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Hard copies mailed to Mr. Alex Rigopulos and Mr. Eran Egozy
Hard copies CC: Mr. Mike Dornbrook (Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Harmonix), Mr. Greg LoPiccolo (Vice President of Product Development, Harmonix), John Riccitiello (Chief Executive Officer, EA)
Email only CC: Floyd Watkins (PR Operations Coordinator, EA)

I bought a Playstation 3 in March of 2008 for (at the time) the sole reason of playing Rock Band. Dollar for dollar it was the best option at the time. I brought the game home, unpacked it, and my wife and I jammed until the following morning. The game excels in every aspect and after spending more than $750 just to play it, we concluded it was worth every penny.

As soon as they were available I purchased a second official guitar controller for the game. We were finally able to have 4-person jams and get full band unison bonuses during the songs. It was awesome, even though the guitar was DOA (stuck yellow fret button) and had to be replaced. Your replacement process was first rate, though.

Aside from the guitar, I’ve also pumped a sizeable amount of coinage into the Rock Band store. We currently have over a gigabyte of paid-for downloaded music content and do not regret a single music pack or song purchase, though, you really should choose NIN songs that don’t end up being boring to play (”Burn”, who would’ve thought?!) or don’t have enough guitar to sync up with requiring you to play a piano on the guitar controller for 2 minutes (”The Collector). STILL, , it’s awesome, and we consistently buy new content almost every week. The fact that all our content will be compatible with Rock Band 2 (day 1 purchase, by the way) is great and very pro-consumer.

I recently encountered an issue, though, that is surprisingly anti-consumer. My PS3’s blu-ray drive died yesterday. As such it will need to be sent in for repairs and in all likelihood I will be sent a different PS3 refurb unit. I do not mind having to redownload all my track packs (I understand the nature of the DRM and don’t begrudge it) but what I do mind is that my Rock Band save game file is the only save game file on my PS3 that I cannot back up. This means that all of my bands’ progress, our customized characters, the money we’ve accumulated, the stars we’ve received, etc, will be lost.

I can understand the fear that people will pass their saved games around the net, allowing people to access tracks that had yet to be unlocked and all that jazz, but such a practice and conscious implementation does not take into account the very real possibility of system repairs. Really, since the PS1 days, systems have progressively become more unreliable with each generation. It’s no joke that a sizable number of the PS2s in people’s homes are replacements for the first year’s worth of shipped systems that ended up having dead disc lasers, and I remember having to flip a PS1 upside down and on a 40 degree angle to get it to play games after awhile. The fact that my PS3 died after 5 months is not surprising, particularly considering the failure rates of its direct competitor.

Yes, my wife and I will start the game over and re-unlock everything as we enjoy having people over to play the 4-man game which would be pretty lame if we only had access to a few songs. I will not be buying the next Guitar Hero game, not only because Rock Band is already wicked awesome but also because of the amount of money I’ve put into the game. Point being, you have not lost a customer, but you have made one quite upset nonetheless. I hope you “unlock” the save game file in Rock Band 2 for the PS3 as I’m relatively certain my PS3 will die again in the future, and having to go through it all a second time will be far too much to ask of a legitimate and loyal consumer.

Sincerely,

Ryan Couldrey

[signed]

E3 has come and gone and I now know exactly why I will be dirt poor by the end of the year. The amount of software that I must have for the PS3 (and to a lesser degree my PC). With videos linked to the titles and in no Particular order…

- Fallout 3 - PS3 Blu-Ray: I never played the first 2 isometric games that came out oh so long ago but the moment someone offers me a post-apocalyptic action-rpg using the Oblivion engine you have my money. The time stop mechanic where you can select what bodypart you want to shoot your rocket launcher at is a stroke of brilliance.

- Mirror’s Edge - PS3 Blu-Ray: A first-person parkour (free running) game where gun play is kept to a minimum (and you unlock a trophy/achievement if you never fire a bullet during the game), this genre creating spectacle is a sight to behold. Unless you’re not the person playing it; a lot of people have said that while the game doesn’t sinspire nausea while playing it, they have felt motion sick when they weren’t playing it. I don’t like to share anyways.

- Dead Space - PS3 Blu-Ray: This and Mirror’s Edge are both EA published games, and the fact that I want not one but two games from the behemoth means that things have to be changing inside the company. This is an over-the-shoulder horror-action game where the developers have been saying that you have to dismember the creatures if you want them to stop attacking. Headshots are so 1998.

- LittleBigPlanet - PS3 Blu-Ray: This game is the game of 2008. You might not be too aware of it unless you’re a PS3 owner but rest assured, you will have no choice but to come over and play this game on my couch with me. No more words, but more and more and more video (last one is where they created the Sony Powerpoint in the game, which is way more entertaining than your standard bar graph). Watch them all, or I’ll sick a Killzone-esque Sackboy on ya!

- WipeoutHD - PS3 Downloadable: This game was playable at 1080p and 60 frames per second last year, but Sony let it slip that there’s a game-breaking technical problem with the game that they haven’t been able to solve. I owned the first game on my Saturn way back when so I’m praying that this download-only Playstation Network game arrives before the end of the year.

- Pixeljunk Eden - PS3 Downloadable: I’m not entirely sure what the game is about, but it seems the goal is to swing around with two other friends (on my couch, natch) polinating plants. It almost looks like it has a bit of a racing mechanic, as player swing around spiderman style trying to grab the pollination bits to make the flowers. Something about it has me hooked… it also has the ability to record video play of the game and upload it to Youtube, very cool.

- Fat Princess - PS3 Downloadable: Say what? The goal of the game is to capture the other team’s princess (or catch your own, I’m not sure) and bring her home. Thing is, the team in the castle holding the princess is consistently supposed to fdeed her pounds of food and cake to fatten her up, making it harder to carry her home. There are multiple classes of players, and it’s a 16 vs 16 online Playstation Network game, think Team Fortress 2 meets Castle Crashers meets Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

- Left 4 Dead - PC Steam: 4 player zombie killing co-op multiplayer from Valve and the people who programmed Counterstrike’s bots. The game has a heavy emphasis on actual co-operation as you do not want to be left alone for long. The zombie spawn points are procedurally generated so you’ll never get stuck in the same choke point twice, so each play through will require new tactics and on the fly decisions. I’ll be g etting this one on PC and will be playing with my fellow Ectomites.

- Rock Band 2 - PS3 Blu Ray: What, you need me to say more than just the name of the game? It will not only come with 84 master track recordings, and extra 20 free downloadable songs near the launch, and not only will it be compatible with all the songs I paid to download for the first game but for under $5 I’ll be able to put all but a couple of songs from the first game onto my hard drive so I can play them from within Rock Band 2. Fuck yeah.

I, like most every other PS3 owner, desperately want Metal Solid 4 to come out yesterday. My issue though, and I’m sure I’m not alone, is that I’d never actually played a Metal Gear Solid game before. Having read some reviews and previews it’s evident that while familiarity with the series isn’t required, it’s extremely satisfying as every single loose end (and from what I hear there were many) gets tied up in a sparkly bow by the end of the 4th game.

With this knowledge I decided to start at the beginning of the series by playing the remake/port for the gamecube, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Read more

Yesterday saw the launch of a new online “interactive video magazine” for PS3 owners called Qore. It’s been met with polarizing yays and nays on the web, and most people are citing the same reasons for their stance on either side. At the heart of the controversy is the pricing scheme: $2.99 per episode and $24.99 for an annual subscription (13 episodes).

But is there really any reason to complain at all considering what the service both is and isn’t? Read more

I have a PS3. I love my PS3. It may not have the largest library, but the few games that I do want are gnarly. I’ve even bought two downloadable-only games, being Everyday Shooter (by local boy Jon Mak) and Echochrome. Capcom, however, has yet to get any money from me for their DL games. I tried the Rocketmen demo and nearly vomited on myself. This game looks to use the same engine as the aforementioned bit of suckage, and while the trailer does make it look cool, $9.99 for 5 levels of hum-drum blahs isn’t what the doctor ordered. Even Bionic Commando: Rearmed isn’t looking too good- the levels are now too big and empty because they’re now in HD.

If anyone needs me I’ll be busy playing the Jimmy Buffet 3-track pack for Rock Band.