Altersparck

Brad Muir is in that picture. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

Square-Enix is only NOW coming around to focus testing?

So straight news from Patrick and snark from Alex? I'm down with this.

@Cyrisaurus: I agree with you, but I'm still sending the letter as a matter of principle.

Looks like 3D wasn't the knockout gimmick Nintendo thought it would be. Although, the Sega 32X-esque approach to hardware is... disheartening.

What's most surprising is that Gamestops still give shelf space to PC games.

I usually have little pity or sympathy for PC gamers, but this Origin thing overcomes my well-developed sense of schadenfreude. It basically sucks to be a PC-based Battlefield, Dragon Age, or Mass Effect fan right now.

PC elitism knows no bounds.

This doesn't really surprise me, given the relative acceptance EA's own online pass program has seen. And if anyone's to be blamed for the rise of online passes, it's Gamestop and the publishers. Gamestop pushes used games so hard that online passes became inevitable and publishers keep pricing at or near $60 for so long that consumers gravitate towards any used copies. 
 
But for Sony's part, an online pass program is probably more of an attempt to give themselves another revenue stream for PSN. Bandwidth ain't cheap, folks, and the games need to keep playing.