I'm sorry... but Speedy isn't the only one to lead ads on the net, and he never will be. Look at the bfads20xx site every year... I don't think that Speedy owns the domain. He's literally being scapegoated for an internet trend. I've gotta agree with some of you guys, I think that Sony may be the one pressuring CC legal to do something about this. Why? Because leaking ads only ads to the chain's overall marketing and promotions efforts.
Now I've seen the argument within this and other threads that "CC is mad because they are losing money due to selling something at a lower price than the week before." Look at it from this perspective.. which is better, selling a digital camera $20 cheaper than retail the following week, or losing that potential sale to the primary competitor (Best Buy)? Any marketing director worth his grain of salt would know that you can't buy free promotion the likes of an ad spreading across the interwebs in advance.. why do you think they are even put in newspapers in the first place (because said chain is trying to reach you, the potential customer, and draw you in with promotional material).
So.. why would the want bad press, in a time that they are trying to regain ground lost to Best Buy? Why would they retain such customer-friendly policies as 110% price match, 30 day lower price refunds, etc.. if they feared the educated consumer as much as Best Buy does?? Thirdly, why would the chain have enough awareness of a gaming deals site such as CAG.. when so many other product categories are much more profitable than their game sales (let's face it.. they maybe make $5 on new games.. and they only sell within the first two to three weeks of release.. and a year later, a mediocre game that was once full MSRP is now slashed down to $14.99 and still hogs valuable inventory space).
They wouldn't. They wouldn't give a shit, because quite frankly.. almost every retailer takes a loss on game sales, due to the nature of manufacturers ruling hardware and software price floors with an iron fist.
Now, consider this.. CAG has ended up on almost every major press outlet lately for the console price drops. Who would pay attention to the gaming press more.. the manufacturer/distributor (Sony)... or the retailer who makes 0 profit from the good, and depends on software/accessory sales of the console to make their profit? The retailer will only benefit from the hardware price cut in free space for inventory, and sales of other goods affiliated with the system.
I'd hate to sound like a geek Perry Mason here, but do the math.. look at the behavioral patterns in Sony marketing and distribution (including the whole PSP/import fiasco), and compare that with the fact that a large electronics manufacturer is not achieving the sales that they are used to achieving for their previous versions of hardware (they believe in their brand value is high enough to create early adopters of anything they manufacture now).. and there you have it, damage control.
Basically, when you were younger and played Street Fighter II on your SNES.. and there was that fat kid down the block who could kick everybody else's ass in the neighborhood with Ken.. well, one day, you go over to his house.. and kick his ass with Cammy. Suddenly, the fat kid becomes unraveled at the seams.. throws a fit, starts blaming the controller, begins pointing fingers at every factor on the planet each time you pummel his ass. Sony is the fat kid, and Speedy is the proverbial "sticky D-pad" causing them to lose.
All said.. it's bullshit, I hate the fact that one simple ad poster is becoming the martyr for all deal-site informants.. and the bad press alone is going to be more expensive than the free marketing they received from his efforts. I know the company has made some really stupid decisions lately, but this move sounds forced.. as if a certain hardware distributor threatened to yank their products if weekly ads didn't stop stealing the thunder of said distributor's own spin-zone press releases...