Anyone who got March’s issue of EGM probably read their article, “BattleStation!”. To put it mildly, this article incensed me. It outlines the troubled launch of the PS3 and interviews Sony’s CEO, Jack Tretton. Mr. Tretton’s response to the very first question posed to him by EGM clearly underlines Sony’s arrogance. When asked where the negativity surrounding the PS3’s launch came from, Tretton replies. “The problem we have…its society in general.”

What??1?

You mean to tell me that the reason the PS3 had a rocky launch isn’t because of its exorbitantly high price tag, or the feeling that the PS3 is a Trojan horse for Blu-Ray, or that there really isn’t any seriously compelling software titles to warrent an immediate purchase is because there’s something wrong with me?

Sony has clearly lost its mind. They have lost touch with what their consumers want, and just how much one is willing to pay for what in reality is expendable. For example, if the whole video game industry magically dissappeared tomorrow, we would all be fine and we’d spend our money elsewhere. This is not that far fetched…the early 80’s saw the bust of the video game industry until the NES brought it back around again.

The argument is that you’re getting more than just a next-gen gaming machine. You’re getting a powerful media center complete with a Blu-Ray player and a rich online experience. While its undoubtedly more robust than Nintendo’s paltry online capabilites, the PS3’s online arm is no where near as far reaching as the Xbox 360’s. Tretton himself even admits that nearly 62 percent of televisions sold this past year were not hi-def in the article. This was the reason given as to why there are no component cables packaged into the system. It also goes to show that a vast majority of consumers don’t even have the capabilty to see all those amazing polys being pushed around. Additionally, the public at large doesn’t even know the difference between a standard DVD and an HD-DVD let alone what the competing format that the PS3 supports is.

When told that 50 percent (a conservative estimate) of the people camping out to score a new system were Ebay blood-suckers, Tretton clearly feigns ignornace with the simple response of “really?” Then, he goes on to say that anyone who managed to get a system and indeed re-sell it on Ebay at a profit is no reason for him to say the launch was a failure. From a purely buiseness stand point, they acheived their objective which was to sell their initial supply of product. However, they were not selling it to their intended target audience. They were selling it to a load of get-rich-quick-schemers who were then in turn left out in the cold when a majority of the systems didn’t sell on Ebay neither. However, to be fair I’m willing to bet that if those lines weren’t filled with Ebayers, people who legitimately wanted the system would have filled the ranks.

Last but not least (for this post anyway), Tretton dares anyone who finds a system in-stock at a store that he will give them 1,200.00 dollars. The article plays fair and mentions that this interview was conducted in mid-January…which at my count was only 2-3 weeks ago. The GameStop (yuk) down the street from where I work had them in stock at Christmas time. But Tretton didn’t make his promise as of then, so I’ll let that one slide. However, just yesterday I was in my local Best Buy and there was three (3) PS3s 60GB models just sitting there. I stared at them for a minute with a strange nagging in my head. And now I know why.

Jack Tretton, you owe me 3,600 dollars.

As you know, I’m a big fan of Nintendo Wii, and for the most part I love its Virtual Console (VC) service. However, I can’t help but feel I don’t actually own the products I’m purchasing through the VC store. Each downloaded game is attached to that specific Wii. Meaning, the game can only be played on that Wii console. So if your system breaks, what do you do? I recently found out that you can register your VC purchases through Nintendo’s website by linking your MyNintendo account from Nintendo’s website to your Wii Store. I thought that by registering the games, it would maybe act as proof of owning them, so that if my Wii console ever broke I would be able to download these games again onto my new system without a problem. However, after sending an e-mail to Nintendo, I can’t help but think that we really don’t really own these games, and that worries me.

First off, if you bought a bunch of VC games before linking your MyNintendo account, you’ll notice that they won’t pop up on your registered games list. I had to e-mail a Nintendo rep and ask them to add the games to my list, which was slightly embarrassing when I have Altered Beast on that list (which is hilariously bad in case you didn’t know). The following is part of the e-mail I sent to the Nintendo reps.

“I was also hoping that you could answer another question. I mainly want to have my VC games registered as proof of me owning them. Since VC titles are basically tethered to the Wii, I’m afraid that if the Wii ever breaks, I’ll lose my games. By having VC titles registered, would this act as a way for me to be able to re-download them if they were ever lost on a broken system?
Thanks for your time and help. Have a great day.”

About a week later I received this response back.

“Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

Using the information in your e-mail, I was able to locate the account for your system, and to add the Virtual Console titles to the list of games that you have registered.

While having the games listed to your account is helpful, the official list is associated with the serial number of your Wii console. If the system is ever damaged or was in need of repair, you will want to contact us. We would set up a repair where you would send your system to us. We would either repair your unit, or transfer those titles to another unit. It should be noted that we cannot do this if you no longer had the system.

Thanks for your email and good luck with all your games!”

Is it just me, or does that seem like an absolute hassle just to have your VC games back? When he says “transfer your titles to another Wii” does that include games you may have backed up onto an SD card once you run out of space on the Channels menu? Are they transferring your payment records, or the actual game data? I decided to probe the game counselor a little more, with the following e-mail.

“Thanks for responding and updating my registered games list. Just to be sure all bases are covered, say I fill up all of my Wii channels and I’m forced to move titles onto an SD card, would I have to send my SD card in along with the broken Wii in order to “keep” and prove I’ve purchased those titles? Thanks!”

Since writing that, it’s been well over a week and I haven’t received a reply yet. Maybe I’m jumping the gun here, but am I being ignored? Do these guys simply not know how to answer that question?

The fact of the matter is that we bought these games with our own money. Technically, we should own these games and be able to do whatever we want with them. If I back up all of my VC games on an SD Card, and then my Wii breaks, I should be able to put them onto my new Wii system without any hassle at all. Or better yet, I should be able to link my ‘My Nintendo’ account to the new Wii console and should be able to re-download these titles. We paid for these games, and in some cases we paid too much for these games (here’s looking at you Donkey Kong).

Which raises the question, as consumers, are we being robbed? Nintendo and the other third parties are basically getting free money for their VC games. This is simply old product that probably cost them a nickel to put onto this service, and we are willingly paying the prices set for these titles. We should be able to prove we own these games without having to jump through all of the hurdles Nintendo has set up.