they will not be paying for it.

I guess they figure that, since half of Australia is paying double what they should be, then half of Australia should get it for free, to create a balance.

You know, restore the equilibrium. Yin and yang. Light and Dark. Tom and Jerry.

I understand your desire for money. You are a publicly listed company, and most of your games are shit. You lose a fair bit, so the need to make it back on your better titles is noticeably overwhelming.

Price fixing and regional encoding, however, do nothing for the consumer.

Bear in mind, these consumers, like myself, are the people paying you. We pay your wages. We pay your developments costs. We pay you for the privilege of providing us with entertainment.

This is what you seem to have backwards. We pay you, so that you have the privilege of providing us with entertainment.

Being bent over a barrel and having your hand up my ass to reef out the small change I swallowed as a child is not entertainment.

Having a developer restrict access to a product I wish to pay for is not fun.

It's not just COD4 and every other game released in PAL territories that causes the pain.

Oh no.

Have you heard of Guitar Hero 3? I'm sure you have. It's one of those titles you want to exploit annually and with which your offer consumers the fair choice of paying a fistful of dollars for three songs. Making sure the songs are jumbled up so you have to buy three at once, of course, and making sure that if someone does want three songs, then all three of those songs will be in different packs, allowing for the purchase of nine songs, six of which are unwanted and paid for.

But I digress.

This issue does not really affect me, since I own the Wii version. Yeah, you think you know where I'm going with this.

But you don't.

Aside from the painfully obvious and ridiculously stupid matter of messing up the sound in a music based rhythm game, and Nintendo's inability to provide a download service that does does run straight through their own money grubbing Virtual Console service, there is one other issue Wii gamers should have taken to heart but didn't.

Allow me to scatter the bones and read the runes.

This “guitar” you have fashioned for the Wii consumer is a joke. Not only does it contain none of the technology required for it to work, but you ask that the Wii consumer get the thing to work by using one of their own Wii remotes.

You price your guitar, at least here in Australia (where I still can't buy an extra guitar without buying the game again, but since the game is broken why would I buy it until you released the fixed version, even if I was stupid enough to buy it again anyway) is $80.

$150 right there, to get one guitar controller working.

The big difference, of course, is that the Wii remote actually contains all the technology you need for the guitar to work!

It contains the wireless, the rumble, the tilt sensor. It even has that funky speaker that makes missed notes screech out of the guitar itself.

Both controllers charged at $70. One is a shell. One is full of technology.

Looking at the same game on another platform, such as PS3 or 360, one can see that you charge the same amount for a guitar controller on those platforms.

$150 RRP for your product.

And yet, the Wii version has a guitar with less technology. Where do you make up the extra money?

Is it in the quality of the version you have released?

No.

Is it in the free content you offer to Wii owners?

No.

You don't even have the option to allow Wii owners to download songs, partly because Nintendo have yet to see the light of 1995 where removable storage became the in thing.

But you're still not off the hook.

$80 on another console gets you a guitar with wireless technology, tilt sensors and rumble.

$80 for a guitar on the Wii gets you a shell that allows you to plug in a device that has wireless technology, tilt sensors and rumble.

When Activision decides to stop treating the consumer like a free meal, I will gladly buy something of yours.

Maybe.

If it's a new River Raid.

That was the best thing you and your namesake ever made. I'd like to see another one.

Please, stop being assholes. Embrace the PAL gamer as equal. When you realise that the PAL market is the largest in the world, and that this works well with the cardinal rule of business: “it's easier to take $1 from one hundred people person than $100 from one person”, when you realise this, maybe you will not need to “exploit” your games and your audience so gratuitously.

tl;dr

You're a bunch of overcharging money grubbers who don't realise that the consumer you are trying to court is not only smarter than you, but they can take what you are trying to sell for free if you try to mess with them.

Sincerely,
A PAL gamer who is sick of your bullshit (and a former paying customer)



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