Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Secondly the issues seem to be ill defined . There are definitely issues with load times (a load that takes three seconds on Xbox 360 can take seventeen seconds on PS3 for example), but does this constitute ‘false advertising’?
Then there are the frame rate inconsistencies, stuttering and inferior sound quality (2.1 PCM over HDMI connection rather than DTS 5.1 at least), but once again, does this constitute ‘false advertising’?
The biggest problems lay around the predominately online game Team Fortress 2, with the EA port suffering complaints about constant lag and lacking many features present in the PC and Xbox 360 version.
I am no lawyer, but unless there is a clear cut – “this product does not deliver exactly what the box says it will” – then the case is doomed to fail. This whole furore seems to be nothing more than a bad port causing console/PC envy.
It is unfortunate for everybody; both Valve and EA lose face and PS3 owners of the game feel gimped. Xbox 360/PC owners may feel a little period of gloat and in the end some layers may garner a buck or two, and it may end there.
On the other hand, EA may indeed have plans for a patch that could alleviate the issues. Once again we will return to the land of chocolate and cake (though remember ‘the cake is a lie’) gaming.
Whatever happens, it seems that even many PS3 owners of The Orange Box are having fun playing it, and are not too concerned by issues that may crop up, and wondering what the fuss is. In the end, market forces will determine EA’s reaction – any legal action is doomed without a clear case.
Still it is the consumers right to protest a bad product, the underswell of complaints against Microsoft during the great 'Red Ring of Death' Xbox 360 controversy resulted in a much better deal for consumers. As such this right should never be denied or not considered an appropriate strategy.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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