Suckers

What is the best way to make money in the video game industry? I bet your first guess would be to make a really good game that will sell millions of copies. Well, you could do that, but that’s for suckers.
There are two other ways. The first one would be to make a game that will sell at least fairly well and then convert it to every goddamn platform including cell phones screwing the fans and consumers along the way. I call it the “EA way”, or the “Resident Evil Syndrome”. The other way is to release a game, and after a few months release it again with a few extras and say it’s the proper, complete experience and if you waited for two years for it and pre-ordered the original release fourteen months before it came out and you are a gullible moron. I call that “the Konami Effect”. I’m sure you know what I mean. Let me tell you why I’m bringing it up. Capcom decided to release Lost Planet: Colonies. If you think this is a new iteration or an expansion pack for this game you’re in for an unpleasant surprise that could only sprout in a cunning Asian mind. You’ll get the same game as the original Lost Planet just with some new playable characters (the point is?) and new multiplayer modes and I’ll bet that it will come as a new game at full price. I, for one, cannot find a justification to pay twice for the same game (a very generic shooter if I might add). Sure, it’s nice for those that don’t have the game yet, but I would still choose the original version that will cost one third of the new one. It’s like having dysentery for a week, then having an eight month break, but after those eight months you feel something is wrong again so you go to a doctor. The doctor examines you and asks if you want the same dysentery again, but for three days only or do you want it for week again and a sore throat. I’m sure there are some masochists who would choose the latter, but I’m sure there are not that many of them.
In an age of downloadable content I see that as a friggn steal. It should have been released six months ago as a bonus pack for five or ten bucks.
It’s becoming a common theme especially amongst Japanese companies to make money on the same thing over and over again.
This is the reason I won’t but Metal Gear Solid 4 right after the release, even though I’m a big fan of the series. Just like with every other MGS there probably will be a “full experience” version released a few months after the original. Metal Gear Solid 4: Substitution?
You can think of this ran as a prelude to my next editorial where I will explain why I have no real respect for the likes of Kojima and Kutaragi, but I do for Mikami and Miyamoto.