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Ever since it’s merger with PC giant Blizzard, Activision has quickly become my most hated publisher. It seems as if every other week they do something completely obnoxious that has me scratching my head wondering what the fuck is wrong with them, whether it’s buying out Genius Products solely to hinder the release of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, or forcing a peripheral on the Tony Hawk series in order to compete with skate, or threatening to cease developing games for Sony platforms unless drop the price of their console, or milking the guitar hero cash cow until the udders have started to produce blood rather than milk, or dropping a number of great titles like Ghostbusters and Blood On The Sand simply because they’re not considered “annualizable”, or suing EA for picking up Brutal Legends after they dropped it, or giving Prototype a release date around the same time-frame as inFamous forcing SuckerPunch to release it earlier, or charging over £100 for DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride here in the UK, or… I can go on forever!

Despite their unmatched track record of being a dick, their latest move to rip-off UK consumers takes their arrogance and unfairness to a whole new level. Activision has recently raised the Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of Modern Warfare 2 in the UK to a wallet busting £55 ($90). To put this in to prospective a typical PS3/360 game usually costs £40 ($65) but most can be pre-ordered for around £35 ($57) so Activision charging a £15/£20 premium because they assume gamer are clamoring for it and will likely cough up the extra cash is despicable. Thankfully many retailers are well aware that charging £55 for a regular edition of a game won’t go over too well so they have reduced the pre-order price to (a still high, but more reasonable) £45.

Earlier today I spoke to an employee of Gamestation (the UK’s equivalent of Gamestop) and I was told “[Gamestation] normally sells the regular version of a highly anticipated title like Modern Warfare for £35 to £45 depending on local competition, so I can’t see any way we can justify selling a title that doesn’t come with some sort of peripheral for £55″, when asked if there is any chance Gamestation will sell the game at it’s heavy RRP the employee said “We might have to sell it for at least £50 but if we do, I for one won’t be buying it at launch and I’m sure most people will just wait and pick up a pre-owned copy”.

Some may argue that Modern Warfare 2 will have a lasting appeal of over 2 years just like its predecessors, thus making it worth the £55 asking price, but since when has the price of games been based on their length? When Activision inevitably releases another 4 hour Spyro game will they sell it for £20? No, they will still charge full price for that bitch so why is it they see fit to inexcusably up-sell Modern Warfare 2? Activision you are officially the most greediest, relentless publisher in the world, and for you deserve nothing but failure.

The opinions expressed during “TheKoalition vs…” are solely the opinions of the author and they do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and/or opinions of the entire Koalition staff.

Written By Carl Daniel

Gamertag & PSN ID: KRyPTceltrix // Email: CDaniel@TheKoalition.com

1. Joeki11a says:

   July 19, 2009 at 10:10 am

   Good read!, like I said before they think they are hot shit because of MW IP and they got crack fiends, so they believe they can rise the prices because they can.

   Lets not forget these were the same mothafuckas that began the 59.99 prices for games, they are playing people badly.

   I am not that big of a COD mark, I get the games and play them but you won’t catch me playing that shit for 2 years.

   Reply

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