Strange word comes from Videogamer.com that, at least in the UK, several retailers have decided to charge £10 more for the PS3 version of Devil May Cry 4 than the Xbox 360 version. Contrary to Sony marketing bollocks, the 360 still has both a higher install base and significantly higher game sales in the UK, so, maybe retailers are looking for a way to subsidize all the SKU changes and hardware stocking costs they’ve had to eat?

“We don’t set the prices of our games, that’s at the discretion of the retailer. In this specific instance, the process has resulted in a price difference, but the process itself is not something we completely control.”

High street specialist retailer GAME lists DMC4 with an RRP of £49.99 on PS3 and £39.99 on Xbox 360. Both Play.com and Amazon.co.uk list the same pricing.”

First of all, at current exchange rates, the 360 SKU of DMC4 costs the equivalent of approximately 80 dollars. This means that the PS3 version is selling for essentially $100.00. So, a moment of silence for our British gaming compatriots, because that is fucking insane. This also means you don’t get to bitch about games being too expensive anywhere on the internet.

Second, the more I think about it, the more I really do wonder if this is aimed at recuperating costs associated with the difficult retail costs associated with Sony’s rapidly transforming strategies for the PS3 over the last 12 months. At least here in the states, hardware price drops are frequently eaten by retailers (although people are welcome to correct me if I’m wrong, as this is the case at Frys, Best Buy, and Gamestop at the very least), and retailers already make next to nothing on hardware. Will other retailers in the UK and EU decide to follow suit?

-Aegies

When the guys at Penny-Arcade announced that they were releasing a game based on their personas, there was a mix of excitement and trepidation across their fanbase. Penny-Arcade is an enterprise founded on dick jokes, video game humor, and, well, integrity. You get the feeling reading both the comic and their regular musings that they The Guys Who Will Play It Straight with you, the ones who are willing to look ridiculous or be proven wrong if it’s the right thing to do. This, combined with their self deprecating charm, has taken them from gaming schlubs to internet icons over the course of more than 8 years. The announcement that they would enter an arena that has been the source of years of scorn and comic material would put more than a few questions on the tip of any reasonable tongue.

And yet, for months, I’ve felt as though the situation is a tightrope they’ve walked gracefully. They don’t pimp the game on their page very often, save for when they’ve reached a substantive milestone, and they generally let the game speak for itself. I’ve defended them in private and on the nets, as I’ve felt that they’ve earned some leeway to try to make this thing that they care about without charges of sellout or hypocrite. Unfortunately, they’ve officially done quite a bit today to lose a lot of that respect from me.

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I’m a slacker, I know. I’m also sick, which is awesome. And I’ve been reabsorbed into Company of Heroes since buying a shiny new 8800GT and helping Chuf assemble a new gaming monster (seriously, he’ll be putting up pictures soon, the thing is a beast). After the most hectic console holiday I think I’ve ever had in terms of things to play, it’s kind of a relief to fall into a very well made RTS that’s totally different than everything I’ve been playing over the last 3 months. And it’s good to get to know my PC again.

The thing is, the recent experiences with PC gaming (and facilitating PC gaming for myself and my roommate) has managed to both point out that things that I find great about it and the things that make me thank the gaming overlords that I have consoles to play. And reflecting on a purchase that cost me about as much as a new gaming system (although I was lucky enough to find a card at Frys that was actually going for suggested retail instead of the fucking outrageously marked up prices for 8800GTs on Newegg and everywhere else), I’m having the same kind of, well, not remorse per se. More like buyer’s melancholy maybe?

What I like: I am currently near the edge of PC gaming with my setup. I’m running a Core 2 Duo at 2.6Ghz, have more than a terabyte of HD space, have 2 gigs of PC-6400 RAM, and the aforementioned BFG 8800GT OC 512MB card, which means I crush most games well. And I can finally run Company of Heroes without it crashing.

What I dislike: I’ve been trying to think of amazing games to use to make myself feel better about the money I dropped, and I can’t really think of anything but what I’ve already used. I have no desire to play Crysis. Gears of War is actually inferior gameplay wise compared the the 360, and 60FPS makes the game look more like meat puppets than ever. In fact, I’m feeling the same kind of buyer’s trepidation that I imagine a PS3 owner felt after the newness of the console came out. I’m just wondering what I’m supposed to play.

The good news is, there are games on the horizon this year that I can now comfortably play that I am excited for. Starcraft 2 should be out soon (I hope), and I think a lot of people are going to be surprised by how system intensive Spore will be. Now I just need them to come out.

-Aegies

I’m sure anyone who would read this site has been following this story somewhat. These are the facts as I know them. On Thursday afternoon, word started to spread that Gamespot had fired their Editorial Director, Jeff Gerstmann. Gerstmann has become infamous in some circles as the editor that had the “audacity” to give Twilight Princess an 8.8 last fall, and he is often the target of overzealous fanboys who are infuriated by his lowering of a Metacritic average. However, in my opinion, Gerstmann was the bedrock for Gamespot’s credibility. The willingness of an editor to be honest amidst the possibility of enormous backlash speaks to my smart-assed, cynical self, and Nintendo franchises are often the great sacred cows of gaming. Also, I didn’t like the small bit of Twilight Princess I played, so maybe I can sympathize.

While there are several less popular theories, 1UP has confirmed through their own sources that Gerstmann was fired because of his negative review of Kane and Lynch, which coincided with an enormous ad push on the part of Eidos for the title. Other sites have more detailed rundowns, but the gist of the situation from a few different sources seems to be this: Stephen Colvin, the former president and CEO of Dennis Publishing of Maxim and Stuff, took over as C|Net’s executive vice president in late October. Combined with Sony’s anger over a lower than expected review for Ratchet and Clank, the negative editorial reaction to a cash cow that may have been somewhere in the six figure range from Eidos appears to have been the breaking point.

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