Sony: Putting supervillains to shame since 2012
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In a dickheaded move that would put Cobra to shame and make Megatron blush Sony raised the price of Houston’s “Ultimate Collection” album on iTunes and Amazon to 60% only 30 minutes after her death. They then backpaddled with an apology so weak Loki would be ashamed to use it.
The official statement from Sony was so weak it would make “My dog eat my homework” make you sound like a professional grifter.
“Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mis-priced on the UK iTunes store on Sunday. When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused.”
I’ll bet you the person writing this still shakes his head, unable to understand how it could have caused offense. My research is still inconclusive so I can’t tell you if Sony only hires soulless zombies or if they turn you into one on your first day. Over the years Sony have proven their dedication to both technology and evil. This would qualify them to be the bad guys in every cartoon series since 1980. They’ve even built a giant black monolith of darkness and called it the PS3.
Perfect qualifications to pass your supervillain exam. Except for one thing. Even villains tend to show respect if something truly tragic happens. This is a way for the publishers to make them seem sympathetic. Sometimes they even get miniature stories in which they pause for a moment, turning back from their current act of crime to let people grief. Or shed a single tear seeing the devastation of a terrorist act. Because you know, unlike Sony, even Magneto needs to be somewhat likeable.
The real question that comes up after this so-called apology is what sort if “mistake” this was supposed to be. iTunes raised prices after Sony increased the price of the album and unless Skynet is already taking over this still has to be approved by a human being, or whatever icky thing wearing human skin passes for one in Sony’s management. Basically their mistake was that some random decision maker whose name was probably Richard M. Douchenstein (his friends call him Dick) decided that they need to cash in on such a “marketing opportunity”. Only after a virtual shit-storm in the comments did they notice that this just might end up being bad for business and brand recognition. So only one or two days later the “mistake” gets fixed. I’ll bet you a whole day of earning from Whitney Houston music sales that they did not plan to give anyone who bought the music in the meantime their money back.
We tried to get a comment from a real supervillain regarding Sony’s business practices but after telling them the story the Joker cried and Magneto decided to wipe out humanity for being monsters. However Lex Luthor left this advice for Sony and all its executives:
“You’re sick bastards!”
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[…] In a dickheaded move that would put Cobra to shame and make Megatron blush Sony raised the price of … […]
Sony should have stuck with the technology side of things, being involved in the music business makes them greedy, as you ably point out.
Greed is the great motivator Jimmy!