Activision Gives a Big F-You to Consumers (Updated)

It was bad enough that Activision was making dumb excuses for not supporting the Rock Band guitar in Guitar Hero, but now they’ve really topped themselves. According to Harmonix, Activision has actually blocked Sony from releasing an already complete patch for Rock Band on the PS3 that would enable compatibility with the Guitar Hero Les Paul PS3 controller. I only hope that they don’t end up trying to take legal action to have Harmonix actually remove GH guitar compatibility from Rock Band, but it wouldn’t surprise me at this point. I’m not sure exactly what the legal specifics are for why they can prevent (or cause) another company from patching a game they don’t control, but frankly, I don’t care. It’s ridiculous and completely anti-consumer.

Exactly how does this help them? While I disagree with the reasoning, I at least sort of understand what they’re thinking for not enabling support for the reverse (that is, the RB guitar in Guitar Hero). If people want to play your game, may as well force them to buy your hardware too. It seems stupid since they’re basically alienating an obvious potential audience (Rock Band purchasers) who may not want to have several toy guitars. But how does the opposite hurt them?

For people that already have purchased Rock Band, doesn’t it seem like they’re missing an opportunity here to actually sell MORE hardware (and maybe even software). A lot of people need an additional controller for Rock Band since it only comes with one, and many have been complaining about the RB guitar anyway, so why not capitalize on this? And once they have a good time with Rock Band, wouldn’t the possibly want some more songs to play with in a Guitar Hero game, particularly if the game is already compatible with their guitars? Maybe the people with extra guitars would actually buy bundles of their games instead of just the game, so they’d get an extra controller out of it (like many did for Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band). Whoever made this decision is being extremely short-sighted.

Since both of the games have a similar audience, it’s not out of the question that people would want to own both games, either going from Guitar Hero to Rock Band, or vice versa. Both of these companies should recognize that it’s beneficial for both of them to have inter-operable controllers. Activision should recognize, as Harmonix apparently already has, that the easier it is to play their games, the more people that will play them.

I, for one, won’t be buying any more Guitar Hero games that they publish, and to be honest, I don’t need to support a company this stupidly anti-consumer. I’ll be staying away from buying new Activision games until they come to their senses. Hopefully others can do the same.

*UPDATE*:

Activision has responded:

 ”The recent announcement by MTV Games/Viacom’s Harmonix division that Activision is blocking Sony from releasing a patch and their plea to enable Rock Band software to work with Guitar Hero hardware paints a very misleading picture.

In fact, Harmonix and its parent company MTV Games/Viacom recently declined Activision’s offer to reach an agreement that would allow the use of Guitar Hero guitar controllers with Rock Band. We have been and remain open to discussions with Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom about the use of our technology in Rock Band. Unfortunately for Rock Band users, in this case Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom are unwilling to discuss an agreement with Activision.

Activision’s top priority is to provide consumers with a seamless marriage of best-in-class hardware and software. We are focusing our efforts on innovating hardware and software that are designed to work together, work flawlessly and provide an enjoyable gaming experience.”

My take?  This is a load of crap.  I suppose in some ways this is a case of both parties not really telling the whole story, although from Harmonix’s point of view their story is probably not all that different than the truth.   My guess is that Harmonix completed the patch after letting the world know that they were working on it and Activision decided to sic their lawyers on them to stop it, unless they agreed to a likely unreasonable offer.  It’s ridiculous since Activision is already getting paid for the sold hardware (and software for that matter).  As far as I know, I haven’t seen Nintendo try to extort money from the developers of projects like this.  Sorry, Activision.  This should be a no brainer.  Your explanation is far from good enough.