A Wonderful Day for Consumers

What a glorious fall day it is for consumers, especially if you enjoy being sued or not allowed to play your game in sngle player. Today I found two interesting and controversial stories about game companies taking your rights away to do what you please with your games and consoles.

The first story comes to us from the lovely folks at Sony, you know the guys who also tried to put a rootkit on your computer back in '05, yea those guys. Well lately they have been very pissed off at the people who are trying to hack the PS3. Well recently a hack for the PS3 has been discovered and devices have been sold that allow the PS3 to be hacked.

Sony has recently threatened that it will send cease and desist orders to anyone who buys the PS3 hacking USB sticks and force them to pay fines of at least 5100 Euros. But what if I don't sign the papers and ignore Sony? you may say. Well enjoy getting sued for 50 000 Euros, yes you read that right a 50 000 euro lawsuit in litigations just because you wanted to put your own custom firmware on your PS3 so you could play some homebrew games. The good news for those of you not living in Germany is that Sony won't be threatening you, for now at least. The joys of companies thinking they control what you can do with your console, that you bought and own, not lease as many companies probably wish happens instead.

Now that I have scared you with legal threats let’s talk about the fine folks over at Blizzard. Blizzard is one of those companies with a relatively good track record. They have made such wonderful games like Diablo 2, Starcraft, Warcraft III and of course the most successful MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft (if you ignore WotLK). Unfortunately Blizzard, despite all your great accomplishments in the past you still can act like a total dick (read: no LAN support in SC2 and requiring a constant internet connection to play).

So what did Blizzard, a company which is normally seen as one of the greatest developers of all time due now. Well first they decided to sue the people who made some cheats for Starcraft 2. Now I understand that this is somewhat reasonable, though I disagree but what they did next was absolutely asinine. They are now banning people from playing all of SC2, even singleplayer because they used cheats, not in multiplayer where that actually has an affect on other players, but singleplayer. You read that right banned from singleplayer, of legally purchased games due to using cheats in singleplayer.

Want to hear Bliz's reasoning for this? 'When users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer's RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II.' So Blizz is claiming that hacks cause people to commit copyright infringement now.

Congratulations Blizz but you just lost one customer for good, let's see how bad you can screw up on Diablo 3 ok?

This Week's Releases

Note: All releases came out on June 1st unless otherwise noted.

XBOX 360
Bass Pro Shops: The Hunt
Backbreaker
Alpha Protocol
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack (June 3rd)

PS3
Backbreaker
Alpha Protocol
Planet Minigolf

PS2
syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow

PC
The Sims 3: Ambitions
Alpha Protocol

Wii
Bass Pro Shops: The Hunt

PSP
Nothing

DS
Diamond Trust of London
Wizardology

This Week's Releases

Note: All releases came out on May 25 unless otherwise marked.

XBOX 360
UFC Undisputed 2010
Blur

PS3
UFC Undisputed 2010
Blur
ModNation Racers
Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype

PC
Blur
EVE OnLine: Tyrannis (May 26)

Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (May 23)
Let's Play Ballerina
Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype

PSP
Hexyz Force
ModNation Racers

DS
Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force: Herbert's Revenge
Dawn of Heroes

This Week's Releases

Note: Unless marked otherwise all releases came out on May 18, 2010.

XBOX 360
Attack of the Movies 3D
Split Second
Shrek Forever After
Alan Wake
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Red Dead Redemption

PS3
Split Second
Shrek Forever After
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Red Dead Redemption

PC
Runaway: A Twist of Fate
Split Second
Lost Planet 2
Legio (May 21)

Wii
Bit.Trip Runner (May 17)
Trackamnia (May 17)
Shrek Forever After
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Attack of the Movies 3D
Trauma Team

PSP
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

DS
Trackmania DS 2 (May 17)
Shrek Forever After
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow

This Week's Releases

After taking a week off of posting to work with some internal issues I have came up with a new idea for a new weekly segment, This Week's Releases.

All of this week's releases were released on May 11, 2010.

XBOX 360
-Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
-Lost Planet 2
-Skate 3

PS3
-Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
-Lost Planet 2
-Skate 3
-3D Dot Game Heroes

Absolutely nothing for the Wii

PC
-Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer

PSP
-Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3

DS
-Puzzle Quest 2