Dec 20
The real reason the Rock Band patch is being blocked: Activision wants more money
Apparently Harmonix has had a patch that makes the Guitar Hero controllers compatible with Rock Band on PS3 ready for a while, but Activision won’t let them release it. Now Activision says they’re more than willing to let it be released, they just want to make even more money out of it. Here’s what Maryanne Lataif, a spokeswoman for Activision, told The Boston Globe:
Unfortunately for Rock Band users, Harmonix has been unwilling to discuss an agreement that will allow us to provide that option in a manner that maintains the high standards people have come to expect from Activision
By “unwilling to discuss” she must mean unwilling to pay up and by “high standards” she must mean money mongering, as she makes Activision’s motives perfectly clear with the following statement:
We believe we should be compensated for the use of our technology
I thought people actually purchasing Guitar Hero III in the first place was compensation enough, and once they owned it they should be able to use it however they please - but Activision wants more in addition to the $100 they already got for each game sold. While it seems clear that Activision is only preventing the patch’s release for money, and they even admitted it, they’re still in denial and another spokeswoman, Spencer Saltonstall, says they’re doing it for the consumer:
We are really and truly not looking at this from the financial standpoint, we are looking at this from the consumer standpoint
I’m not sure how delaying a compatibility patch until Harmonix bribes them to allow its release benefits the consumer (or anyone besides Activision themselves) at all, but I guess they just refuse to admit how bad they’re handling this.
[Via Evil Avatar]
Categories: Failure, Gaming Industry, Hate, Legal, PSN, PlayStation 3, WTF?5 Comments so far
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I have always believed that Activision is one of the worst publishers, EA included, in gaming today. This is not a slam on any of their games specifically, some of them are fun, but just as an enterprise themselves, they seem to be very shitty. I mean, at least EA has some solid customer service, despite some poopy games.
This really is a piss poor way to handle this situation.
The solution is simple. Both companies release patches allowing their guitars to be played on each others’ game. Consumers buying one game are more likely to buy the other. Everybody wins. Nobody owes anyone any money.
As a long-term fan and expert-level player of the GH series, I publicly refuse to buy GH3 for the PS3 until the patch is released. I’ll stick to playing GH3 on my old PS2. (not happy about this)
I think HARMONIX should just come out with a killer set of songs close too or the same as the songs activision has for the GH series and offer it to the former GH gamers that are now playing the RockBand game! Or why does’nt HARMONIX make a patch that makes the Strat compatible with the GH games. As of now I am not planning on buying another Activision game. No More Guitar Hero !