Halo 3 and greed
I play games on my PC. If the statistics are to be believed, you do too. I have an overclocked SLI “rig” for playing my FPSs and Sims. If you understood that sentence, you’re a gamer — if you were impressed, you may be “hard-core”.
I am not a HCG (hard-core gamer), but I keep my eye on things in the world of video games, and so I can say that Microsoft has done an underhanded, greedy, and short-sighted thing with its extremely popular Halo series of games…IMHO.
I don’t play Halo, never once, but my nephew is a big fan. Recently he used his birthday money to buy Halo to put on the PC they got for Christmas last year. He and his friends had played Halo to death, so he really wanted to buy Halo 2. That was his mission: Get Halo 2.
When he got to the store he discovered that Halo 2 is “Vista only” (his PC is XP) and, extremely disappointed, he settled for Halo instead.
I want you to understand something: there is nothing about Halo 2 that requires Vista except greed. No special video requirements. No special scripting. Nothing. Microsoft simply wants to sell more copies of Vista, and so they wrote a call into the install file of Halo 2 that prevents the install unless the response is “=Vista”.
Quite naturally, I received an email from said nephew asking me if I would install Vista on his PC.
This is marketing blackmail, and the fact that Microsoft did it — never mind that I would never recommend installing Vista over a perfectly functioning XP — lowered my opinion of the computing giant greatly. It irked me so deeply, that I considered advising my nephew to run a crack to bypass the install call.
But that goes against my scrupples, and I had to tell my nephew he was out of luck — no Halo 2.
Now amid much fanfare and hoopla, Halo 3 is released. You have probably seen the “news” of this release in the newspaper and on your local news. Halo fans are ecstatic! Halo 3 has been very eagerly awaited. But guess what? Microsoft wants to sell more Xbox 360s.
So guess what? Halo 3 only plays on the Xbox.
My nephew knows what he wants for Christmas this year. But he’s not going to get it. Santa (me, and my family) will never be blackmailed into buying a Xbox. I advise you not to be blackmailed either.
Copyright 2007 © Tech Paul, All rights reserved
| Share this post : |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
7 Comments »
Post your Comment/Question
• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
-
Say "thank you!" Buy Tech Paul a cup of coffee (and keep T4E ad free).
-
-
McAfee® Cybersafety Resource Portal, an online help center designed to assist victims of computer crime and provide information on how to avoid becoming a victim.
-
Subscribe to Tech--for Everyone by EmailRecent Comments
-
-
-
-
Also:
-
-
Tech - for Everyone 
Dude, you suck.
The Xbox 360 is LOSING money as we speak. Microsoft NEEDS this game in order to actually make a profit on the console market. If your deal is that you cannot AFFORD an Xbox 360 well then that’s your problem and you shouldn’t be accusing Microsoft of Blackmail.
I Don’t see anyone accusing the Hot Dog companies for blackmailing us into buying Hot Dog Buns. Or the Tennis Companies for blackmailing us into buying Tennis rackets which we need to use Tennis BALLS!
LikeLike
Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar industry! You say Microsoft is losing money! I AGREE!
Thats why Microsoft should make Halo 2, and Halo 3 for PC, XP and Vista. That way they would sell at least 2 and 1/2 more copies of each game!
Microsoft is losing money because Microsoft is dumb.
In 3-4 years Vista will be on every computer everywhere, in schools, in labs, on old Pentium III computers. Vista IS UNDER-RATED but until more people can afford to change, Microsoft should stop pushing the change, because they are actually losing profit.
If Halo 2 were for XP, and Vista I would buy it. If Halo 3 were for PC, XP and Vista I would buy it. I’m sure there are many millions out there that would do the same as I.
Microsoft, your blackmails are causing YOU to lose money. Sure Xbox 360 costs more then a $70 dollar game, but no one will buy as many Xbox 360’s as they will games in their lifetime!
As we speak, Microsoft’s rep is going down, and their money along with it… I wonder why…
LikeLike
Whoever wrote this. Your pathetic.
LikeLike
Charlie–
Your sentence should look like: “Whoever wrote this, you’re pathetic.”
LikeLike
By making a product that requires users to make the upgrade to their “great” new OS is not a form of blackmail. It is complete bu%$#@&t and I’m glad that someone hacked it. Greedy corporations should be hacked up served on a plate like the swine they appear to be.
Good article Paul. Cheers!
LikeLike
No doubt. I won’t be blackmailed into buying Vista. Vista sucks, and I don’t like the idea of Microsquish forcing people to buy their crap OS so they can play a game. I WILL NOT buy Vista, and therefore won’t be playing Halo 2 or 3, and Microsquish will not get my money for either game, NOR their crappy OS.
LikeLike
Loodie,
Whoa! Why don’t you tell us how you really feel?
Have you downloaded Win 7 and tried it out? The download was free..
LikeLike