This is what I think is really hurting software companies:
When I saw the advertisements and read the overviews of the Xbox game Tao Feng, I got really excited.
I like fighting games and the first game I bought for my Xbox was DOA3. Hell, I even bought the Xbox because I loved DOA2 on DC so much. Between DOA3 and Tao Feng I bought several games and overall I was satisfied by my purchases.
Tao Feng was released and on the first day I went and paid my $60 and took the game home. It was nothing like I was promised. The so-called hyper-real damage fighting system only affects things between rounds; there was no immediate effect on the characters. The single biggest selling point was a lie. Every other aspect of the game was also exaggerated to the point of escaping from the reality of the game.
This game was made by Microsoft. It was an in-house game. It should have been top notch. Something along the lines of the Halo of fighting games. But it didn't even have HDTV, Live, Syslink, custom soundtracks, or anything else that MICROSOFT had been touting as superior to Sony.
To worsen a poor purchase, the game dropped to $20 in a month. I couldn't even trade it in or sell it to lessen the damage to my game budget.
This was the last game I bought for my Xbox. Now 99% of the time I use my Xbox for XBMC.
Crappy games and false advertising are hurting software companies. I guess you could say software companies are hurting software companies.