Console games, especially those for the PS2, have taken a sort of weird turn in the last year. It’s becoming more and more common for the more popular games to try and sell more merchandise than just that particular game. Two recent examples from my gaming library include Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Madden NFL 2003. In order to get to additional cheat codes for Vice City, one can purchase one of the six soundtrack cd’s that go along with the game or the boxed set of all six cd’s. In order to get to some of the cheat cards in Madden, one must own other EA Sports games. I suspect that many other gamers fall victim to the same anxiety over possibly missing out on something cool that I do, leading to the purchase of some or all of these additional objects. I wonder how long this will go on before it gets completely ridiculous.