iOS Rock Band to Stop Working After May 31st

[John Funk]

iOS Rock Band to Stop Working After May 31st

You may have bought all the DLC, but you won't be able to play it anymore.

In today's installment of "disturbing indications of future trends," virtual-rock-enthusiast website RockBandAide [http://www.rockbandaide.com/] has reported that owners of the iOS Rock Band app will soon be out of luck when it comes to rocking on the go. Upon loading the app, an in-game message pops up (seen here to the right), informing users that the game will no longer function after the end of the month.

The reason that we call this "disturbing," of course, is that the game will cease working for all users across the iOS platform - all of whom have (presumably) paid good money for the app as well as any extra song packs that caught their fancy. In fact, in the background of the message seen here, you can read that the extra song packs are still on sale, in case any players felt they hadn't thrown away enough of their money on something that would stop working within the month.

As gaming moves closer to "service" models rather than "product" models, the question of how much of their purchase consumers really own is bound to become a hot topic before too long - if it isn't already. It's one thing for a company to shut down the multiplayer servers of an older game that doesn't have the playerbase to justify the expense anymore, but it's another thing entirely for, say, your copy of Skyrim to stop working because Gabe Newell goes crazy one day and shuts off Steam.

EA Mobile has not yet commented on the issue, and owners of the iOS sequel Rock Band Reloaded [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rock-band-reloaded/id392026754?mt=8] have not yet encountered any such messages.

Some have suggested that this is an issue with Rock Band's music licenses - that rather than renew its licenses with record companies, EA has decided to just shut the game down instead. In this case, the more recent Reloaded could be up against a similar problem in one year's time.

However, it could simply just be a matter of EA shutting down the older Rock Band in favor of the sleeker and more robust Reloaded - the way it shuts down older Madden multiplayer servers when people have moved on to the new hotness. Even in that case, though, EA has only ever shut down access to the online multiplayer, not the full game.

Either way, it's kind of disturbing to think about.

(Source & Image: RockBandAide [http://www.rockbandaide.com/16083/rock-band-ios-app-no-longer-playable-after-may-31/])

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[Dragoon]

Are they actually allowed to do this? Isn't it illegal or something? Either way it's completely wrong and shouldn't be allowed to happen. Feel sorry for anyone who bought this.

 

[Epona]

This is the future. Next gen, what if you can't play any of your downloaded games because there are license issues, servers go down or whatever they can think of next to take away what you bought.

 

[teebeeohh]

this is really fucked up, next thing you know we need to buy dlc every 6 month or our games will stop working

 

[Epona]

This just in: EA ripping off customers
Up next: the sun sets in the West. Details at 11

I think this action from EA deserves more than a wave of the hand. This is like Origin one day telling you that Mass Effect 2 will no longer work.

 

[Lattyware]

Just as a note, Harmonix (the makers of the main Rock Band games) don't have a hand in this - and have made it clear they will continue to support Rock Band. This is all on EA.

 

[Royas]

Well, this is just asking for someone to sue and test once in for all if paying for software gives you some ownership rights regardless of the EULA. Be interesting if that happens.

 

[Something Amyss]

Are they actually allowed to do this? Isn't it illegal or something?

Nope. I agree it's wrong, but they can do it and as long as consumers let them, they WILL do it.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Well, this is just asking for someone to sue and test once in for all if paying for software gives you some ownership rights regardless of the EULA. Be interesting if that happens.

and if Rock Band was under the recent EA Eula wording... that person would lose. It's a contract. It's like if you did work for anyone under contract and the person would decide that even though you did everything to their liking, he wouldn't pay you. The courts would say if he didn't want to pay, he shouldn't have signed the contract.

What it might do, actually, is prompt people to see the EULA before purchasing. And if people don't agree, to not buy it, costing a lot of revenue lost. There have been so many games that I bought since the age of digital distribution that I did not like their EULA, but you just can't return games on steam.

... In fact, if Gabe got to work on a pre-Eula contract agreement return system, you'd see a mass exodus of big names trying to get their product on steam. They wouldn't want to lose the revenue because they want to hold onto their products with an iron fist.

Captcha: Klatu Berada Nikto.

Man, Captcha. What the hell you smoking? I don't get high, but a brother might need a hit off of that...

 

[Adjudicator]

If you bought a mobile game for EA you are a sucker.

 

[matrix3509]

Well, this is just asking for someone to sue and test once in for all if paying for software gives you some ownership rights regardless of the EULA. Be interesting if that happens.

and if Rock Band was under the recent EA Eula wording... that person would lose. It's a contract. It's like if you did work for anyone under contract and the person would decide that even though you did everything to their liking, he wouldn't pay you. The courts would say if he didn't want to pay, he shouldn't have signed the contract.

What it might do, actually, is prompt people to see the EULA before purchasing. And if people don't agree, to not buy it, costing a lot of revenue lost. There have been so many games that I bought since the age of digital distribution that I did not like their EULA, but you just can't return games on steam.

... In fact, if Gabe got to work on a pre-Eula contract agreement return system, you'd see a mass exodus of big names trying to get their product on steam. They wouldn't want to lose the revenue because they want to hold onto their products with an iron fist.

Captcha: Klatu Berada Nikto.

Man, Captcha. What the hell you smoking? I don't get high, but a brother might need a hit off of that...

A piece of paper does not give one the right to do whatever the hell one wishes. If you got mugged and the mugger made you sign a paper that said you agreed to be mugged, that doesn't magically make it legal.

 

[Racecarlock]

Unless they promised all buyers refunds or gave out the app for free, this shit is ridiculous. I wouldn't pay for a car that explodes in a year or a DVD that shreds itself after a month, so why the fuck is anyone letting EA or anyone in the industry for that matter get away with it?

Captcha: I want control

Stop tracking me captcha. It's creepy.

 

[Anti-Robot Man]

If you bought a mobile game for EA you are a sucker.

I think it was actaully on sale a week or so ago - need to rip off those last few customers.

I do not buy games from EA anymore, and moves like this continually reinforce that decision.

 

[Baresark]

I am a bit surprise to be honest. It just seems so early in digital release model for this to happen. It's not even taken hold by the majority of the gaming population and people are already losing something they have invested money in for the simple purpose that EA is arbitrarily shutting the game down. The main problem for me is that if it didn't require and always active connection, then this wouldn't be happening. They could say just stop supporting it and stop keeping scores and what not, but people who have invested money in the game could still have access to it, even though it wouldn't be available to buy anymore.

But, this is EA we are talking about. If it is due to licensing issues, I would think that it may be worth their time to fight the issue or at least try to on behalf of the people who bought it. There should be some sort of obligation for the company to uphold it's product in a case like this. That is, if it is legal or licensing issue.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

A piece of paper does not give one the right to do whatever the hell one wishes. If you got mugged and the mugger made you sign a paper that said you agreed to be mugged, that doesn't magically make it legal.

Too true.

However, there are stipulations in laws that forbid criminal coercion. In your case, being robbed is a criminal act. Unless we want to completely suspend disbelief, if he made you sign the paper, it would be under the threat of physical violence. That in itself would make the document null and void.

This, though, is a business arrangement. I want pie. You make pies. I say I will pay you 20 bucks for 5 pies. You agree. We wrote it down. The document is legal. We have the document so neither party can try to do anything to get over on the other. Once we both sign it (and if we really want to get official, have it notarized), we are agreeing to uphold whatever is on the document.

Even if we missed something, like I said the expense of the pies is solely on you, and it would cost you 20 bucks to make just one of the pies... that's the breaks. You are now legally obligated to follow through with the contract.

The piece of paper does not have the magical power to do whatever one wishes. But as long as it doesn't violate government/state/whatever laws, and it does not bring harm to an outside parties person or possession, you do have to fulfill what's on the document. If you don't agree, don't sign. However, we're all screwed because these EULAs are presented after we purchased it. And we can not play the game without agreeing. We can disapprove and stand on our rights. EA and other companies don't care. You gave them the money. As far as I know, you can not get it back. That is your only defense legally.

 

[Spy_Guy]

Spoiler: I was having breakfast when I read this...

Is that how the future is going to be?

I could say something about "lol EA" and handwave it like that or "EA will be EA" but it's like Crono1973 is saying:

-snip-
This is like Origin one day telling you that Mass Effect 2 will no longer work.

There's no difference between the hypothetical ME2 scenario and the current goings-on with Rock Band. I can't say I checked if Rock Band has a central online multiplayer component, but based on the version for Xbox that my brother has, it's inexcusable to nuke the app.

If I wanted to, I could still play the original Guitar Hero, despite licenses probably being way overdue...
Suffice to say, this is a very distressing sign of the times as it's not contained to EA.
(does anyone remember when Amazonas removed a few books from some guy's Kindle due to a pricing error?)

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

See, now for all the advantages of digital distribution, this is why I'll never accept it. So long as something I put money down for isn't actually under my control I'm not interested. If I purchase something, it's mine, that's just how it works. License selling is just plain wrong, regardless of how you defend it, because this is what companies will do with it, they'll abuse it just like EA abuses.. well, everything. I'll stick to my N64 cartridges and those mysterious forgotten relics the ancient ones called discs, until this license bullshit fucks off back to the Blag'ole.

*steps off of soapbox and hands it to the next guy*

 

[joe-h2o]

According to EA, the message was sent "in error" and it's not pulling it after all. Which is odd since they also had a support document go live mentioning it that has quietly disappeared.

Perhaps they realised the backlash to a move like this was huge and quickly reversed the decision, blaming it on an error?

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/2/2995299/ea-rock-band-ios

 

[SuperTrainStationH]

Even if Nintendo barely realizes the internet exists at all, at least I wont have to worry about them sending agents to my front door to seize my Nintendo game disks simply because Reggie decided they don't want people playing Super Paper Mario anymore..