There's also such a thing as a Timed Exclusive. Microsoft seems to like those this generation. Things like bioshock, Ninja Gaiden

I wonder if this is one way the RIAA/MPAA are trying to force their copyright laws onto Canada? Not allowing online streaming services like this until they adopt the US DMCA type law.
Isn't Canada on the US list of countries that doesn't have good enough copyright laws? It works both ways though. Defying Gravity is not airing in the US but is in Canada. I can't access any of the Canadian sites that are streaming the remaining episodes from the US.

At the absolute minimum at least in the music industry, piracy with Napster woke the industry up to the large demand for digital music. And since the digital stores like Itunes and Amazon are competing with free, I believe that has actually lowered the price. Would we still have digital options to purchase music if it weren't for the pirates? Sure but something tells me we sure as hell wouldn't be seeing songs for .50 or full new albums for $5.00. Pricing would be the same as it is now or would more closely resemble traditional CD pricing.
Do you honestly think that if CD's were still not able to be copied and the music industry had complete control over how/when/where and how much it cost to do so that digital music or CD's in general would be any cheaper? There'd probably be HD-Audio CD's that cost $30 like movies.
I'm not trying to say piracy is good and do see that in a way it is stealing. But there are many times that I feel it's completely moral/justified to pirate something. Any music I've bought before whether on CD, tape or 8 track I would have no problems downloading. Actually anything I have payed for I have no problem downloading.
Now I'm a pretty hardcore gamer and have bought in just the last 2 weeks, Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, & Borderlands. All new release $60 games. On Nov 3'rd I'll be buying another one Dragon Age. I will be buying for the PS3 but I will be downloading it for the PC. I've also bought both of the prequel books at $15 each. Now am I a filthy thief for "stealing" the PC version? I've already payed $90 for the game and story. There are plenty of moral reasons to pirate. I've had to download games that I've purchased but ruined the disc for.
I've also downloaded software that I haven't purchased but never would of. Photoshop is a great program and fun to learn but I sure wouldn't spend $600 on it to play around on some family photos. Why photoshop? Cause I was given the Total Training instruction videos for it and like learning new things. I don't think they would've worked for GIMP all that well. I've downloaded Visual Studio to learn to program because I sure didn't have the $1200 to buy it from Microsoft and that knowledge has helped me progress in my job. Visual Basic mostly for Excel Macros in work but I only know that because I pirated the software I couldn't afford and taught myself. If I was a business making money off of either of them I would have payed. As it is I'm entirely self taught. I don't have a great high paying programmers job, but I have a decent salary and don't have overwhelming student loans to deal with.
So basically I've pirated a lot of software. But I buy a lot as well. I have over 200 CD,s over 200 DVD's. at least a dozen blu-rays. I've pirated Windows but use Ubuntu. So just how is that I'm making you pay more? Cause I have absolutely no guilt when I download something. I pay more than my fair share.

"Well, that's exactly what's happening. Everyone who pays for works end up paying for the people who don't. The problem is that some people aren't happy paying such high prices for the sake of pirates." Except you're wrong. If anything the prices have gone down because of pirates. You think we'd have Itunes and .99 songs on Amazon if the labels could still get away with only selling CD's for $20? The only reason we now have these cheaper digital purchase option is because of the pirates.

Actually, at least in the US the minimum purchase on PSN is $5.00. So you buy that 4.99 game and only have a penny left over. The minimum charge is a per credit card charge, so even if you have $4 on your account and you want to buy a $5 game, you still have to add $5. Still better than XBox Live, though I do wish PSN required demos for all their games. I'll download a demo at times on XBox Live and buy the game if I like it for the PS3.

Nice little blog and I completely agree. The Wii can have good graphics it all comes down to the art style. It's never going to compete with PS3 or XBox on realistic but with some clever art design can still look great. There was a picture I saw of Bioshock a while back, Big Daddy and several little sisters, in a more cartoon/animated style. It looked great, as good as the 360 version in it's own way. And I don't imagine the Wii having any difficulties rendering a game that looked like that. If developers realized this and started to produce some decent games with stylized graphics I might have a reason to dust off my Wii again. Instead we get a bunch a mini games and the few that are targeted towards the more core gamer have been jokes. Madworld could of been good if it wasn't just arena battle after arena battle. No more Heroes had the worst aliasing I've seen since PS1 and then we get a bunch of rail shooters. Haven't played The Conduit. The only games I've liked that weren't Nintendo's were ports of PS2/Gamecube games. Okami RE4. Hell even Twilight Princess is a gamecube port. Here's the link for the anime Big Daddy http://geekadelphia.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/bioshock_anime.jpg

It wouldn't? Then how is Aion, which is built off CryEngine 1 being released today in NA. Guess according to you it's doomed to failure because of it's crappy graphics.

I can definitely understand the ISP informing them that their machine is infected, shutting them off seems counter productive as the software the user needs antivirus anti-malware etc to clean up their machine will likely need to be downloaded. Not having your internet would mean a complete wipe or having to have a friend/PC shop come and clean it out for you.

yes anyone posting here could likely figure it out, but I can't imagine trying to explain this to my mom for instance. Besides that a physical product(like a car) if I lend it out and my "friend" doesn't return it, I call the cops and it's theft. This seems like you're giving it to whoever you want to share with and just hope they give it back when done. Honestly doesn't seem any better than current DRM. It's still protected content. If I buy a movie like this in digital format, can I burn it to DVD for my DVD player, can I put it on my Ipod or my PS3? I don't see how the key would allow you to use the purchased content as if it was a physical product.

I wouldn't consider marketing part of "making music". It may be part of selling music, so you can say there is expense in selling music, but not in making music

No you can't. You can't stream netflix in Linux Period as far as I know. Has to do with the DRM in Silverlight. Firefox works but it has to be in Windows.

PVP servers aren't just about ganking. Some of my fondest memories of WoW were taking on 2 lvl 60's with my solo level 60 rogue and coming out victorious. Or being able to assassinate 1 person (usually the mage) in a group of 5 and being able to escape the the other 4 level 60's trying to come after me. And while I did some raiding I wasn't top geared by any means. Battlegrounds I found to be extremely boring. If I wanted to have that kind of play experience I'd play a FPS.

yes you are, you just can't make money off it. I can go downtown take pictures of anybody I want and post it to my MySpace page. I can't sell those pictures to a magazine w/out a release form.

I don't like the idea of a camera on every corner, but do agree with one thing you said. If there is it needs to be freely available to all online and not just government/police. Cameras have a place in some public places, for instance I can see live video feeds of the major highways around here on ODOT. (OR dept of Transportation). This is a good use of placing cameras in public places.