Hey Hey, My My, iOS Rock Band May Not Not Die After All

[Andy Chalk]

Hey Hey, My My, iOS Rock Band May Not Not Die After All

Electronic Arts says the iOS Rock Band shutdown notification was "sent in error."

Word went out yesterday that Electronic Arts, AKA the pull the plug [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116653-EA-Wins-Title-of-Worst-Company-in-America] on the iOS version of Rock Band. Upon starting the app, users were greeted with a pop-up messages warning them of the coming shutdown, scheduled to take place on May 31. That in itself is bad enough, but what made the situation really ugly is that EA was continuing to sell the game at full price, despite the looming closure.

But it turns out that the whole thing was a mistake, although why it happened remains a bit of a mystery. "Rock Band for iOS will remain live - the in-app message users received yesterday was sent in error," EA said in a statement sent to Cnet [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57426660-93/ea-not-killing-rock-band-for-ios-after-all/]. "We apologize for the confusion this caused. We're working to clarify the issue that caused the error and will share additional information as soon as possible."

In case you think that's the end of the confusion, however, allow me to direct your attention to EA's "Online Service Updates [http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates?ClickID=dzb2rhxy02yckzkommbrbwn02wcnsrbwryxk]" page, which lists a large number of mobile games scheduled to have their "connected features" shut down on May 28, including, still, Rock Band. The full list:


Bejeweled for feature phones
Bejeweled for Android
Boggle for Palm
Boom Blox for feature phones
Connect 4 for Palm
Jamdat Bowling 2 for feature phones
Pictionary for feature phones
Rock Band for Android, iPhone, Palm and feature phones
Spore for iPod and feature phones
Tetris for feature phones
The Sims DJ for feature phones
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 for feature phones
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for feature phones
Yahtzee for Palm


I'm not entirely sure what the loss of "connected features" means, but an FAQ regarding the situation, which has since been removed but is still available via Google cache [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1287&bih=783&sclient=psy-ab&q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fhelp.ea.com%2Farticle%2Fwill-rock-band-no-longer-be-available-on-mobile-devices&oq=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fhelp.ea.com%2Farticle%2Fwill-rock-band-no-longer-be-available-on-mobile-devices&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=hp.3...840.1298.1.2173.1.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.1.wqV3EcjnUQk&pbx=1], certainly makes it sound like the loss of connectivity means the complete loss of the game. "The Rock Band servers will be live through May 31, 2012," it said. "If you have already downloaded the game, you can continue to play until then."

Loss of the game notwithstanding, that's the real problem here: we still don't really know what's going on. This mess may have started with a mistake, but rather than correct and clarify, EA seems to have just muddied the waters even further.


Permalink

 

[Something Amyss]

Mistake...Yes...

Totally not the cop-out offered when one is caught pulling suspect shit.

 

[Sight Unseen]

I have that iOS game and, being a HUGE rock band fanatic, it wasn't that great. I only played it a few times but it didnt really work well and so I stopped playing it. It was laggy and hard to hit notes accurately and there wasnt a lot of songs available.

so coming as a RB fanboy, I won't miss it personally.

but still, weird how EA is handling this.

It's still kind of bad that it flies in the face of everything HMX does. People could buy tons and tons of DLC and then just... lose it... That seems wrong to me and I'm sure HMX, the devs of the app would not approve.

Also I didnt realize EA was the publisher of the rock band app... I thought EA just did distribution of HMX's games.

 

[Findlebob]

BULLSHIT! They are just in damage control mode. The fact they had such a message ready allready shows it was planned.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I'm not a fan of accusing anyone, person or company, of lying without evidence, but... yeah. This whole "it was a mistake" thing just doesn't ring true. The only mistake I see is how the shutdown was handled, and EA's efforts to clean it up.

 

[Missing SHODAN]

Mistake...Yes...

Totally not the cop-out offered when one is caught pulling suspect shit.

This. I don't believe for a second that they 'accidentally' created a message that told players their game would be disabled at a future date, 'accidentally' sent it out, and 'accidentally' put an FAQ about it up confirming it would happen. The only 'accident' here occurred when people got pissed and started making noise about it, at which point EA's PR (and perhaps legal, because something like this would be a fantastic target for seeing how far EULAs can actually let a company go) department wet themselves and asked their higher ups to not make things any harder for them.

 

[bobmus]

Pssh, TapTap Revenge is better, f2p, and releases songs for free regularly. Go download it if you've not played that one.

 

[RA92]

Mistake...Yes...

Totally not the cop-out offered when one is caught pulling suspect shit.

This. I don't believe for a second that they 'accidentally' created a message that told players their game would be disabled at a future date, 'accidentally' sent it out, and 'accidentally' put an FAQ about it up confirming it would happen. The only 'accident' here occurred when people got pissed and started making noise about it, at which point EA's PR (and perhaps legal, because something like this would be a fantastic target for seeing how far EULAs can actually let a company go) department wet themselves and asked their higher ups to not make things any harder for them.

I'm positive that EA actively keeps pushing the limits of gamers' patience to the edge, just to see how much they can get away with.

Fuck you EA! Fuck you and your browser-based F2P C&C!