Imagine you went out and bought say an Xbox 360 Premium edition and it didn't come with MCE Extender capabilities, two of the USB ports working, DVDs would stop playing after an hour, and the end level of games were not accessible. Now after you subscribe to six months of Xbox Live service, the extender capabilities suddenly worked and one USB port started to function. After another six months the DVD drive would work fully and you're able to access about half the games available's end sequence. That's like what Sony Online has done with
Star Wars: Galaxies,
EverQuest, and
Everquest II. This
email on CBS talks about the shady business practices of not finishing the expansion pack of game by articifically inducing bugs to prevent users from accessing certain content because they weren't done only to have them finish it at a later date. It's a very interesting read and one that gives another kick in the crotch of Sony.
"
Those zones were not complete when people bought the product. Instead,
SOE introduced artifical bugs to make sure players could not progress
into the next areas. Once they completed the area that consumers
already paid for, they would "fix" the bug, and let people advance."
Thanks
Digg.
