In all the brouhaha over TSA searches, people haven’t talked much about another unreasonable search many Americans are subject to daily- the big box retailer receipt check.

Receipt checking shouldn’t really be an issue- you purchase an item, and it belongs to you. No corporate entity has the right to detain you without cause for refusing to queue a second time to leave their store. But most people, not wishing to risk confrontation, wearily line their cart behind everyone else to prove that yes, they did in fact pay in full for their tampons, 6-pack of socks and razors. Unless you are a member of a discount club (such as Costco), no such restrictions can legally be imposed upon you.

So what happens if you refuse the entirely voluntary receipt gestapo as you leave the store? One Best Buy shopper found out when he was chased to his car by a police officer who was apparently stationed at Best Buy in order to protect and serve their corporate profits. A man only identified as “Mark” writes to Consumerist:

After I exited the store and was in the parking lot, walking towards my car, I heard someone start yelling, in a stern and urgent voice “SIR! SIR!” I heard quick footsteps behind me and turned around. It was a (sheriff’s deputy). He told me that Best Buy employees needed to see my receipt. I responded that I’d left the store, my business with them was concluded, and that they had no right to demand to see my receipt. The officer said that it was store policy. Regardless of store policy, I said, they still had no right to take or search my possessions. He asked me why I was being difficult. I pointed out that it was an imposition upon me to be chased down and detained in the parking lot and made to hand my property over to a third party, something which they had no authority to demand. The officer said that while they didn’t have the authority, *he* did have the authority. He continued, threatening me with arrest, “Go back and show them the receipt, or go to jail. Those are your options.”

Eep. The officer didn’t seem unaware of Mark’s fourth amendment rights, as Mark explained- merely uninterested in them. Mark continues:

I asked him why he didn’t just take the receipt from me, if they had the right to see the receipt. “I’m not going to touch your property,” he replied. I told him that I ultimately didn’t care about the receipt itself — it wasn’t important to me — but that I objected to their demand that they detain me and inspect it. The officer suggested that he take the receipt back to them so that they could “mark it.” I didn’t resist (I was there with my wife and infant son — I would have been in the dog house if I got arrested), so he took the receipt out of my hand, and walked back across the parking lot to the store. He returned a minute later, and silently handed me the receipt. I asked for his card. He turned around and walked away, replying “I don’t have to give you my card” while walking away.

Frustratingly, the officer in question didn’t even check Mark’s items against the receipt when Mark ultimately relented. He simply confiscated the receipt and marked it. Consumerist also points out that these receipt checks are entirely voluntary, and no one has the right to rifle through your possessions or detain you without your consent.

Do you submit to receipt checks just to avoid trouble? Do you find them to be intrusive and unwarranted?

Cop at Best Buy threatens to arrest man for refusing voluntary receipt check is a post from: The Inquisitr

I know Activision is a fashionable target and the new Big, Bad, Evil Villain of the Gaming Industry™ since everybody stopped hating EA quite as much. But Jesus, sometimes they really do dig these holes themselves.

Case in point: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty launched everywhere today, and Activision Blizzard is recommending a retail price of £45 for the game in the UK – that’s £10 more than any other new PC game. Fortunately, because not all retailers are dicks, many are simply pricing the eagerly awaited strategy title at £34.99.

We’ve been here before, of course. Last year the company placed an extortionate £55 recommended retail price on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and demanded £15 for a mediocre pack of three new and three old maps for said game. It’s widely expected they’ll inflate the SRP for this year’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops.

It’s pure greed, of course, but then maybe we should look closer to home for the blame. What’s really depressing is that people don’t seem to mind being treated this way. Modern Warfare 2 sold a ton despite its inflated price tag, and so did the downloadable maps. It seems as long as gamers are gullible mugs, Activision will continue bumping up prices.

Just remember that when you’re paying £60 or US$85 for all your new games four years from now that I bloody called it.

[Via CVG]

Oh, surprise! Activision gouging StarCraft II fans over game prices is a post from: The Inquisitr

Big, potentially horrible news for gamers: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 publisher Activision might be planning a “membership” plan for its popular Call of Duty series, including the best-selling Modern Warfare 2.

The video you see below shows a player attempting to join a multiplayer session in MW2, only to be confronted with a screen entitled “Modern Warfare 2: Membersh -”. I assume the last word there is meant to read “Memberships”. This would seem to imply that Activision was planning some sort of subscription service, payable with Microsoft Points, to play the game online. A game you’ve already shelled out $50 for.

On the one hand, this seems so outrageous that I can barely believe Activision – greedy swines though they are – would try this on.

On the other, slightly more convincing hand, this is Activision. The company has already fleeced gamers with shockingly high prices for downloadable maps, and I’m sure it would have no qualms in milking us for a few more cents. I certainly wouldn’t put such scumbaggery beneath them. But we should wait and see – perhaps this means nothing, right?

If this footage is a fake, it’s a damn good one. Make your own mind up:

[YouTube, via VG247]

[VIDEO] Activision could be planning subscription fees for Call of Duty games is a post from: The Inquisitr

Because it’s been in development for about 43 years and has cost several arms and legs to develop, Sony needs some big sales to justify Gran Turismo 5. You know what would help? If there was a $237 version of the game.

What’s that? There is? You say a listing for Gran Turismo 5 “Ultimate Edition” has appeared on Amazon’s French site, with a price tag of €190 ($237)? Oh, how fortunate!

Apparently, the dry driving sim will be getting two special editions alongside the regular version. The $99.99 Collector’s Edition will include an exclusive 1:43 scale diecast Nissan GT-R Spec V, a 300-page car guide, a GT-branded key chain, a voucher for five DLC cars, and a numbered certificate of authenticity.

But that will probably (hopefully) pale next to the Ultimate Edition, one of the pricier luxury editions of a game I’ve seen. There’s no mention on Amazon’s listing what you’ll get for your cash – a 1:1 scale Nissan GT-R Spec V, perhaps? – but it better be something damn impressive. That $237 will probably be rounded down to $200 Stateside, but still …

[Amazon France, via VG247]

Gran Turismo 5 Ultimate Edition costs HOW MUCH? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Only yesterday, I praised Activision for including five new maps in its next round of downloadable Modern Warfare 2 maps, rather than rehash some old arenas. Well, turns out my sources were wrong: two of the five maps in the ‘Resurgence Pack’ are actually from the first game, albeit with a little extra polish. Thus, Activision, you are once again utter douches.

With that out of the way, new shots and details of the maps have emerged. The old maps from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will be Vacant and Strike. The new ones will be called Trailer Park, Carnival (pictured above, if you couldn’t guess) and Fuel. The Resurgence Pack is due to debut on Xbox Live on June 3.

Infinity Ward bigwig Robert Bowling gave an interview to Major Nelson, in which he described Trailer Park as a “super condensed” experience, Carnival as a “decimated amusement park” (possibly channeling Left 4 Dead 2‘s ‘Dark Carnival’ campaign), and Fuel as a “sniper haven,” a.k.a. the one you’ll never play because of the bitter frustration of being repeatedly sniped in the face.

Activision sent a selection of five new screens to the press – the first is above, the other four are – oh! – right here:

[Via VG247]

Fresh details and screens on extra Modern Warfare 2 maps is a post from: The Inquisitr

No? Well, uh, stick with me here. Or rather, stick with Nintendo, who are now selling the “Wii Migration Connection Kit” to the laziest Wii owners in the known universe.

This kit essentially includes all the cords required to link a Wii to a TV. That’s a composite Wii-TV cable, a power supply cable, and a Wii sensor bar. Nothing more, nothing less. The next time you move your console to a different TV, the Wii Migration Connection Kit means you won’t have to move the cables that feed into your Wii, because they’ll already be attached to your spare TV set, thus saving about a minute.

The kit is on sale in Japan for ¥4200 ($45), which is all kinds of hilarious. Worth noting: out of curiosity, I hit up eBay and found you could buy everything in this box for around $17. In other words: naff off, Nintendo.

[Via Kotaku]

$45 ‘Wii Migration Connection Kit’ is a bunch of damn wires is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sometimes, you just have to stand back and admire the mooing stupidity of the human race.

Last month, Activision released a paltry pack of five downloadable maps for Modern Warfare 2. Only three of these arenas were actually new, yet the publisher still charged folks $15 for the bundle. You know, $15 that could otherwise buy, oh I dunno, the best Xbox Live Arcade game of 2009.

Did that outrageous price tag stop people buying the ‘Stimulus Package’? Did people rise up and say, “No Activision, we shan’t be mercilessly gouged by a company brazenly ripping off fans.” Of course they didn’t. Because people don’t mind getting fiscally raped, over 2.5 million suckers downloaded the semi-new maps in the first week alone. That’s a record, apparently.

So hurray, let’s all hold hands and look forward to a future where Activision charges whatever the hell they like because they know numbskulls will suck it up like the great, farting eejits they are.

No date has been set for the Stimulus Package on PC and PS3, but I imagine the same will happen there.

See also: Modern Warfare 2 is culturally sensitive

[Via press release]

Thanks, world: Rip-off Modern Warfare 2 DLC sells millions is a post from: The Inquisitr

If videogame publishing giant EA has its way, we could all very soon be paying for larger game demos on our Xbox 360s, PS3s, and Wiis.

While demos on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network are currently free, the megalomaniacal publisher is planning to release large demos “for $10 or $15,” in a bid to calculate a game’s popularity before release. If this paid-for demo sells enough copies, then a full boxed product will head to shelves. That’s right, folks: EA wants you to cough up money for their market research.

That’s according to industry analyst Michael Pachter, who learned of EA’s plans from Visceral boss Nick Earl last week. Earl reported that EA intends to label this “premium downloadable content” (or “PDLC”), or “essentially [...] a very long game demo.”

If the demos prove popular and a full packaged game is sent to stores, it will carry a full retail price. Essentially then, EA is saying: “Hey guys, if you want this game, you’re going to have to pay full price for it, plus another $10 or $15 for the demo, and then it might not even get made anyway, because the demo might sell poorly.”

And that, my friends, is some serious bullshit. Pachter adds:

“Mr. Earl believes that the release of the PDLC first limits the risk of completing and marketing the full packaged version, and serves as a low-cost marketing tool.”

Precisely, Michael: it takes the cost of marketing out of EA’s hands, and reaches into the customer’s pocket instead.

[Via Eurogamer]

Uh … WTF?: EA planning to charge for game demos is a post from: The Inquisitr

Activision and Infinity Ward just released details and pricing for Modern Warfare 2‘s first ever downloadable maps, and it’s fair to say they’re taking the piss somewhat when it comes to cost.

The “Stimulus Package” contains five new maps for the popular military shooter, and will cost – HAHAHA – 1200 Microsoft Points when it launches on March 30. In real money, that’s £10.20, or $15.30, or €14.40. Or, if you prefer, a shameless fecking rip-off.

1200 Microsoft Points would be steep for five new maps, but two of the five here are going to be maps from the first Modern Warfare: “Crash” and the sniper-friendly “Overgrown”. They’ll have a tiny visual upgrade, but otherwise they’re geographically identical. Great!

The new maps, for what it’s worth, are called Bailout, Storm and Salvage:

- Bailout – An overrun apartment complex
- Storm – An industrial park in the middle of a tense thunderstorm
- Salvage – An abandoned junkyard, with a snowy terrain

So yeah, 1200 Microsoft Points, and don’t expect these to get any cheaper when they hit PS3 and PC in late-April (Xbox 360 has a 30-day exclusive on this map pack). Activision knows people are happy to be gouged, and as long as customers keep coming back for more, they’ll keep charging ludicrous prices.

If, like me, you’re sick to the molars of over-paying for Activision’s content, save your 1200 Points and go buy Geometry Wars and Mega Man 9 instead: two high quality FULL games for the same price.

First Modern Warfare 2 downloadable maps are a rip-off is a post from: The Inquisitr

A reader at The Consumerist spotted an hilariously bad deal for a Nintendo Wii on shopping channel behemoth QVC. For $362.97, you can treat yourself to the following:

- Nintendo Wii console (with Wii Sports)
- Go Play Circus Star Games
- Handgun Accessory
- Golf Accessory
- Tennis Accessory
- Baseball Accessory
- Steering Wheel

As The Consumerist points out, you can buy all of that junk for $239.97, plus tax:

- Nintendo Wii console (with Wii Sports): $199.00 (from pretty much anywhere)
- Go Play Circus Star Games: $14.99 (new at GameStop)
- Wii sports pack (has all accessoies sans handgun accessory): $19.99 (new at GameStop)
- Handgun Accessory: $5.99 (new at Sears)

So what’s the deal? Is QVC trying to take advantage of uninformed consumers? Or is the channel attempting to invoke a repeat of the Great Wii Holiday Rush of 2006, when idiots people would happily pay twice or three times the MSRP of the then-short-in-supply Wii?

Interestingly, the console was also advertised by the QVC presentation as “rare” this Christmas (Nintendo says it is readily available everywhere) and as having a “true HD output” (another mistake/lie).

Depressingly, the channel went on to sell more than 2,800 of these bundles at this greatly inflated price, though has now dropped the price … to a “bargain” $318.20 – still $80 above MSRP.

[Via The Consumerist]

Want to overpay for your Wii? Shop at QVC is a post from: The Inquisitr

Remember how Activision recently announced plans to raise the price of Modern Warfare 2 in the UK? Well, it looks like Microsoft is following suit.

Retailers have confirmed to Eurogamer that the price of an Xbox 360 Arcade bundle will rise from £129.99 to £159.99 from September 1st. The five Xbox Live Arcade games that usually come free with the machine will also be chopped, for no good reason at all. Apparently, the price hike is being put in place to “counteract the poor pound-to-Euro currency exchange rate.”

Dropping games (that cost Microsoft absolutely nothing to include, aside from a few lost sales of poor-selling titles) is absolutely crappy. Using the economy as an excuse is also pretty rubbish; when the pound does recover, will we see Microsoft bring the price back down? (Clue: NO.)

But you know what really gets me about this? Since January, the pound has damn well strengthened against the Euro. I call bullshit. Unfathomably huge piles of bullshit.

[Via Eurogamer]

Microsoft RAISING price of Xbox 360 in UK (and including less content) is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apologies for the recent rash of Call of Duty-related posts, but this kind of thing really gets my goddamn goat.

First of all, let me say this much: Modern Warfare 2 looks fantabulous, and I’ve no doubt it will deliver. Publisher Activision’s handling of the game isn’t so sparkling, however.

The company is already planning to lure gamers in with what I personally deem to be one of the most redundant special edition bundles ever created. Now, they’re jacking the price up here in Britain to £55. FIFTY-FIVE BLOODY POUNDS, as opposed to the usual price for new games of about £40. At current rates, that’s over $92. Best of all, it’s expected other publishers will shortly follow suit.

Why? Activision is leaning on the excuse crutch that is the recession, but I’m not buying it. The company knows that pre-orders for Modern Warfare 2 have been through the roof – indeed, no other Activision release has matched it in these terms. The people want it, and Activision knows they’ll pay.

That’s the most depressing thing about this: while I’d love to think this would deter customers and thus teach this fat cat publisher a lesson, I can’t see it happening. People are rabid for this game, and will stump up the cash. Ugh, people. Just fire me to the moon, already.

[Via MCV]

WTF? Activision hiking price of Modern Warfare 2 in UK is a post from: The Inquisitr

Let’s get this straight. Here we have a guy pulling down $7.5 million per year (this is his base $1.2 million base salary plus all his bonuses, stock options and other goodies) who suddenly has discovered his empathy for the working class facing financial ruin. So he says that for one year only he is going to cut his own salary to $7.3 million. That’s right folks Dubow is going to sacrifice $200,000 of his paycheck in a guesture of understanding.

WTF! Does this guy really even comprehend the economic world that the majority of workers; like the one’s facing layoffs from Gannett, live in? As far as I am concerned that this guesture is nothing short of insulting to those workers. How many people would even half of that yearly salary being paid to one person employ? However this kind of CEO greed isn’t just limited to Gannett but is persauvsive throughout the corporate world. Single individuals are earning more money that the combined GDP of the poorest countries in the world and for what?

The simple fact that they have had the luck and the connections that enabled them to be named a CEO of some corporation shouldn’t mean that any one of them is worth making multi million dollar salaries. Making the kind of salaries that are being made on the back of forever rising cost of goods and an increasing base of the working poor. At what point does being paid a fair salary for work being done turn become nothing short of personal greed at the cost of people sliding down the economic scale into oblivion.

The fact that Dubow is in charge of a business that is crying to anyone that will listen about how they are being led to the slaughter by the Internet is nothing but incredibly laughable. Newspapers are going out of business, cutting jobs left right and center and yet people like Dubow are making multi million dollar salaries – for what? Then to insult us all by declaring he has empathy for the working poor that his company employs; or lays off take your pick these days, and is going to sacrafice not even 3% off his salary for one year.

No wonder our economy is in the toilet with this kind of attitude – screw the working poor and keep paying out multi million dollar salaries to a minority of well connected smucks who couldn’t care about those people struggling to just get by.

Keep your $200G’s Mr. Dubow – we don’t need to be insulted like this.

Gannett CEO gives up ‘chump change’ – empathy my ass is a post from: The Inquisitr