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

Whether or not you have been online in the last few weeks, whether or not you are even a gold or silver member of Microsoft’s XBL service, you will be able to download a free XBLA game. The details of what game are still under wraps, but Microsoft promises to make these details available soon.

While it would be awesome for them to allow the user to choose the game, I fear that we will have to suffer through something that is only so-so. My guess is that we’ll either get something that is over a year old (Catan, anyone?), or that we’ll get some new XBLA game that was never going to do that well to begin with. Hell though, at least they are doing something.

Chufmoney

[via 1up]

I am glad I built a new computer, as XBL is only working intermittently. It appears that Microsoft’s service was unprepared for the deluge of new gamers that received their Christmas consoles. As a result, several people have complained openly on Larry Hyrb’s–aka Major Nelson–blog. He has personally addressed people’s worries and complaints with the following response:

You may have noticed that the LIVE service has been having a few issues over the past few days. This includes things like signing in, matchmaking and account recovery. Not everyone has had problems, but I know some of you have and I wanted to give you and update. While the service was never completely offline, problems like this are not acceptable. The entire LIVE team has been working day and night to ensure that you can have a great LIVE experience. While we’re not done yet, I wanted to let you know that things are getting better each hour and that no one on the team is going anywhere until the job is done. Thanks for your patience.

Edit: As people have noticed, we have made good progress. We have a bit more work to do, but we’re doing much better now. I know some of you still may be having issues, and we’re working on those. Oh, and Happy New Year to those that are celebrating.

At least they are working for the money they take from you every month. I would like to see Microsoft give something like a free week of service–as WoW has done when they encountered server issues–but I doubt that will happen. Back to computer land for me!

Chufmoney

[via Evil Avatar]

Everyone should be lovin’ the new 360 dashboard update. After all, you have DivX playback, faster blade navigation, and a smoother way to look at downloadable content. But, with the good comes something that I personally find questionable: Silver Members can’t access free content until it has been out for a week.

On one hand, I can see that MS is trying to make us feel privileged and that our subscriptions are worthwhile. On the other side, I kinda feel like this is just Microsoft’s way of pressuring Silver Members into subscribing. Should a person that purchases Bioshock today not be able to download the free DLC for a week just because they don’t feel like paying 5$ a month? What if it is a service that they aren’t going to use outside the marketplace?

I guess I actually do know how I feel about it–it’s shitty! They can get anything they are willing to pay for at anytime, but have to wait for free shit, and that is wrong.

Thanks for the update, Microsoft, I really appreciate it. But could you shit a little less on my cheap ass friends?

Chufmoney