@(Unverified) It's a poor consolation, I know, but here is goes anyway: all games I play on my R4 I own. Precisely because I want to keep the genres and games I like alive.

Similar to my case of PC gaming: I rarely play official version because most of them require keeping install CD in a noisy drive.

That's why better half of my game shelf at home is filled with unpacked boxes.

@Markos. iTunes case was different. Or rather music is treated differently in France compared to the rest of Europe.

@(Unverified) "selling technology in Europe is just going to become so unprofitable"

You must have missed the flames about the fact that lots of technology arrives first to Europe because average prices are higher here and thus are profit margins are thicker.

Pretty much all consoles enjoy popularity in Europe and R4/clones had made little to no impact on DS/games sales here.

P.S. The very same wrong argument was made when iTunes Music Store launched: who would pay $1 for a song when you can get it for free off the net? Piracy is only a reflection of the fact that a company has unsatisfied customers.

Throw in some force feedback and you heave a real deal...

"Like clockwork ..."

... Clockwork Orange

@finbred "All the while believing it was worth the money, yet never being satisfied for more than a month."

There is no point buying hi-fi/hi-end audio if you can't hear the difference.

And in general: there is no point in buying something what makes little to nothing difference to you.

I new in past some rich folks who were buying hi-fi/hi-end solely because having something cheap at home was out of question. It is quite stupid hearing $25K system playing some silly pop, which fails even at plain stereo.

P.S. Btw, $2000-4000 loudspeakers are still in hi-fi territory. It's not a high-end. High-end is generally a something made to reach some design higher end: proper/rare materials, proper (hand) assembly, properly tuned and tested. Most of the crap like B&O or Bose isn't even close to high-end... First time I heard B&O I couldn't even believe that it costs that much: my home hi-fi costing a fraction of its price was delivering better sound. If only Mark Levinson and Revel Ultima were more affordable...

... and Office Space reference explains probably why.

@3DSteve: and why consumers care??

The big question here is whether the MS (or any other console company for the matter) has the right to set rules.

After all, no commercial company should be allowed to write laws and dictate what consumers might or might not do with the purchased good. Up to some point it is OK, but afterwards it is pure anti-trust.

With growth of video game market it's only natural that gov't would start regulating them. Especially the matter of "points" being not money. I still can't get around why cellcos have to treat your pre-paid account as money, but for video game companies it's just a number on a sheet of paper.

Design-wise, you can probably learn thing or two from http://news.cnet.com/crave/