Killzone 2: Pay to Play
After lots of hype and a questionable trailer a few years back at E3, Killzone 2 for the PS3 is just about to hit store shelves. Does it live up to the hype? Are the graphics everything they promised? Is the gameplay as exciting as they claim? You only have to play the demo to find out.
And that’s gonna cost you sixty bucks.
Seems that Sony, keeping with their recent track record of absolutely staggering displays of arrogance and being completely out of touch with their users, are providing the demo exclusively through Game Stop and only to people who pre-order the game. Now, true, you don’t have to pay sixty dollars to pre-order the game—a mere five bucks will do the trick—but you do have to make a monetary promise to buy the game before you can try the game to see if you want to buy the game, which, if I remember correctly, is the entire point of a demo.
Sony defends the decision with this statement from Scott Steinberg, VP of Product Marketing: “Offering a playable demo to motivate preorders speaks to our confidence in the appeal of a game such as Killzone 2. We take this approach when we are convinced that the experience will cement a consumer’s interest in purchasing.” In other words, we’re not going to let you play our kickass new game for free. It’s so cool, we just know you won’t mind buying it just for the privilege of trying it. Sounds an awful lot like when the said they expected people to be willing to work longer hours to earn enough money to pay the insanely high price for a pre-launch PS3.
Of course, you can buck the system and pre-order Killzone 2, try the demo, then call Game Stop and transfer your five dollars to reserve a different game, but that’s a lot of extra steps. Likewise, you can try the demo for free by downloading it (in what will no doubt be a painfully long file transfer) from the PlayStation store on February 26… one whole day before it shows up in stores.
I hear next they’re going to require you to buy a ticket to Spider-Man 4 before they’ll let you watch the trailer.
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6 Responses to “Killzone 2: Pay to Play”
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February 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I am astounded by this. Next on the Sony 2009 agenda, they’re going to raise base price of the PS3 console by $75.00 because they simply KNOW that when consumers see the higher price tag they’ll put even more mental value on the product and drive sales up.
February 5th, 2009 at 8:16 am
While this would normally make me aghast and at least irritated I think this is more of a situation where I just say … Is anyone really surprised?
This crap is why I don’t buy Sony anymore. There is nothing Sony that is a “killer product” to me and they are so set on screwing the customer with their proprietary garbage, gimmicks, and $60 demos that I could care less about them.
I had actually bought 2 of the PSX’s and was really sold on them at that point but now I just don’t think so.
February 8th, 2009 at 9:39 am
This is a damn shame. I was a big fan of the PS2 and I strongly disliked the original Xbox and it’s horrendous Duke controller, but when I saw the PS3 and it’s tremendous disappointments and shortcomings, I was glad I got an Xbox 360. Not that the Xbox 360 is anywhere close to perfect, but this just amazes me.
Maddox’s strong dislike for Sony is still probably evident today from the moment he posted this:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sony_bullshit
February 9th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Ah, Maddox, what a game post on Sony. I really can’t stand that company and for a lot of the reasons Maddox is posting about there. Has anyone read his book?
February 15th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
The Alphabet of Manliness? I’m afraid not.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Good ole Sony..This doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m guessing they’re being more aggressive with things like this to drive up sales and another similar stunt is that of their PSP Resistance game which requires Resistance 2 for the PS3 in order to unlock some content.