This is mainly about something that we shouldn’t, in the video game industry, talk about at all. However, we are here again, and this time, it’s a lot worse that anyone could’ve possibly imagined.

When we were here before, it was about Rockstar taking fifty million dollars that was offered to them by Microsoft to create two exclusive episodes for Grand Theft Auto 4. Even though Microsoft, as their Blogger Breakfast last year, made a claim, in some way, that they paid to keep any downloadable content from reaching the Playstation 3 version, we do not know the exact details since Microsoft got it wrong before with GTA4’s multiplayer component. Rockstar did correct Microsoft then, and they also made a comment in the Official Playstation Magazine in May of last year of that they wanted the game to last for years. Simply put, they weren’t going to let the PS3 version out in the cold. We still do not know all the details of that deal, and it looks like we may never learn them.

But at least that’s more than what we can say for Bethesda Softworks. For what seems like a few games now, they have shafted all Playstation 3 owners so much that some of the most hardened 360 fanboys—you know, the ones that scream conspiracy anytime they are called out?–have cried foul over such business practices. A new “episode” of their Fallout 3 game, entitled “Broken Steel”, is set to hit the 360 and PC versions soon. This is the third DLC content available for the versions. What does the PS3 version get, however? Not a damn thing. They get, in essence, the core game and that’s it, thanks for coming. This gets worse, still, as Broken Steel is set to emphatically continue the main story of Fallout 3, as Designer Alan Nanes told Gamespot—probably without any fear that he would get a question from those jokers that he or Bethesda didn’t like—about the content.

But if you thought that was all, you were wrong. Recently, Atari had secured rights to release Fallout 3 in Australia. The game itself will be made available for the same platforms that it is on in the states. However, here’s where every sane gamer in the world should be calling for riots at Bethesda’s doorstep: A Fallout 3 Quest Pack—read: the DLC in box form, something in which a Microsoft DLC deal would not be able to stop—will also be available, but like the digital distribution method, for the 360 and PC only. Once more, the PS3 version just gets the core game and that’s it.

We do not know if this is unintentional from Bethesda, or if they simply just don’t care. Yes, we do know about their announcement at E3 2008 that they would be releasing “substantial DLC” exclusive to the 360 version, but what they didn’t say was that the Playstation 3 version would get nothing at all to expand their experience, in any way. Not that such an announcement that was televised worldwide via the media whores at G4, who by the way have yet to ask any tough question about anything Microsoft has done to “win” this console war just yet. Just by getting up on that stage and making such an announcement was a slap in the face of every gamer regardless of the platform he or she has chosen for their gaming experience. No one should get up on stage, willing or forced, and say that while they will release the game for both consoles, the right console to get the game on is THIS one. They should be treating both versions equally, and if they are not willing to do that, then they should either release it as an exclusive to a console, or get the hell out of the video game industry.

And then, of course, is the continued slaps in the face by Bethesda. Two times I have tried to contract them to get in touch with Todd Howard. However, both times I was shipped to marketing where I was to leave a “callback” message, none of which were ever returned. I later was told by Bitbag Editor in chief Torrence Davis that Mr. Howard doesn’t grant interviews. This is consistent with what the first person I talked to on my second call to them has said.

Why is this, Mr. Howard? Do you think we wouldn’t notice that all of the interviews about DLC content, save the quick one-liner mention that one of your cronies made to Torrence Davis about this, doesn’t even bring up the issue about any PS3 downloadable content for Fallout 3? Do you have the interviewer sign a NDA stating that they better not ask about any PS3 Fallout 3 DLC or even bring it up or else? Did you find out that I challenged you to an interview with me about this issue, and you never so much as e-mailed me back about it? Hell, that challenge was all over the internets. How could you not see it?

Oh wait, I know the answer to that one. You did see it, but you didn’t care. You ran, just as you and your cronies are continuing to run about this issue. Gamers want answers, and you are ignoring every single one of them. You are failing to show the world that you give a damn about them, and are instead giving all your love to the highest bigger. Mr. Howard, and I say this because I mean it, you are one of the biggest cowards ever in the gaming industry. Yes, Square Enix’s slimeball CEO Yoichi Wada is piece of work, but at least he answers a few tough questions. Valve’s founder, Gabe Newell, a man that should learn to program once in a great while, never knows when to shut up. You, sir, have yet to answer anyone about anything unless it’s a softball question. We have yet to see one syllable out of anyone that even challenges you on anything about DLC for the PS3, or even asks if you are planning anything. And you don’t go answer anyone and go through the back door with me and several other bloggers that you know will tell the truth about how you backstab gamers who support you.

Yes, about those very gamers. We should be outraged over this. Even if the 360 will be the only console you will have in your life, you should still be pissed off about this. Why? Because this is a slap in the face to an industry that we all love and cherish. If anyone thinks that we are taking this too seriously, then they are not gamers themselves, and should never consider themselves to be. These are the people that we are supporting, in an economic recession no less, with at least sixty bucks of our money that we sometimes have to slave for though hell and high water, and this is the thanks we get. We get a company that would rather hide behind their embargoes and then tel everyone not to ask any tough questions to them. We get a company that releases a version that will get nothing extra, while the other versions get everything under the damn sun. We get a company that sends an honest gamer with honest questions to marketing to leave a message and then ignore them.

And we also have a company that still somehow has its apologists. There are still those select few that think that we have no right to be angry. Anything they can use in order to justify their position has been used. The Playstation 3 got an exclusive Mirror’s Edge level, even when the PS3 was the lead console for the game and pales in comparison to the type of exclusive DLC that Microsoft had paid for (Sony never asked for the ME DLC). They say that Bethesda made the point at E3, even though they never said that the PS3 would be left out in the cold there, either. They say that Bethesda’s not obligated to give anything to the PS3 version, even when that is half their fan base, and in a way, they wouldn’t feel obligated to give the PS3 version trophy support via a patch a week or so after its release.

See, this is the same exact things that they use to justify and defend Bethesda. However, there is no more excuse for this. Microsoft’s strings do not extend past digital distribution, and we know Bethesda has given the PS3 DLC in disc form before, see the Shimmering Isles. So why isn’t this stuff on disc form that people can install on their PS3s and expand the game that way? What is Bethesda’s strategy? Simply put: Money! Either Microsoft thought of something new, or Bethesda wants more checks from the money tree itself. There is no excuse for such treachery in the industry, and those that give any to try to justify it are not gamers, but accessories. They might as well sign the damn checks or fill out the NDA contracts. Bethesda should be ashamed of this.

Hopefully now we see where this exclusive DLC as a weapon tactic is leading Microsoft. While they continue to pay top dollar to the companies that do not need the money in order to keep things off the competition or make the competition one of their own, they close down first party studios and put people out of work. They give us no real exclusive games for 2009. They give us no real reason why we should be paying 50 bucks a year for Xbox Live Gold when we can get the same core functionality of it, minus a few bells and whistles that will most likely come sooner than you think anyway, out of the PSN. They continue to shove Halo down our throats because it’s all they are currently offering. Microsoft, you are running a dangerous game with your system. Do you really want to beat Sony? Do you really want to extract revenge? If so, then you are not going to do so by running this fine line. You are emphatically cutting out the safety net from below you while performing stunts you never trained for on a trapeze up five hundred feet high from pure concrete. First parties are what show off your systems, and third parties should just be what the first parties see. You really need to learn this practice and at the next E3, forget about Sony’s franchises and worry about yourselves. You have gold mines in Killer Instinct and Perfect Dark just waiting to be plucked that you’re sitting on. Please, no more DLC, because you do see what kind of monster you end up creating. You may be enjoying this now, as if you should enjoy killing the game industry with this kind of BS to begin with, but what if tomorrow, Square Enix makes a huge announcement that they changed their minds about Final Fantasy 13 DLC and they want to give the PS3 version substantial content time and time again while you get none? Hell, Bethesda is getting away with ignoring half of their fan base in favor of the highest bidder, so why shouldn’t anyone else employ the same business practices.

I am also hopeful, though I am not holding my breath for this to happen as there is always at least one, that people don’t take this as a fanboy rant. I do not like this move on the part of Bethesda, and I would be equally applaud if this was Microsoft left out of the cold. Again, to those that dare to bring up Mirror’s Edge, save your breath. You were already told the reason why you shouldn’t.

This is a call to the media: Do your damn job! To hell with the embargoes! Bring the situation up anyway, because you’re our checks and balances.

And to Bethesda, it’s time for you to put up or shut up. Either support all versions of Fallout 3 equally, or get your asses out of the gaming industry, because we don’t have to spend our time or money on you. Unlike the media, you can’t force us to spend our money on you, and there are other more deserving people we can give our money to. Those that give more of a damn about this industry than you apparently do.

Good night, and good luck.

NOTE: I’M SORRY FOR THIS BEING LONG! I SEEM TO ALWAYS HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT ANYTHING I TALK ABOUT!

Someone once said, and one may believe it applies to the gaming world right now:

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosives and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn.

It’s funny because the person who said this was not even involved with video games, and he didn’t say that when computer games existed (at least not to the common knowledge). It was Rod Serling, writer and narrator for the 1960’s TV show “The Twilight Zone” in an episode entitled “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street“. This quote was the closing narrative of that episode, and it is probably one of the best quotes to be used at many times during the history of the world. This quote now also fits the video game industry, as we have seen several stories submitted on N4G.com and posted throughout the web concerning the so called “imminent gloom and doom” of a console, just after one month in which the system sold less units in November of 2008 to the November the year before. Apparently, the people that so wanted to become the martyrs for the Playstation 3 in 2008 have been let out of their cages. Little do they know that they either have some short-term memory loss, or failure to care of showing bias, or something. Because the straw men arguments are getting old and tired, yet come with no new ideas, information, or anything to show that they actually have common sense with their stories at a rate of one or two a day, and they get even more pathetic with every passing day and article.

Read the rest of this entry »