Gamer's Perspective

The Story of a Frustrated Gamer

Every gamer in Europe understands my pain. We are loyal gamers. We buy millions of consoles, millions of units of games and accessories; we’ll even play a game in a foreign language or buy a special adapter to play imported games and consoles because we love video games. What do we get for our patience? A set of nice new features and a price cut? Hardly. In the United Kingdom, a Nintendo Wii retails at £180 or $360. The Xbox 360 costs about £250 or $500, but in this game of extortionate pricing there can be only one winner, Sony’s PlayStation 3, retailing at £425 or $850.

Figures like this serve to confirm the paranoia that all gamers in my part of the world feel. These companies must really be out to get us, because it cannot be so expensive to ship a PS3 to Europe that it warrants upping the price by $372. No, that can’t be it; they must have put some extras in…wait a second! Where is our emotion engine? This can’t be right; they must have sent us the cheap Japanese version. We can’t possibly be paying more for a console that has less in it, right? The emotion engine is the heart of the Playstation 2, the processor that allows us to enjoy games like Metal Gear Solid 3 and GTA: San Andreas. But these games do not work on the PS3, according to Sony. They play with “noticeable issues.” Their words not mine. The selling point for the PS2 was that it would let you continue to enjoy Sony’s prestigious back catalogue from the PS1. Evidently, Sony doesn’t want anyone in Europe to play old games. The Xbox 360 has similar problems, but they are not limited to Europe. Nintendo Wii is compatible with every Gamecube game; in fact, they encourage gamers to enjoy their back catalogue.

Some might call it necessary (these companies have to make back some of the money they lost in production somewhere) and some might call it thoughtlessness (European gamers do buy far less consoles and games than our colonial cousins do), but I call it disdain. When justifying the high UK launch price of the PS3, Phil Harrison (a Sony Executive) quoted the standard excuses, the high cost of Blu-ray, the overall value of having a machine as wonderful as the PS3 in your home. We know that the 60GB PS3 cost about $840.35 per unit, and that Sony made a loss on each launch console, but the fact that they felt that it was OK to increase the European price while removing key features from the console smacks of disdain to me.

-----BREAKING NEWS-----
As I prepare to start on the next part of this rant, I find out some interesting news. A 399Euro PS3 model has been announced. “Why, this is great! PAL regions always seem to get the shaft, good for SCEE!” I may hear you say, and after reading the first paragraph of this press release, I was inclined to agree. But as I read on, I realised that while Sony may appear to be holding out the hand of friendship, they were in fact offering the hand with which they just scratched their balls. The new PS3 is a very qualified offer. For one, the hard drive is only 40GB. This isn’t such a hardship, but it is just the starter. The multi-card reader is gone, there are half as many USB 2.0 slots and there is a big, dark secret. No more backward compatibility. None. None whatsoever. If you want to enjoy Sony’s back catalogue, keep your PS2. This might be a problem for my friends who sold their PS2s to buy the overpriced launch PS3s. Sony says that they want gamers to concentrate on their new line up of great games (Lair, anyone?).  If PS3 games were cheap, it would be a reasonable statement, but with the average game retailing at £39.99 ($80), very few gamers can afford not to play the older games. Sony hates Europeans.

Imports and Ire: Why Sony hated Lik Sang
Let’s face it, a lot of games will never be released in Europe. There is no market for the latest JRPG or Mech. games. I understand that. But when consoles and games were delayed, prices were exorbitant and nobody seemed to care, there was one light, one shining beacon for Euro gamers to rally behind. Lik Sang was a website that cared for gamers. They imported consoles, limited edition games, controllers, anime and other rare gaming memorabilia to the world. On October 24th, 2006, Lik Sang was forced to close after being mercilessly hounded by multiple Sony lawsuits. Sony gave the following reason for the action:

“Ultimately, we're trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera”

This is funny, as Lik Sang pointed out. The PSPs that they shipped contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks. Is Sony implying that their products are not safe for use? Should we fear the 100V-240V AC Adapters in the same way that we fear Sony’s amazing exploding laptop batteries? Or is something a lot more sinister afoot? Sony had Lik Sang shut down because they were selling a retail product, at slightly below retail price, before it was released in Europe. Sony did not like this. Despite the fact that Sony received money for all of the PSPs Lik Sang sold (obviously) they wanted to extort even more money from PAL gamers. I think that it may go even deeper. Sony are pushing their next generation of identikit FPS’ and crummy Sixaxis controls onto us. They don’t want us to play games like Chrono Trigger because we might just remember why we love gaming in the first place and demand more than just flashy graphics and more FDPF (floating ducks per frame). By the way, one thing that all old school games have in common is that Sony made none of them…

Well, Lik Sang is not importing PSP consoles anymore. Neither are they importing classic games for consoles long dead. If you want a limited edition MGS action figure or Dragon Quest slime controller, try eBay. Sony killed a piece of gaming that day, and I can never forgive them for that.

Thank you for reading patiently as I vent my spleen. There were things that I wanted to put in, but couldn’t find the words. There were other things I wanted to find out, but Sony would not send me the details. If you find something that I have left out, come to the forum and tell me. If you disagree with me, come and tell me why I am wrong. Better yet, write your own piece. Gamers have to know that they are being abused, and we have to do something about it. I’ll leave that bit up to you.

Agree/ Disagree? If so, feel free to email us at mail@gamersperspective.com or join us on our forums.

By Snake-Drinker Contributing Writer Gamer's Perspective