Don’t Redeem Your God of War: Unearthing the Legend Codes Unless its on a PS3 You Intend to Watch it on for the Rest of Your Life March 18, 2010

Following up on what I was saying earlier, I decided to redeem my God of War: Unearthing the Legend documentary code. I really wanted to watch the documentary badly, so I redeemed my code and realized, oh crap, I don’t have enough space for it. The file is 3+GB. Not a problem I figured, I had another PS3 downstairs with much more storage capacity, so it shouldn’t be a problem. So I deactivated some authorizations on the one I had, and reactivated on another, and started the download of the documentary on the other PS3.

Then I tried watching it two hours later after the download finished and it didn’t work. Whatever crap Sony put in the video, even though my authorizations were all valid and allowed me to download the video no problem (If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have been able to download the video at all) refused to let me watch the documentary. So I decided if the file was going to work anywhere it was going to be on the original PS3 I put the code into, the one with very little space left. In frustration I deleted the video and set about the way to change my authorizations (again) so I could go back to watching the video on my original PS3, only to find that the HD video was no longer in my download queue, and there was no way to get it back.

I called up Sony support to get them to rectify the situation, and they told me it would take about two days for them to email me back with either a new code or for them to reactivate my download. So until then I’m stuck watching the SD version of the documentary (unacceptable if you own a 1080p 120hz HDTV). But here’s the big problem with all this. When you download that video, it’s tied to that playstation for life. Authorization be damned! So what’s the point of activating/deactivating playstations if the content’s going to be tied to whatever it was first redeemed on in the first place?

You’ll never be able to redownload it again or watch it on a different playstation! If this was a blu-ray I could watch it on any blu-ray player I wanted in the house or bring it to a friend’s house (adding to the collector’s value of the box!). Who’s brilliant idea was this?

I also asked the guy about the God of War soundtrack site (since apparently manufactering CDs and making websites that don’t crash when people try to use them is hard) and they still have no ETA on when either the site’s coming back up or when the replacement codes for people who redeemed them and had failed downloads will come back.

Lets try comparing to other competing services. Apple’s iTunes is considered by many to be draconian at best but they offer a whopping five activations for downloaded content, and even have some DRM free files for a slightly higher cost, and when you deactivate/reactivate content on your systems, it actually works! The files don’t care where they were initiatlly bought or downloaded, the activation certificate is all they care about.

Next time Sony, spend an extra dime and buy some CD-Rs.

Editorial: Why I learned to Stop Waiting For Duke Nukem Forever March 13, 2010

In 2003 on my former website The Deep Six (which was online then it went offline, then it went online again, now it’s lord only knows) I posted just before the release of Max Payne 2 some things for 3D Realms to do to celebrate something unfamiliar to them, the release of a game. I had no idea at the time it would be six years later and we’d be talking about that project’s demise.

Does anyone else think it a bit shitty that more news about Duke Nukem Forever has been released since the game had been cancelled than when it was operating? I mean, a whole synopsis hit the internet, trailers of really cool mostly complete gameplay footage, pictures and concept art. You know, the kind of stuff that would get released normally if you were making a game. But none of this stuff had been released during the development. Could you understand now if they had bothered to release what that artist had posted together overnight people would actually continue to care about your product?

You had the worst management system in history. That’s not nearly insulting enough as it should be. I don’t think anyone could actually come close to being as bad a manager as what was seen in this game. They made tons of royalties from Duke Nukem 3D that were still coming in, and they were making tons of money off the Max Payne franchise, enough to sustain them for years.  The managers always thought there was going to be an infinite amount of time and would not put a time restriction on innovation, and because of that, there was no progress.  At some point the bubble is going to burst for you and the money’s going to dry up, and it did.

So now the party’s over. Why shouldn’t I be bitter about this? Well had they managed their game properly they could’ve finished it well over six years ago and still had more money left over and released the game. Why should I care about this? After 2001 when they released that fantastic E3 trailer, I really wanted to play the game. Then the years passed more and more, and no information at all was coming out, and I slowly paid more attention to real games that were coming out instead of fantasy ones that only existed in the mind of George Brussard.

Last I heard Take 2 has filed an injunction demanding the source code for the game, probably so they could give the development to one of their teams to finish it. I hope they get it, I really do. I know if they hand it to a competent development house and lit a fire under them they could have the game released in a year. 3D Realms has shown they are not a competent development studio, they’re a joke, plain and simple. Gamers gave them all the rope they could have and they just continued to wrap it around their necks, and then the chair under them broke.