The Silent Hill HD Collection has, in all honesty, kind of been a ridiculously news-worthy thing ever since it was first announced as a PS3 Exclusive which obviously didn't pan out, but may just have been an omen now that we have the joy of hindsight. From there, the game went on to have a whole snafu about voiceovers, get delayed several times, release in a rather buggy-state, and then get panned by Silent Hill's art director. All this in the scant few months since it was released back in March, and it's still not done coming up in bits of news here and there. The latest, however, is a bit of a doozy when compared to the rest of it, which should tip you off, considering the latest news is that the PS3 version of the game will be the only one patched. While I've been lead to believe that the PS3 version was, initially, buggier than the 360 version (which I whole-heartedly believe) and that the 360 version is actually playable, it's still kind of a big deal. As is what Konami is doing about it.
This isn't the first time a game on the 360 has been completely refused a patch to fix it, and that process alone is just as bad as it was when Polytron decided they needed the money more than they needed to have a fully-working game out there. I'm sure it won't be the last time it happens either. And I'm also sure that people won't connect the dots because we don't learn when these types of things happen. I'm sure that at least a percentage of the very same people excusing Polytron because "wah wah, money" are openly shitting on Konami for doing the very same thing for what could be a legitimate problem. They are citing "Technical Issues" for the reason why the 360 cannot get the patch and as vague as that is, it could be completely legit. These HD Collections are games simply being tooled to work on the consoles we have now, rather than being completely rebuilt, so it's entirely possible that some things have simply been held together with the equivalent of duct tape and chewed gum, so trying to introduce something else might just bring it all down. Is that a valid excuse? No, of course not. Is it possible that "Technical Issues" means simply that there aren't enough 360 copies out there to pay for what will likely be patch after patch? Of course. We will never know, so not coming out and saying that it is flat-out about the money is a good move for Konami.
What also helps their case is that instead of just saying "Well, it sucks but thanks for the money!", they are offering an opportunity to exchange your game for another Konami product and while there's not an -official- list anywhere that I could find, it seems that it is rather large. If you've had your eye on the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection or Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Limited Edition, even) and don't already have it, you might be able to grab one of those up (for PS3 or 360), as well as being able to trade across for the Collection on PS3 to get the one that'll get 'fixed'. Or any of two dozen other titles for the PS3, 360 all the way back to the PSP and original XBox if you are so inclined. I'm basing this off a list cross-posted from a forum, which is why I'm not linking it, so take it with a grain of salt, but the exchange bit, at the very least, is very true. All it takes is a little bit of talking to customer service and presenting the receipt which serves as another reminder as to why you should always keep those things.
Konami is likely going to lose money over this, if not with the straight-exchanges, than the obvious loss of business they'll get from the move for as long as attention spans hold out. Which is to say probably the next few games they put out won't sell so great, but after that, it'll go back to business as usual for the most part. For the obvious parallels that I drew to the Fez situations, I can't say that the situation is exactly the same, however which is why, despite how bad a move it is, I can't hold the same ire with Konami that I can with Polytron, and that has everything to do with the size of both 'companies'. Where buying/not buying a Polytron game affects them directly (or close to it), doing the same with Konami is not affecting the people who make these decisions and is likely only going to burden the people on the bottom. I imagine the team that put the ports together is being dismantled currently and scattered to different parts of the company where they will hopefully do better work, but any money lost for Konami as a whole is going to come out of the pockets of the people just trying to put together games long before it comes out of the executives. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This is pretty much why 'I'll never buy another (company) (product) again' doesn't do a whole lot of positive in the long run.
So if the smart thing to do is to just buy what you want to buy, ignoring who has 'wronged you' personally (which is by-and-large the smart thing to do) instead of carrying on with these boycotts, then what are you to do? Well....the sensible thing, really. If you own the game, take them up on this exchange offer if you're so inclined or just try to enjoy the game you put down money on. Do anything you can to make sure the monetary investment isn't something that you come to really regret. Whatever the case, if you feel the need, just exercise a little more selective purchasing in the future; waiting til it's out to find some reviews speaking to its technical quality before you take the plunge. It seems entirely too level-headed a move to do, I agree, but like I said, where I could direct my ire at exactly the people who would be effected at Polytron, the same cannot be said for Konami using the same methods. So while we can decry their decisions, that will just have to suffice for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment