After attempting to help people get registered on NeoGAF through the use of a macro I made the beta has now been pushed back. According to Konami the date that the US and Euro beta will launch is now TBA. This has obviously angered a lot of the fans that were eagerly waiting till midnight to finally play the beta, like myself. You have to wonder why they couldn’t have seen this coming. Apparently the demand was more than they could handle and they want to get a handle on the servers of the Japanese beta before they can even think about opening the Euro and US servers. The only thing that can be said that is good about it is that the beta was extended a few days. Hopefully we’ll be playing the game sometime this week. If you want to check out the article that Kotaku has on the whole situation hit the jump below.

Source: Kotaku

Every now and then I come across a story that highlights just exactly why many people think that as Americans, we’re f’ing crazy. The story I am talking about is the one having to do with the three gamers suing Xbox Live for compensation of their Xbox Live subscription for the downtime that happened during December. The problem I have with the story is problem with guarantying uptime on online services. You really cannot predict what is going to happen to even a small web hosting or networking company during an elevated traffic period, such as December. NO ONE can guarantee 24/7 365 uptime. To think that someone can guarantee 100% uptime is ludicrous. Anyone who tells you they can guarantee 100% uptime on any kind of online service is absolutely out of their mind or they are conning you.

With that said the downtime that everyone experienced during December on Xbox Live did suck. In fact if I remember correctly Live was up and down for a little over two weeks (might be wrong on that). That kind of downtime definitely demands some kind of reimbursement to the users on Xbox Live, specifically the gold subscribers who pay for the service. Reimbursement for downtime of online services are typically rare due to the variables that come into play when trying to guarantee any uptime at all. Microsoft’s contract, which by the way you all agreed to, clearly states that they can not guarantee uptime of their services, and also cannot be held responsible (liability of being sued) for the downtime of their service.

Due to the way the contract is worded there can not be any other verdict than to have the case thrown out. The case is further lead astray by the fact that Microsoft will be giving reimbursement to the users, out of good will and PR, in the form of an Xbox Live arcade game which will most likely end up being one of the 400-800 point games. Who knows what they’ll allow people to choose from. I am not naive enough to think that they will give away anything that people will actually want but nonetheless they are still reimbursing the users.

With the latest news that Alex Navarro has left Gamespot I think it is time to question whether or not Gamespot is on its way out. This is the second person that has left Gamespot since the first notable firing of Jeff Gerstmann. Many of the blogs and people on forums would like you to believe that it is really hurting Gamespot with all of this going on. What people do not tend to realize is that with all of this publicity on the subject they have in fact garnered an immense amount of traffic to their website since the actions were taken. If Alexa’s traffic data is to be believed then the answer to the question ‘Is Gamespot boycott working?’ is no, in fact it’s having the opposite effect.

If you take October (the month prior to the firing of Jeff Gerstmann) and then take the rest of the months ending at December 30th then the traffic has risen almost 20%. Without consideration to the uptake in traffic that gaming websites always have during this time of year then the stories of the firing have actually helped Gamespot’s traffic…but the holiday season is a pretty big elephant to ignore. The other thing is that since websites are never stable in when it comes to traffic there are simply too many variables to accurately say that a website is suffering from actions that “hurt” public opinion. We can at least say the “Gamespot Boycott” is having a beneficial effect for the time being.

I am not saying that it was an inherent good thing to fire Jeff and have all of these editors leaving the company but it at least, for now, is not killing them. Ultimately the negative publicity has helped. As much as forum goers want to have a feel good boycott against a company that has treated a fellow “friend” negatively, it has done nil and to believe it will do something is idiocy. If you want to not visit the website for your own reasons that’s fine but you’re doing your own cause hurt by talking about it. Boycotts do not work. People are not idiots, they will choose for themselves and the few that are idiots do not give a damn either way.

Digg it!