I am pretty sure that everyone remembers the uproar that happened not that long ago when it was first rumored and then found to be fact that the banks in the US were implementing a monthly debit card service fee.

The reaction was strong, swift, and made the banks realize that they had quite possibly stepped over the line of consumer abuse and quickly started backtracking on the plan as consumer, and government, outrage mounted.

Well it seems that Verizon is trying to take a page out of the bank’s playbook when it comes to screwing the consumer with sneaky underhanded service fees.

Word has leaked out, via a post at Engadget along with a screen capture of the leaked internal Verizon memo, that the company is going to be instituting a $2.00 “convenience” fee to be charge against those customers that pay their Verizon bill online or by phone.

Yes, you read that right. They are going to charge you a fee for you being able to easily pay your bill for “their” services.

The new fee is suppose to start taking effect as of January 15, 2012 and the only way to not have to pay that $2.00 a month “convenience” fee is to use automatic payments (which is where the money is automatically withdrawn from your bank account) or to pay by electronic check.

When the bank’s tried to screw their customers like this there was a very strong movement for people to close their accounts at the banks trying to institute the new fee and the response was enough that the banks had to re-think their plans. I’m wondering if the reaction to Verizon’s plans will be equally as vocal and strong?

Could they face their own GoDaddy moment over this underhanded and sneaky gouging of the consumer?

Will the government step in on this?

Or will, as I suspect, the consumer get screwed even further by the company?

Verizon to pull scummy bank-like fee charge 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

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

The story of Modern Warfare 2 has been one of success and fortunes. Critics loved it, and consumers lapped it up. The shooter launched late last year, and became the biggest entertainment launch in history, across all forms of entertainment. Publisher Activision sat back as the profits rolled in.

Now, however, things have taken a sour turn. Over the last two months, Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward has leaked around 26 employees, with many joining a new start-up headed by two former Infinity Ward bigwigs. Suddenly, those mass departures are making more sense.

Earlier today, the “Infinity Ward Employee Group” (IWEG) filed a lawsuit against Activision. They’re alleging that contracts between Activision and Infinity Ward were breached and bonuses have gone unpaid. IWEG wants blood. Or probably just a crapload of unpaid royalties. One of IWEG’s attorneys explained the employees’ side to G4:

“Activision owes my clients approximately $75 million to $125 million dollars. Activision has withheld most of the money to force many of my people to stay, some against their will, so that they would finish the delivery of Modern Warfare 3. That is not what they wanted to do. Many of them. My clients’ are entitled to their money. Activision has no right to withhold their money — our money.”

Anyway, Activision has since issued a response to the lawsuit, suggesting that shit is about to get real:

“Activision believes the action is without merit. Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for MW2 and has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times. We look forward to getting judicial confirmation that our position is right.”

So they’re fighting it. This is going to be messy.

[Via G4]

Modern Warfare 2 developers file lawsuit against Activision 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

Since reading Thomas Friedman’s post Time to Reboot America the other day it has been kinda sitting there percolating in the back of my mind. It was one of those clear and insightful posts that leaves very little arguing room on either side of the issue. Then this morning I read Fred Wilson’s post; Bits Of Destruction, in which he references Friedman’s earlier post. Like Friedman’s post much of what Fred had to say is also unarguable in its reality. I can’t say all because there were a couple of points I took exception to but I’ll get to them in a bit.

One of the most salient points that Thomas said in his post was this

All I could think to myself was: If we’re so smart, why are other people living so much better than us? What has become of our infrastructure, which is so crucial to productivity? Back home, I was greeted by the news that General Motors was being bailed out — that’s the G.M. that Fortune magazine just noted “lost more than $72 billion in the past four years, and yet you can count on one hand the number of executives who have been reassigned or lost their job.”

G.M. isn’t alone in this, the automotive industry isn’t alone in this executive greed, the US isn’t alone in this behaviour of executive greed as the same thing happens in Canada as well. In contrast we have the CEO of Japan Air Haruka Nishimatsu; making less than the airline’s pilots, who on the news of economic problems cut back his salary and luxuries first before asking the same of any airline employees.

What happens here in the US and Canada – the executives play musical boardrooms, pocket multi-million dollar bonuses and shutdown workspaces like they are nothing more than notches on their belts. In Ontario alone we had a CEO of Ontario Hydro that was fired from his job after a year but still walked away with a $7 million bonus – even though he had driven the company into the ground. In the US you have executives across all spectrums of business – technology included – who make more in bonuses; as they are fired for their failures, than 99% of society will see in a lifetime of hard work.

Even within the world of technology we have placed more value on nothingness than we have on people. There is no feasible reason why businesses like Facebook are worth $15 Billion or that companies like Twitter continue to exist with absolutely no visible business plan to make money. Even the vaunted Google is really nothing more than a one-trick revenue pony and yet as intransient as that income is we place more value on what it might do rather than what it really does – which is sell ads. Meanwhile the people at the top get to play with their 747’s and act like they are our salvation to everything.

 In his post today Fred says in regards to Google

could go on and on but will stop here. If you want to get a longer riff on these ideas, get Jeff Jarvis’ book, What Would Google Do?, where he imagines Google operating in many different industries and thinks about how they would approach them.

To be honest Google is the last company I would want in the world to tell me how they would approach the problems we face today. I would much rather companies with a heart like Lance inc be the ones to lead the way – at least they give a shit about the real people who are making the products we pay our money for. Money that for a growing segment of society means less and less every payday.

A simple example of how bad the cost of living is for the real citizens of our society can be seen in something as simple as a submarine sandwich. Back in the early 80’s when I was night manager of a sub shop the Assorted Sub cost the customer $2.95 (no tax on food at that time) – that same submarine sandwich now costs the consumer $6.98 (including tax as that has also changed in the intervening years). That amounts to a $4.03 cost to the consumer over 20 years.

That might not seem like much but when you look at the change in minimum wage during that same time it is easy to see why food banks are a big growth business today. In 1980 the Canadian minimum wage (non-student as that was even less) was $6.00 ($3.10 in the US) whereas today the minimum wage is an average of $8.00 per hour ($5.85 in the US) which amount to an average of $2.00 growth of the minimum wage – and that is if you were a man, as women and students earn less. Minimum wage hasn’t even kept up with the price we now pay for that submarine sandwich.

At the same time we have seen pays and compensation packages for the smallest minority of the top 1% of our working society consistently climb year after year. These amounts climb by the millions of dollars – not the single dollar amounts that regular folks get if we do get them. While these rarefied few pocket more and more money we have soldiers dying on oil based battlefields whose families have to look for government social assistance in order to feed and clothe their families. We have idiots hitting a ball making tens of millions while teachers, police and firefighters – the other real heroes – are constantly facing cutbacks or worse.

This of course is at a time when both countries are experiencing a downward slide on just about every chart from education to technology. As Freidman pointed out in his post

My fellow Americans, we can’t continue in this mode of “Dumb as we wanna be.” We’ve indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can’t afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world’s best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours.

I totally understand the need for companies to make money but at what point does making billions for the pockets of corporate executive who seem to fail more than succeed become more important than the people contributing their blood and sweat to make those billions. A segment of society is being priced out of being able to enjoy even the most reasonable of expect lifestyles. Instead they face food banks and homelessness.

We have lost sight of what is really important here in our rush to be the next Google, Microsoft or some other such daydreaming start up living off of venture capital monies. Far more than a reboot we need a severe kick in the fucking ass in order to realize that countries like South Korea, Japan and now China are surpassing us in just about every field for a reason. If not then we might as well just bend over and kiss that ass good-bye.

A reboot? Try a kick in the f*&#ing ass is a post from: The Inquisitr