“iLounge has confirmed with Apple that past purchasers of iPod games will have to re-purchase the titles to play them on the recently-released iPod classic and iPod nano (with video),” Charles Starrett reports for iLounge.

“According to an Apple representative, the games will need to be repurchased because they were ‘reformatted’ for the new iPods,” Starrett reports.

“Reformatted iPod games currently include EA’s Tetris and Sudoku, as well as Namco Networks’ Ms. Pac-Man. An additional 15 titles are yet to be converted for play on the iPod classic and new nano. Each game sells for $4.99, and no further guarantees of compatibility with other devices, such as a computer, iPhone, or iPod touch, are made by Apple,” Starrett reports.

Full article here.

Isn’t there some sort of natural law or something that turns righteous indignation into ridiculous dramatization when talking about figures under US$5?

Okay, okay, don’t bite our heads off! In the most extreme case, if you bought all 15 or so iPod games for your old iPod and you figure that you loved them all so much that you’ll eventually need to replace each and every one of them, then we’re talking about $75.

$75 whole bucks!!! Is there no justice in this world?! You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! Grab the pitchforks and we’ll light the torches! We march on Cupertino tomorrow!

Yeah, it does devolve directly into ridiculous dramatization, no matter what. But, yes, we know, it’s the principle that counts. Apple, make this right somehow. And, while you’re at it, get somebody in there to explain Mr. Multi-Billionaire Steve Jobs how to treat regular paying customers because he’s obviously lost touch with that bit of basic good business practice recently.

The problem here is that the “new” games are pretty much the old games, but Apple wants to charge anyway. If Apple made substantive improvements to the games and upgraded them to real 2.0 versions, there’d be no issue. Apple should have figured out a way to make the games compatible with their new iPods and not charged game owners for the “reformatting.” Apple knows which users bought which games, right? So let game owners re-download the “reformatted” games free of charge.

Seriously, this should have never passed through Apple’s approval process (if there is one). Obviously to anyone who’s ever bought or sold anything, customers would be pissed, regardless of the prices involved. Come on, Apple get your act together, this sort of nickel and dimeing good paying customers to death over picayune iPod games is beneath you (disclaimer or not). It’s cheap; something that Dell or Microsoft would try to pull (if they could figure out how to collectively sell more than three devices, of course). Apple, you can do better than this, can’t you?

[11:15pm EDT: To reiterate, we think people should keep in mind that these are $5 games we're talking about here while we also wonder just what the heck is going on with Apple to make such an obviously bad decision. Think about how the customer would feel, Apple. You've racked up two quick strikes recently. We're watching.]