Thursday, February 4, 2010

WTF - Suing Over Game Points


So last week I ran across this article. Yes I know this is America, where in some cases the right to sue is considered more sacred then freedom, but seriously WTF?

For those who haven't read the article, it breaks down like this. Guy buys Microsoft points for downloading games/media. Guy uses points but has extra left over. Guy cries fowl over the extra points which number too few to buy anything else.

I'm sorry, has this person been living in a cave? Or more likely, is he just trying to get a quick buck? Take the average video arcade for example. You put a dollar in and you get 4 tokens. Those tokens aren't worth jack outside of the arcade. You won't get your money back. So you try to maximize your enjoyment with the tokens you have. Demanding your money back for unused tokens will likely get you laughed out of the arcade.

Similar systems are in place everywhere. For example gift cards, if this guy actually gets Microsoft to pay, why shouldn't he go after Visa for left over money on gift cards?

And before you say, well it is Microsoft, they have plenty of money, think about it for a minute. If all the consoles have to re-engineer their stores (because this is standard across the consoles) then the money for the developers has to come from somewhere. That likely means an increase in prices for downloadable games. I've always believed the price on downloadable games is too high, as there's no media, manual, or shipping costs, but this gives companies the justification to raise prices.

Once again, this is just funding lawyers in order to get something from a big company. It is fraud, and it should not be tolerated. Gift certificates and other systems just like this have existed my whole life, I don't have trouble reading and understanding the fine print. Downloadable games on consoles is in it's infancy and lawsuits such as this will hurt all gamers.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. Good post Bob. Completely ridiculous the things people sue for these days.

    ReplyDelete

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