This is unacceptable Deep Silver!
by subacati
I bought two PC games yesterday! Skyrim and Dead Island. Skyrim installed and updated alright. I was a little annoyed that it had to 'update' which indicated that the game was actually released prematurely, but that's nothing compared with my experience with Dead Island! :irked: .
Dead Island doesn't install from the disk. Instead, it downloads completely from the Internet! 😡 .
At the time that I'm writing this, the download is about 60% complete and has already consumed 3GB of data. That's about R600+- where the game already cost R300+ to purchase in the first place! :irked: .
I will never buy another game bu Deep Silver again. In fact, since this appears to be the way games are going, I won't buy another game again! :knight: .
From now on, I'll stick with FOSS games!
At least with FOSS games;
1. I don't need to use Windows.
2. I don't need to pay twice for the same game!
A game that is sold on a disk, in a box, must be complete! Minor updates and a bugfix or two is acceptable since it is difficult to find every single bug prior to release! But that shouldn't need more than about 100MB of data! A non-working product is not fit for sale and having to download a game that you already have a disk for is totally ridiculous! :angry: .
*edit*
I made a complaint to Deep Silver's technical support team. Their response was to confirm that this is exactly how the game works! :irked: .
Here is the email they sent me!
thank you for your inquiry.
We are terribly sorry about the exorbitantly high Internet costs in your region, but that's just the way Steam games are designed. Technically it doesn't really matter if you purchase the disc version or the digital version directly from Steam.
Note: If you reply to this Email please do not edit the subject line. Thank you!
Best regards
Your Support Team
Deep Silver Inc.
Technical Support
900 Larkspur Landing Circle
Larkspur CA 94939 / USATechnical support:
08:00 (8:00 am) Pacific Time to 17:00 Pacific Time (5:00 pm)
Phone: 1-888-883-1505
Email: techsupport@deepsilver.com
Webpage: http://www.deepsilver.com01/26/2012 13:50 – qlue@myopera.com wrote:
email: qlue@myopera.com
realname: Aadil Shah
Secondname: Shah
Firstname: Aadil
Telephone:
Product: Dead Island (PC)
Issue: Disc defect
Question: The game does not install from the disk. Instead, it downloads from the
Internet! At this point, it's used over 3GB of data and only 60% downloaded! Thus,
I've spent R300 for the disk, R600+ for data and I still can't play the game! This
is un acceptable and I will blog about it!
submit: submit
subacati 
I agree. One should be able to install games to a standalone PC.I don't give a rat's ass about *any* games, but I certainly believe in the principle of getting all the software (apart from service packsfixesupdates) on the CDDVD that you pay for in the first instance. It should all be there for the game to run without needing further code to be downloaded.
I lodged a complaint with Deep Silver technical support. They responded with an email confirming that this is exactly how the game works. :irked: .The problem with their response is that Skyrim is also a Steam game, but it installs the bulk of the game from the disk. Dead Island installs over 5G from the Internet. :insane: .Basically, the 'disk' is just a glorified bookmark! :irked: .
5Gb? Sorry, but I've got to laugh. Lucky that you're not trapped in a dial-up situation – you'd probably have wasted your money buying the game.Does it say anything on the packaging to alert the unwary?
It mentions that the Steam client is needed for "activation and gameplay" but it doesn't state that it needs to download the entire game from an online source. :insane: .Actually, claiming that the Steam client is needed for "activation" implies that it installs from the disk. :sherlock: .So it's kinda misleading. Also, this is only mentioned in the pamphlet that is included in the box. (although the Steam logo is printed on the box)We've come a long way since plugging a cartridge into an Atari 6200. Maybe too far. :awww: .
It was a problem with the first release on PC. Due to an error, the disc was coded with basically an early version of Dead Island on instead of the release version. This meant that almost the entire game had to be released as a patch, and that was prematurely released anyway so further patches have built up how much data was reconfigured by the install. As a result, all other disc releases just download the game. Whoever made the original error really screwed things for them.Skyrim is up to its fourth major patch version now. There are a few little errors, like quests that don't flow properly as you have a regular version of an item that will be used as a quest item to find in the quest, or some items that don't lose quest item flags when the quest is complete. These are being fixed as time goes on and the fourth patch is the major one in that aspect. It's not so much that the game was released prematurely as it is that it has such scope to it that so many of these things could easily be missed (the one in a million chance during two specific quests if you have a certain item that corpses can be decapitated and continue fighting you) or were easily enough fixed in a patch once the game was released and not game killing (quests that completed but left you with the quest items, items that accidentally duplicate if you try to equip them rather than using them). As I'm sure you'll agree somewhere around your two hundredth hour, these are minor quibbles when compared to the how much there is that works in Skyrim and how well it does work.
That is a major error to release the game with, what is essentially, a faulty disk. But that doesn't really let them off the hook. Their email to me puts the blame on the Steam system and claims that's how Steam games work. :irked: .Now, if I bought a dvd copy of a movie and the disk was encoded with the wrong movie or a corrupt copy, then the distributors would usually exchange it for the correct version. (or offer a refund)They wouldn't expect me to download a working copy from the Internet. :left: .And Skyrim took less than half an hour to update compared with Dead Island's whole day download. :faint: .They should have recalled those wrongly encoded disks and issued new disks with the corrected game.
I would be very dissapointed if that happened to me, very poor cutomer service :irked:
:down:I couldn't agree more with you!
I don't think ANY game bought on disc should need downloads to make it work, that's just ridiculous! Some flippin' birthday present, making you spend all that on data 😡
Originally posted by Spaggyj:
Exactly! :awww: .Any other product would have been recalled if it was discovered to be defective. A 'patch' that requires just over 5GB of downloading is ludicrous! :insane: .And blaming Steam for it is showing that they really don't get why they're wrong! 🙄 .
They did, but people were still complaining so they set in motion the download workaround too. I do know that part of the way Steam works combined with the game engine meant a 3MB patch file couldn't be added to fix some problems and they had to replace an entire 1.5GB file instead.There's an old saying that is particularly suitable – Puters be crazy, man. 😉
It's a 5.4GB download Mik. And it doesn't even try to use anything from the disk. :awww: .And clearly the faulty disks were not recalled as they're still on the shelves. :left: .A 1.5GB download would still have been annoying, but making me download the entire disk after I paid for a physical copy is on the verge of being criminal. :irked: .Having said that, I tested the game and I think I'm really going to like it. :left: .
However this is dressed up this is a damned poor showing. And when you complained not even a "sorry" 😡
Originally posted by harrytheman:
It's unfortunate this is not a South African company or I'd have reported it to the ombudsman! :awww: .I could still do that but it won't help any! 🙄 .
That is no way to run a company. Ridicules.
I hope it's a bloody good game, anyway 🙂
Hope it's worth your time and trouble Aadil. Don't blame you for being pissed off about it either. If I pay for something on a disc, it darn well better be there or I'll get my money back. As it is, I don't give tuppence about games, so I'll never have that problem.
Let's just pay that this experience has put me off bought games. :awww: .No game can ever be worth this. I'm just glad that I didn't in to the trouble of buying a console and screen. Had I bought the console version (+console and screen) and then had this experience I'd have probably lost my mind and gone beserk on the Managers of that company. (or their nearest representatives) :whistle: .
poor customer service is quite usual here , take it easy Mad Scientist
This goes beyond poor customer service. :left: .I'm quite used to poor customer service here as well. 🙄 .