Activision on PS3 guitar patch: Show me the money!

Well, for many reasons I did not buy GHIII, but was pondering it.
Now? Not a chance. I'll wait for Rock Band in March (yay European gamer) and keep a GHII guitar.

And now, a little theater:
*ACT I (June 2007)*
Harmonix: Hey, some people will buy GHIII, so we should accept their guitars. Maybe we won't sell as much of ours, but it would be cool for the consumer.
Activision: No. Go away, we won't tell you how our fabulicious guitars work.
Harmonix: Well, on 360, you must. MS asks for it.
Activision: Fuck. Well, not on the PS3 anyway.

*ACT II (November 2007)*
Harmonix: Okay, we saw how it works, we reverse-engineered it, here, it can work on PS3 too. Here Sony, this will help you.
Sony: Thanks guys.
Activision: NO! BAD SONY! They can't use our guitars!
Harmonix: Why not? You didn't do anything, no code, no specs. We did it all by ourselves, and it's for our game.
Sony: Yeah, what gives? It's better for everyone, and people with Rock Band will buy your game, Activision.
Activision: NO! OUR GUITAR, OUR RULE! And Sony, if you do this, we hate you.
Sony: Maaaaaan... OK, no patch.

*ACT III (the now)*
Activision: Okay Harmonix, you can release your patch.
Harmonix: Well, yes, that was obvious for everybody except you. You saw the money this will generate for you?
Activision: Yes, since you will pay us when you release the patch.
Harmonix: ...what?
Activision: You heard me.
Harmonix: On what grounds? We already paid salaries for the devs who made the patch!
Activision: ah yes, but you use our technology.
Harmonix: WHAT?! You didn't give us anything! We did all by ourselves, and you want us to pay you?
Activision: Yes.
Harmonix: Well, fuck you too.

Give what away? Activision sells GH3 and the GH3 controller. Harmonix just wants to be allowed to release code they've written that works with the GH3 controller.

If Harmonix supports the GH3 guitar, Activision can sell more GH3 guitars, and make a profit doing so.

LOL nudgenudge, nice dialogue!

Sure. But I'll buy it used.

That way, the store receives most of the money, and NOT Activision.

And that's why you'd lose your customer base. Because customers would rather feel they are getting something for their money besides just being exploited.

Exploited...nice choice of words.

Since we know Activision has NO problem saying they plan on exploiting their game properties why would we think they would treat the customer any different?

Michael Winte works for Activision. Here's the evidence:

http://www.answers.com/topic/tony-hawk-s-project-8-xbox-360-game?cat=entertainment

Go there, search the page for "Michael Winte", and you'll see it'll be under "Company 2: Activision Publishing" -> "Functionality"

Looks like Activision has their own guerrilla defense force.

Michael Winte works for Activision. Here's the evidence:

http://www.answers.com/topic/tony-hawk-s-project-8-xbox-360-game?cat=entertainment

Go there, search the page for "Michael Winte", and you'll see he's listed under "Company 2: Activision Publishing" -> "Functionality"

Also interesting is the fact that this is the only thread that user has posted on. Exhibit B: http://www.blogsmith.com/profile/1618102/

Looks like Activision has their own guerrilla defense force.

Also, GH2 did have an official wireless controller:
http://www.redoctane.com/gh-sgwireless.html

It's not a good move from any standpoint. People would buy their product to use with guitar hero. Harmonix isn't trying to make their guitar compatible with guitar hero. If it didn't work on the 360 I could understand it but all they are doing is making PS3 owners mad.

I know I will not support activision until they let the patch come out for free. All this does is make me want to support rockband more. If I miss out on some good games so be it.

You're post shows why people shouldn't bother with a boycott anyway. Simply put, most people can't seem to figure out which companies work on what games.

As you put it 'MTV/Activision'. Now if you mean to avoid both titles you would be fine. But then you said Guitar Hero, so that means Red Octane / Activision. MTV is working with EA and Harmonix on Rock Band.

And people keep getting this stuff wrong again and again. And it seems a lot of people can't even figure out what guitars work with what games.

So a lot of the consumer base looks to lack enough intelligence to even bother about arguing the point any longer. I think the average consumer doesn't care about this, much like many of them don't know their system plays DVD's or Blu-Ray.

We are the minority here...we don't really matter.

That was a brain fart. You are absolutely right, and I know that. I should double check for those silly human errors before I click that darn "Add Your Comments" button.

Eh. I too think that boycotts simply don't do much of anything, but I don't want a fellow gamer to deprive themselves of a really good game because of what is being done on another side of the gaming spectrum. If anything, if he or she must insist on boycotting the CoD series as well, he should boycott a WWII CoD5. That scenario has already been done to death. I'm looking at you, Treyarch.

... I did get that right this time, no?

You got it, and I didn't think you made the same mistake as what I ended up ranting about. It just led to the bigger picture.

I can't say I won't buy CoD4 because I really want to play it. I can say I don't plan to buy any more Guitar Hero games. It isn't because Activision is packed with D-Bags, it's because I played GH3 (that was given to me as a gift) and I really didn't like what was there.

Guitar Hero is going to go the way of Tony Hawk. A series of games that have a hardcore following but are just sort of average and focus more on large combos. You have .skate and Rock Band which deliver a much more accurate version of the type of experience they represent.

Since when did I have good things to say about EA? I feel like a sell out or something.

They arent stopping the game from being distributed. Its their technology, they spent the money to get it approved by microsoft and sony for their game. They sold it as such, it was never sold as just a guitar for all games, it was sold with the guitar hero 3 logo on it. Activision doesn't have to do shit for EA, it was EA's problem that their guitars didnt work and its their problem they didnt have guitar hero 2 on ps3...the guitars (xplorer) work fine on 360 because its their guitar. I could understand if activision blocked sony from releasing a patch for a logitech guitar that was made for guitar hero to work on rock band but not this.

GH3 is outselling RB, also the xplorer guitars work with gh3 as well. Activision doesn't need the strat guitars (which are all broken anyway lol)

You do realize that the people screwed out of patch aren't Activisions consumers...they bought an EA product, not an Activision one.

Harmonix was trying to allow owners of Guitar Hero (an Activision product) to use their guitars on Rock Band (a non-Activision product).

do you understand the commercial implications or was i going to fast?

You cant use a ps2 dvd on an xbox...are you saying that ps2 dvd is Sony's property? The guitar was made for guitar hero, yea its yours but it doesnt work on the other console, the rights to that functionality do not belong to you, you bought the guitar to play gh3.

As a reply to Michael Winte's reply to my earlier post... Sigh...

im just saying..the guitars that harmonix had a hand in creating work with rockband. If the tables were turned and activision wanted to release a patch there is no way in heck ea would be cool with it without getting a ton of money...thats just how things work

Yeah, but it's AWESOME over the top dumbshit!