US Home Expecting Virtual Angry Mobs

If you thought the outburst of rage that followed Thursday's EU Store update was bad, take a look at this.

Published 20/06/2009 at 18:00.
By Robert W [Bioeye].

Related stories (more)
Home is a Success [33]
Honey, I’m Home! [33]
Main Home Spaces get Revamp [23]
Home Going International? [29]
SackBoy And Isaac Clarke Join Home [19]

If you happened to have been lingering around on the Official US PlayStation Forum lately, you may have noticed a brick-load of abuse suddenly popping up towards Sony. Diving in head-first, it’s pretty difficult to understand what’s going on. Never fear. We popped our heads in and rummaged around to understand the apparent chaos. Just expect to see a return of the Home angry mob.

Blame Bomberman. On the 19th June, the US Home held an event for 100 lucky Home users to grab a free copy of Bomberman Ultra from the US PlayStation Store. Throughout the day, pieces of the code to redeem the free gift were hidden throughout the virtual spaces. Collecting all 8 would read the code, and thousands of Americans signed on to hunt throughout the day for a free copy of the $10 game.

However, if you’ve ever tried looking for a code to the recent Transformers items on various message boards, you may have realised that the code that everyone receives is unique. This is for a good reason. Instead of generating 100 unique codes, the American competition only used 1 code which could be used 100 times. Can you guess what happened?

What ensued can only be described as ‘pure anger’ which must have exlpoded throughout the US Home and is evident on the Official US PlayStation Forum. To those who spent the entire day looking for the code, even on finding it, they never received it. Once the code was found, it’s thought that those not even in Home noticed it was posted online somewhere and grabbed the free game for themselves. Before the thousands of Home users had signed out of Home and gotten into the Store, it was all over. With so many people trying to redeem the code, the server returned error messages to everyone. It’s still unclear who, if anyone, ever received the prize. With one user posting that the “code died in 1 second”, over 10 threads were created to vent anger from those who had spent the majority of their day hunting for the pieces of the code; all of which have since been locked by Sony staff. “Boycott Sony and Home till we get our Bomberman” reached 64 pages and over 630 posts in just over 20 hours before it was locked.

Looking at some of the comments makes for interesting reading. One regular user, who supposedly gave away the final piece of the code, tries to reason with everyone with “let’s look at it this way … It was a fun day sharing with [friends] and even meeting new ones. Not a day wasted.” The reply to this was “when you take 9 hours out of a day and have nothing to show for it, then that is time wasted.” Another message was “make Bomberman Ultra free to make up for those who got cheated out of this “.

With no obvious plan of replying to the messages, the US Home team continue on with their next event today, the “Hamsters vs Humans Dance-Off”. However, it seems that Sony may have learnt a lesson quickly, with a different method of handing out prizes. “Whichever faction wins this desperate struggle for control of PlayStation Home by forming the longest dance lines or chains in Central Plaza will then unlock a special reward item for all of Home, to be delivered in a future update.” How this will play out is unclear, but this isn’t the first time this week that Sony have been stormed by the community.

Tip: Zuler, Dammenion
Source: Official US PlayStation Blog, Official US PlayStation Forum

Comments

Please note that all comments are the opinion and responsibility of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis. You must read and agree to our terms before reading and commenting on this site. User comments are not always moderated by TheSixthAxis.

1 2 Next »

markglynne | 20/06/2009 17:58
Member
340 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

lol sony failed badly
LiquescentShadow | 20/06/2009 17:59
Member
1622 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

They’ll all make their stand the only way they know how – the running man and bubble machines.

To have a system where one code could be used 100 times is a really stupid idea if I do say so myself. They should have seen that coming.
- kevatron400 | 22/06/2009 17:41
  Don't call him Kevatron400.
  2125 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
  
  You’re totally right mate, don’t know what they were thinking!
RocketSOL | 20/06/2009 18:00
Member
553 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

Bit silly of them using only one code, But it probably won’t happen again. For there sake rather than ours!
coolgr33k | 20/06/2009 18:20
Member
497 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

o well sony will probably do more events so they shouldnt go mental. sony messed it up, but they shouldnt go mental.
Dammenion | 20/06/2009 18:21
Member
98 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

I would have thought it would have been about SOCOM since Thursday they did the 100 free SOCOM give aways but it was one code on the Infamous poster that could be used 100 times. Someone posted the code on the US playstation forum and it was used up almost instantly so those that did find it legitimately were screwed.

I was online looking for that and it was used up when I found it. But I guess they did it with Bomberman also, I must have missed that one. You would think they would have learn from one and not repeated it.
- BioEye | 20/06/2009 18:34
  Team TSA: Writer
  1280 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  I knew there was something Socom related. I’ll throw in a quick mention.
theshockwave | 20/06/2009 18:23
Member
2726 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008

Silly thing to do, but fancy wasting 9 hours looking a code. And then wasting time being angry that you weren’t in time to cheat like the 100 lucky ones did. Childish behaviour.
- nofi | 20/06/2009 18:41
  Wants a custom tag.
  5421 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  I thought that. To me, 7 hours of my time is worth far more than £6 or so – but hey, each to their own.
  - djdustb | 21/06/2009 14:52
    Member
    1430 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
    
    Why would you even try formore than an hour? After that give up, buy the game and play it for 8 hours.
DarthSharkey | 20/06/2009 18:40
Member
1058 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

It’s a shame for the people who tried to get it legit, but on the other hand, I would love to see a bubble machine rave on home.
Zuler | 20/06/2009 18:56
Team TSA: Writer
10696 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

Ok,let me throw some more light on to this situation. First of all, there were definitely winners for th SOCOM contest. But not even one person has posted that they won bomberman. None at all. Second, the final fragment of the code was to be given to us, via word of mouth, by a home community volunteer. The first quote mentioned by BioEye was not some user, he was one of the people giving the final piece. All the HCV’s were in different places, and people believe some said it a fraction of a second earlier, which isn’t unbelievable. Also, none of us knew it was going to last 7 hours untill we were 2 to 3 hours in. As soon as he said the code, I quit, went to account management, but it didn’t work. I sincerely believe this contest was a scam. I must reiterate that noone posted they won this one, but there were people who won SOCOM. Some people think that cause the HCV made us wait 2 hours before telling us the final 2 letters, someone guessed it and leaked it out. I haven’t seen any site’s forums leak out the full code, so I don’t know. The SOCOM code I believe lasted for about an hour, but the only problem in that contest was that someone leaked the code. Unlike Bomberman, it was a full code hidden somewhere, and didn’t last seven hours. If noone leaked the code, I’m sure nobody would have complained about SOCOM since it would have been fair. If you go look in the forums, most people, if not all, are only complaining about Bomberman.

I hope all that made sense. If it didn’t, ask me and I’ll try explaining it better.
- BioEye | 20/06/2009 19:06
  Team TSA: Writer
  1280 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  Wow, this is confusing. Ok, I’ll try and clean up one or two sentences which may seem confusing.
  - Zuler | 20/06/2009 19:13
    Team TSA: Writer
    10696 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
    
    All that really matters is that the Bomberman contest was organised HORRIBLY and that this was a scam and I will continue to believe so until proof otherwise
  - BioEye | 20/06/2009 19:16
    Team TSA: Writer
    1280 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
    
    It does seem pretty naff organising on Sony’s behalf. Then again, Xi had the same code for everything. Then again, again ( ;) ) I would suppose this is about winning something worth money.
    It’s all just pretty bad, and there’s waaaay too many locked threads on their forum now.
Zuler | 20/06/2009 19:21
Team TSA: Writer
10696 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

Plus, I’d also find it pretty impossible to understand everything that happened yesterday without going through those seven hours myself. I stayed up till 6 AM, and only slept for 5 hours, all for nothing. This is definitely something that I and many other people won’t let go until someone posts that they won. I know a few people who got the confirm message, but it errored on them. I just hope that either they change how they do their contests, or do another one cause I just don’t think anyone won anything at all.
Mick939 | 20/06/2009 20:09
Member
1577 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

…. Why did anyone bother i get paid far more than that and hour i wouldn’t waste 7 hours on it…… Bloody dole wallers :-) Do they have dole in us lol
- Zuler | 20/06/2009 20:51
  Team TSA: Writer
  10696 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
  
  You forget,this event happened pretty much after someone would come back home from work (If you lived in US). Also, everyone loves free stuff :)