Michael Pachter, industry analyst and professional guess-barbarian, has stated that evil publisher Activision’s decision to price Modern Warfare 2 at £54.99 has nothing to do with a weak pound. The excuse of a poor UK economy has been cast aside by the almighty Pachter, who instead accuses the nefarious company of simply charging what it knows it can get away with.
“The price increase is a business decision,” he explains. “Activision knows it has a ‘hot’ game, knows that the market will pay an additional 10 percent, and has decided to increase price accordingly.”
I think we all knew that Activision was just being bastardly, but it’s always nice to have such thoughts validated elsewhere. Pachter also notes that the pound is stronger than it was when Call of Duty: World at War was released, lending further evidence of Activision’s excuses being horsesh*t.
It seems that the malevolent publisher is doing what Microsoft did with Braid — testing the water to see if its consumers are loyal/gullible enough to pay for a price hike, thus setting a brand new pricing precedent. I hope against hope that it fails and Activision gets stung for its greed and hubris, but we all know that’s going to happen. UK gamers will make MW2 soar to the top of the charts, letting publishers know that they can get away with a brand new price point in the UK.
Thus a sad new age shall begin.
