SCEE Holding Back Ultimate Alliance DLC?
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Article written by nofi in PS3 News, on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 9:00.
The European PSN Store updates have been a source of much frustration for some since their inception. European consumers have been frequently disgruntled with the notion that the reason we haven’t been able to buy something that, for example, our American cousins are is constantly put down to the responsbility of the publisher or develope rather than SCEE, and the recent omission of DLC for Ultimate Alliance 2 is one such example.
SCEE’s Mike Kebby is responsible for the public perception of the Store, and his weekly blogs on Thursdays are often the source of much discussion. When asked by PSN user ‘Mallery’ where the Ultimate Alliance 2 DLC was in the comments of this week’s blog update, Kebby replied with the usual “it can’t be missed off if it’s not submitted to us for publish on that date,” inferring that SCEE hadn’t gotten the DLC from the publisher for publication.
However, this doesn’t tie in with the official word from the developers. “I think someone is pulling your leg here,” says an administration on the Vicarious Visions ‘Hero HQ’ Forums. “If Sony Europe didn’t receive the DLC, they would have contacted us before the American DLC was released. We sent all our DLC through the necessary channels some time ago.” So who’s at fault here, given that the US DLC is now available to download?
At the time of going to press the last word from Vicarious Visions was “we’re looking into what’s going on and will have information soon” although there’s been nothing since. SCEE’s closed shop approach wasn’t initially working, but it seems that since the European Blog started up the lack of information has been just as troublesome with Kebby’s responses often frustrating those that just want simple answers that he can’t give.
Getting companies and individuals to speak openly on Store Updates is tricky (trust me, I’ve tried) so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Thanks, Hazalam.
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Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
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BiosNova | 14/11/2009 09:09
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38 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
It’s kind of well known that SCEE hold back items on the store, then try to cover it up by pulling out excuses, it’s happened before where a developer said SCEE had the DLC when SCEE said they didn’t. I don’t know why they do it TBH it’s just making people annoyed.
hazelam | 14/11/2009 09:41
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2986 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
i don’t think mike is to blame here, i think there’s stuff going on behind the scene that either he can’t tell us about or he doesn’t know about.
but it begs the question, if scee have received this content and not published it, what other content are they sitting on?
do they have a fully localised copy of cash guns chaos sitting on a hard drive somewhere?
BadBoyBoogie | 14/11/2009 10:11
Let There Be Rock
2516 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Whatever the reasons are, it’s frustrating for the consumer, so someone high up needs to sort it out.
skibadee | 15/11/2009 02:47
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1970 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
yeah we hope
bunimomike | 14/11/2009 11:40
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3373 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
If developers were completely transparent it would show how SCEE end up shafting the EU PSN consumers and not a drop of KY to make things easier on us. This would then, probably, lead to a mass shift across to other regional stores (US, Japan, etc) which surely wouldn’t be good for SCEE.
I guess drip-feeding bad news is the only way until things one day catch-up.
All of the above is irrespective of regional variations and the unique situation that being a part of the EU store presents us with. It’s ultimately down to how shat-upon the consumer feels.
commuterzombie | 14/11/2009 14:26
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410 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
It’s a shame, more developers and publishers need to look at the recent Singstar post on the EU blog covering recent issues after an update. That’s a textbook example of how to handle PR in this sort of situation. Silence doesn’t impress anyone.
cc_star | 14/11/2009 15:55
Team TSA: Writer
5869 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
yeah, shame the update is gonna take so long and they can’t take a leaf out of IW’s book
SingStar is broke, and broke really badly, fair enough they’ve owned up to it, but critical breaks like that need people to be working the odd night shift.
hazelam | 14/11/2009 14:30
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2986 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
i’ve been saying for what feels like an age that too many times it’s only when the content gets to an scee region that it’s delayed.
they’ve been saying that the devs haven’t given them the content time after time, even before mike and the blog, now we’re discovering that’s not the case in at least case.
i mean it always seemed suspicious to me that so many devs send their eu content to scee late when other formats got the content on time.
i susprised more devs haven’t complained about this because quite frankly i can see a few that have lost money because of scee and their delays.
this problem needs to be brought out into the open.
jacklum | 14/11/2009 15:03
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890 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
In the past year, there have been 15 PSN games that were released on the UK PSN store before they arrived on the US one, with delays of several months in some cases and stuff like Outrun Online Arcade, which looks like it will never be released in the US. The EU store also got the Mirror’s Edge DLC completely free (still $10 in the US) and several demos before the US did (DiRT 2, PES 2010, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 etc…). People who moan that Europe always gets shafted only focus on the stuff they feel they’re missing out on, while ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
cc_star | 14/11/2009 15:53
Team TSA: Writer
5869 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Outrun Arcade is a 360 exclusive in the US
There is quite a bit of stuff that SCEE gets first, but more often the overwhelming tide is in favour of other regions, and its usually the big stuff. And don’t mention the PSOne Classics.
cc_star | 14/11/2009 15:57
Team TSA: Writer
5869 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Doesn’t really matter who’s fault it is in individual cases
It’s Sony’s convoluted system that’s ultimately responsible, competing systems which trade in multiple regions rarely if ever suffer.
hazelam | 14/11/2009 16:40
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2986 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
we need that worldwide certification system sony promised some time last year.
maybe they wouldn’t allow games to get lost in the system then.
jacklum | 14/11/2009 23:11
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890 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Japan gets loads of 360 games later than the West. Lots of DS/Wii titles come out in Japan before anywhere else etc…
Sympozium Necropolis | 15/11/2009 01:11
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1142 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Its why I believe SCEE should be spilt into English while the rest is Europe.
It would help for the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand
hazelam | 16/11/2009 08:47
Member
2986 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
i’m going to be asking about this on the eu blog every day until i get an answer, don’t expect one any time soon so this looks to be a long term project.