Or, at least it would, if the next chunk of the game would ever materialise.
The first episode appeared in April, and was meant to be a monthly thing in which gamers could look forward to five consecutive chapters in one larger plot.
Indeed, a ‘season pass’ was available from the start, which paid for all five sections up front in one discounted block.
It’s this aspect that’s of particular frustrating to Euro PS3 gamers – they’ve paid for something that simply hasn’t yet appeared, despite the second chapter already available in Europe on Xbox 360 and in the States on both consoles. Technically, Europe and PS3 is the only combination left out.
“Licensing, market and a host of other business and non-business decisions all play a part,” said SCEE’s Jawad Ashraf. “Telltale will announce anything once ready,” he told gamers on the EU PS Blog. “We’re working with them on it but they’d be the ones to comment further. Sorry. I want it just as much you guys so I feel your pain.”
“What is often forgotten is the EU consists of not just one or two countries,” he continued. “It includes a variety, meaning a lot more localising must be done. Certain games also retain licenses only in certain territories or have expired rights.”
“There’s generally so many factors that can often lead to games being delayed or totally cancelled for specific regions, and sometimes this cannot be helped.”
It seems the finger is being pointed at Telltale from some quarters – we contacted the developers a week or so back, but haven’t heard anything. SCEE’s QA process has notoriously held some games back that have been approved by SCEA for America, and it’s all wrapped in secrecy.
I’ve played the first episode – on 360 – and it’s nice enough. I didn’t feel the need to splash out on a season pass though, although plenty did.
Some quotes courtesy of Eurogamer.
Blastiel
…and as I always say in response to SCEE’s bullshit “how come Microsoft can do it?”
nouveller
I did shell out on a season pass, and it’s really frustrating we haven’t seen a sniff of content. I think we should be on episode four by now?!
If it was even possible, I’d like a full refund minus the cost of episode one. What’s the likelihood that’s going to happen?
The Lone Steven
Very unlikely as SCEE are notorious for not giving refunds. I think the christmas minis incident never got resolved and people have given up on trying to get a refund. :-(
Forrest_01
Is that true? I thought that they did refund but that people could now never play the minis that they expected to, even if they downloaded them again seperately.
That was a pretty massive cock up though, so it wouldn’t surprise me if people were still left witout theuir money &/or games.
hazelam
they did give refunds for the christmas cock up, eventually.
but they dragged their feet so hard they probably wore them down to the knee.
Spaaarky
go to trading standards, you will soon get a refund and most prob more :)
gazzagb
It’s both parties fault imo. Telltale should of had the first couple of episodes ready before release, and SCEE should be making sure Devs know that QA will take longer and assist them as much as they can to ensure similatenous release.
The Lone Steven
I think SCEE have deleted the copy that they were sent and are trying to make it look like Telltale have cocked up. Or it’s the QA testing again and it will turn out that the EU version is the same as the NA version. Or Batman stole it? I really hope SCEE will refund those who bought the season pass as they have been ripped off by it as well as recieving no content except for the first episode.
I think Telltale would have told us if they had to delay it due to localising it. :)
Blastiel
I doubt it is anything to do with Telltale, it never usually is the third party. SCEE is beyond inept!
Youles
On the plus side of buying the Season Pass, I’ve given them about 4 quid less than I would have done from buying them seperately.
Whilst I’m usually a pretty patient bloke, to not have 2 or even 3 of these episodes ready before a Pass went on sale, and stating “monthly” release, really seems like a stupid idea to me.
There seems to be a lot of finger pointing and no real update. And thanks Jawad, I’d forgotten that the EU consisted of more than 1 or 2 countries. Fortunately SCEE often remind us with such delays.
Lymmusic
The pllaystation store is essentially on online retailer surely, so standard rights should apply, in such a case you can potentially argue they have nit supplied you wit your purchase within a reasonable time. In theory you could request a partial refund. Thats not to say it will ge easy though, but i think scee should be less quick to pass the buck to telltale. If you’ve given sony your money, its up to them go sort it or desl with the customers.
Youles
I would tend to agree however there will no doubt be some fine-print that allows for such delays – as is the problem with digital media. Also, the game is actually pretty good so depite being a person of principle, I’m having to take this on the chin as I want to play the rest of the game.
hazelam
i lay most of the blame at scee’s feet, so often content gets delayed only when scee are involved, once again the pc, 360 worldwide and ps3 us ps3 got it fine.
time after time content gets delayed and the developers only seem to know when the content isn’t there when the store update post on the blog comes out.
there’s this deep dark hole somewhere at scee that content falls into sometimes, and when it does, you can forget seeing it for a long time, maybe even ever, in the case of something like auditorium.
and the blog is worthless as a source of answers, if it’s a third party title they just pass the buck to the publisher, and if it’s a first party title they just ignore the question or just brush it off with a “no plans”
every single success of the playstation brand in europe is down to the dedicated fans and has come DESPITE despite everything scee do, not because of it.
but, telltale haven’t exactly responded well to fans questions about what’s going on, i read a thread on their official forum that has been there since ep2 was awol last week, and not a single response has come from Telltale, the thread was at something like 13 or 14 pages.
if it was just a sequel people were waiting to buy then it wouldn’t be so bad, but they’re ignoring questions about content people paid for two months ago, and were supposed to get a month ago.
they’re going to lose a hell of a lot of eu fans over this.
you’d think after the delay of ep2 anyway they’d have a more conciliatory attitude towards their paying customers.
but apparently not.
in conclusion, the Walking Dead game seems pretty good from the demo, but i’m going to wait and see if they put out a disc version, which i might or might not buy new.
and i think you all know what i think of scee by now, they’re a joke.
people at barings bank laugh at how badly scee is run.
and don’t get me started on that jawad bloke.
you’d think that the person whose job it is to put out the store updates on the blog would have more than a passing idea of what’s on the bloody store.
but clearly he doesn’t.
with the high staff turnover at scee i would say they’ve reached the bottom of the barrel, but experience tells me scee can always go that little bit lower.
here’s the thread i talked about.
16 pages now.
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30543&page=16
i just noticed, the title of the last episode, “No Time Left”
DNF flashbacks. ^_^
Blastiel
Agree mostly mate, especially regards to Sony’s success. MOVE and VITA two things released and forgotten about for example.
If a game is released for everything but EU PS3 owners the blame MUST lie at SCEE’s door.
Telltale are likely just as pissed of as its customers are but probably can’t say anything due to contracts etc…
LTG Davey
Ever since getting into the Bluetoad Murder Files I have been reluctant buying these “season passes”. Bluetoad was supposed to be a monthly thing too I believe and instead episodes 1 and 2 came out quickly and there was then a big delay before episodes 3,4,5 and 6 all appeared in quick succession.
From now on I wait until all the episodes have been released before diving in – which is exactly what I plan to do with Walking Dead
TSBonyman
This is why i’ve never been tempted to pay for an unfinished game.