It’s that time of the year again:

GAME RELEASE DATE TIME!

I’ve pretty much become a one-game man since I fell into the clutches of evil Azeroth. I’ve actually gone as far as getting two different accounts: one to play in the european servers, one to play with my friends on the US server. I didn’t have to actually purchase my US account, as it was kindly provided by my friend Ghoste (he’s a Blizzard employee), but it does mean two subscriptions, and that means $40 a month, which means I could be buying a new game each month just for what I’m paying in monthly fees. The worst part is that I don’ actually consider this a waste of money. I mean, I was outraged when I first found out that the EU and the US servers were separate, which means you can’t play with people that purchase their game in a separate region (it also happens with Korean and Chinese servers), but after a while I got sucked into the game and forgot about it. In the abstract, I do get a “Dude, what the FUCK?!” moment whenever I get my credit card statement, but when I consider the rich lore and time wasting I’m paying for I just go “Dude, totally worth it”.

I don’t understand why the gaming industry complains about how people prefer to download games instead of purchasing them, and then go off and do stupid things with product launches. Case in point: the Sony PSP product launch. I wanted one, I just didn’t want to buy a fucking bundle. Is it so hard to just sell me a god damned console and a game, separately? No, I don’t want your 32Mb memory stick and 2 more games. No, I don’t want headphones. The sad part is, I had already put down my credit card on the counter, even after the clerk assured me that I was already a week late, and he couldn’t guarantee that I was getting a PSP on launch day. Right then, I decided I had had enough, and walked away. I went the day after launch, and guess what? Plenty of PSP consoles on the shelves. Judging by the number of my friends that own one, I wouldn’t exactly qualify the PSP launch as a success. They couldn’t even deliver on their promises of a product shortage! That’s really, really lame.

The same thing is happening to the Xbox 360. You know what? I’m not buying into any of it. You can tell me that it will sell out for weeks and weeks on end, and that the only way to secure a console is to preorder one, with a shitty bundle including three shitty games. Sure, I’ll probably end up getting one anyway, but I’ll do it at a time when I can keep what’s left of my dignity intact. Maybe I’ll order one online, where nobody can see the tears in my eyes…