The surgery was not painless. Just look at his face.
That’s you, Blizz, and good old Bob would probably be up for doing it himself if he knew how much the pricing for some regions of the world to play Starcraft II fell firmly into the “wrong” category.
Fortunately for you, we’re fairly certain that Bob has no interest in the world of PC gaming, but you’d be on the business end of a gameshow-host fuelled rage if he gave a damn. Bob knew how the system worked. Players on his show had a shot at winning that new car, even if the odds were infinitesimally low. Should they be able to accurately predict the value of the “showcase” prizes, which typically consisted of a houseboat made off the coast of Guatemala six years ago and set of camping gear designed to make the user look as hapless as possible in an outdoor situation, Bob would give them the whole kit and caboodle.
Bob knew a good deal when he saw one.
Blizzard apparently does not.
There has been a great deal of chatter on the forums of late about the region-specific prcing for SCII as well as the limited ability to play cross-region should one desire. Blizzard has repeatedly stated that they do not have the capability to create worldwide servers at this time, and if you want to play Lé Starcrafte Deux with your friend from Pairee (Paris, to those non-Frenchmen), you’ll need to shell out for a European copy of the game.
Even the Russians, many of whom live within heroic spitting distance of European borders, will be forced to pay for a Euro version should they wish to play outside of the Mother country.
But, in true Blizzard fashion, it doesn’t stop there.
Here in good old America the North, it’s a one stop shop kind of deal. Pay your money, get the game, play online or solo as much as you want so long as you foot the bill for your Internet connection.
In Korea, the only version available will be the online one, and it will come in three versions – unlimited, monthly, and daily, each with a proportionate cost.
In Brazil, a similar model is being used, and Blizzard says it’s all for the best, since the price of the unlimited version is much higher, and for gamers who are unsure of how much use they will get out of the game, a cheaper, time-constrained option will be available. Seems reasonable. Sounds reasonable. Even looks reasonable when you bring it home to mom.
Turns out, its actually not, and ends up looking more like Mark Wahlberg’s character from Fear than Colin Firth’s character from Bridget Jones’s Diary.
You may not know those movies, but it doesn’t really matter. Mark Wahlberg = bad, not only because of his character in Fear, but because he can’t act. Colin Firth= win because he’s British.
Blizzard’s Brazilian pricing structure = fail fail fail.
A 6-month access pass to the game down there will cost $27 USD. Not that bad, certainly not great.
But.
A full version of the game will cost $60 USD – double the price for six months. Great? Not so much, but here’s where the real suck comes in.
There’s no upgrading. Nada. Zilch. You buy a limited copy and it’s useless once six months are up, taking up hard-drive space and mocking you for spending $27. If you want to play again, you either shell it out again or spend the full $60 for the retail version.
In a country where disposable income is not exactly a household word, this well-reasoned strategy ends up looking like slap in the face, one that hits more than one cheek around the globe.
Blizzard, come on down.
For an ass-whomping.
Not really sure if that will be the whole company we’d want to whomp, or just the corporate side, or maybe just one guy.
We’ll work out the details – go get your whomping sticks.
