Gaming's Biggest Rip-Offs

Ever felt fleeced by the video games industry? Just like in any other business, games publishers and console makers are in it to make money, and sometimes, they cross the line that splits a reasonable profit margin from a consumer-unfriendly rip-off. Everyone's got their favorite stories. These are mine.

[Bnet343]

An alright article. What do you expect from a movie game? It's a movie game, of course it's going to be short. Gaming biggest rip off this gen IMO easily goes to PAIN. I really want to kick the devs of that game in the balls for being such assholes. Crap game with nickel and diming at it's best.

[Snake Raiser]

I'll agree with Nickle and dimeing. But a lot of people (like me) got PAIN for free with a coupon that came with some of the PS3 bundles. I actually enjoyed pain a bit, but it is not game that I would play for a long time. The trophies were BS.

[Bnet343]

Snake Raiser I also got it free with my PS3.

[FFXNo1]

were is the 360 wi fi adapter and the HD replacement for the 360. How about halo reach (finish the fight!)

[Conan-O-Brady]

while I agree for the most part with all the examples , here is my number 1 .

Let me begin by saying this is a true story . Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent .

A few years ago I had a console wig out and start with the blinky blinky all in red . This couldn't have happened at a worse time , right before the launch of one the most anticipated sequel's of all time . It was the third in the series and i was stoked . Horrified at my predicament I contact the manufacture and plead my case . They tell me it just so happens that they have extended the warranty to cover this specific problem , and that they will replace my console , for free even . Within a week I not only have my game but my new console to play it on . The game was excellent as was the multiplayer .

Here's where it gets bad . While I'm enjoying this gaming masterpiece
I start getting the freeze's and crashes , OH NO ! I take a quick glance at the disc to see that it's clean and what do i find , A huge circular scratch so deep and ugly that it boggles the mind . I look thru the last few games i've played and they all have this same ugly scratch . Only the games i had been playing on the replacement unit were affected . My new system is trying to eat my games !

Well if they fixed it once surely they can do it again , NO DICE . This problem is not covered as it was probably caused by you moving the console while the game was still in it , was the reply I got . NO I DIDN'T , YES YOU DID , NO I DIDN'T !!! The manufacture is not budging on this one and it is gonna cost me to have them fix a faulty unit that they gave me in exchange for the first faulty unit .
this is where me and this company stopped doing business .

I almost got to finish the fight ...............

Sorry for the rant . Damn it feels good to finally get that off my chest ................

[Serjikal_Strike]

could that company be Mi....... nah couldn't be

glad you got it off your chest tho

[FamilyGuy]

It made me care about the main character and it taught a lesson with a very clear moral and kept the identities of all parties confidential.

I might read this as a bedtime story to my kids one day.

[table]

Yeah that problem with the 360 was on UK's watchdog a few months ago. Microsoft insists that it is the fault of the consumer and that they scratched those perfect circles into the disc. Enough BS microsoft and give your customers a warranty over this.

Turns out it was caused by slight vibrations forcing the disc to move around i.e. when someone walks near your 360 it will get intimate with your discs.

[SupaPlaya]

does it have any thing to do with the "Ring"?

Has it been 7 days yet??

[GEESE]

Street Fighter IV costumes anyone? Pay $$$ just to unlock data you already purchased...this is the way console games are going and it SUCKS BALLS.

[Conan-O-Brady]

This to is one of the biggest rip offs in gaming . Multiplayer in RE5 is another that comes to mind . Even though they deny it .

[Serjikal_Strike]

They come out with a new one every 6 months and they still put out weekly downloadable songs over psn or xbl.....why cant those songs be on the disc from the get go...this is why I will never buy another guitar hero game ever again..cuz its a ripoff!

[PiTCHBLaCK]

Activision Milking the series Is whats thats called.
Bad business, but It works because people buy that stuff
over and over again.

[cryymoar]

when you pay $200+ and the system scratches your discs and then it breaks.

[-MD-]

Or when you pay 600+ and the system doesn't have any games.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Paying 600+ to get sloppy seconds sh!t ports, text chat, dildo wand, lost exclusives, mandatory installs, and waiting till the end of the world for games... but there are plenty of Blu-ray movies to watch

[ArcticWolfUK]

RROD LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Etseix]

murderdolls@@

even if apena said that as a fanboy, hes true, and yet, hes talking about right now, not about 3 years ago like u on ur comment, live on the present.

jason 360@@

same, the ps3 dont cost 600$+ right now, i bought one at that price 2 years ago, yea it has sloopy seconds sh!t ports still, many ports dont sell well cuz it has more quality exclusives than sh!t ports, about the dildo ur asking for, its only a prototype i dont see why u think is the final product :S, and finally-waiting till the end fo the world for games? .... em ... i dont believe u just typed that,

lol ps3 may be a rip off .... YEARS AGO, today is a great console, dunno why people like to say bad things about it anyway, aaahhh.... the heaters, the heaters.....

[cryymoar]

it's 2009!
NOT 2007!
Where the hell have you been?
under a rock waiting for your RRoD unit to come back in the mail?

I like how IGN had a blog about PS3 having statistically the better scoring games in 2008. 2009 seems to be following suit so far.

When it comes to shovelware, Wii comes first, then xb360. And that's not any sort of fanboy bias, that's the truth.

[makingdamage]

To many multiplat this gen is to short to be worth the money. Just look at all the fps, they´re like 5 hours long. I find it harder and harder to choose which games to buy this gen because of this.

[table]

games are no shorter than they were 10 or 15 years ago. This is just a popular misconception.

[PiTCHBLaCK]

To much FPS, WAY to much.
Very Little RPGS, and true JRPG's are rare, and
the JRPGs that do come out are simple rehashes except
for a few, even the Wii do not have many good
quality JRPG's, and Thats NINTENDO.

Hurry up FF13 and WKC!, I Need a good RPG fix.
Rune Factory on the Wii is good but not a true JRPG.

[ico92]

kinda reminds me of the dreamcast do you remember with seganet how you were able to unlock costumes and cheats but they were already coded in the game to think after the dreamcast devs would charge you for additional items already coded in games that you bought....that really pi**es me off

[PiTCHBLaCK]

With DLC on the rise, I Look for the
gaming Industry to go from a $billion
industry to a $trillion and us having
even less money to buy REAL DVD/BLU RAY games.

[ZOMBIEMAN1]

on topic why is PSP Go a rip off if it's not even out and ppl should stop complaining do they know it's cheaper now than a normal PSP without UMD ? i say STFU about price it's not a replacement PSP and it's got a few more things going for it to justify a $250 price tag it's not like there's no games for it look in the PS store there already turning UMD PSP games to downloadable games

[Christopher]

Over time it might get cheaper, but with new productions there is an initial cost that is much higher than a year after initial production. And that's not including the cost of R&D and pre-production creations of the item.

[Shnazzyone]

really all they did was upgrade the os, remove the umd drive, huck in flash memory (something sony has in spades). then give it a slightly more cell phoneish shape. I'm not even sure if they really even upgraded the graphics.. judging by the videos seen at e3 it sure doesn't look like they upgraded it. It's obviously much cheaper to make due to the reduction by not producing the proprietary failure of umd's. I imagine it's yet another way for sony to try and pull itself up after the ps3's continued lack to performance but also they might just be pulling an iphone. first 4 months at 249 bucks then suddenly 50 dollar drop! hooray! 199 for a system that can't play my old games for the system?! SIGN ME UP! (my impression of sony faithful)

Why is it Nintendo seems to be the only ones who think backwards compatibility is important to a new game systems success??

Anyhow... alright article but seems awful stringy... why is it RROD is absent? If there is a rip off in the gaming world THAT would be number 1.

[Christopher]

All of the changes that were made require complete retooling and reshaping of the manufacturing tools for creating the new handheld console. An example of this is modifying the molds and other machinery involved in making just the faceplate of the PSPGo, which could involve more than 50 steps in fully creating with specifically designed and controlled processes that cost a lot of money to make even a single adjustment to one of the steps. Making changes to machinery at this level costs a crap-ton of money considering how many parts have to be tooled and recreated over time, especially in small devices.

This is why new iPhones come out costing $400+ and eventually get down to $200+. The initial cost of manufacturing these type of items costs a lot since the manufacturers have to insure that they are making enough money off of the tooling work in the short term but make up for it by having gradual reductions in production costs as more product is created over more time.

So, initially, the PSPGo will likely cost a lot more to make than the current model of the PSP3000, but only because the PSP3000 has reached that point where they are getting the lowest price for the manufacturing of the parts as well as construction. A year from now the PSPGo will likely cost closer to the current PSP3000, but then they'll probably put out the PSP4000 which will be about $250 at release.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

I only consider high purchase prices a rip-off if you are forced to buy it at a high price. Otherwise you have choice to go else where....

Although I do recognize it has over priced....