Many business employ such devious tactics.
But what im surprised is that unlike any other industry, anti-consumer policies in the games indsutry are damage controlled by consumers themselves. It hurts my mind thinking about why people would do it.
People defended DRM, people defend games ditching SP but charging the same price as other games with SP and better MP, and last week I even came across one guy saying MS' parity clause doesnt affect consumers (WTF!)
I'm glad though that the majority of word of mouth is factual and does not use stupid logic. It needs to keep going though to make sure all "soccer moms" and "softball dads" know what they are spending money on and where it will be invested in the future.