Sunday, January 16, 2011

Activision Threatens to Pull PSN Support


UPDATE 1/19/11: Treyarch has responded, in which I firmly disagree with their assessment.  Their response and my reaction to it can be found on  More Troubles Headed Towards Activision

I (like the majority of Call of Duty Black Op's PS3 gamers) have been experiencing a huge number of connection problems for the past 3 month of release of this game.  I've been in dialog with Activision with respect to the problems associated with this game, and following the call of duty forums (PS3 forums are filled to the max daily on complaints with connection problems with the multi-player of this game).  I've posed some questions with respect to what Activision and Treyarch are going to do to keep the loyalty of the PS3 gamers to the Call of Duty titles due to the consistent problems PS3 users have been having and reporting to Treyarch since release. Activision offered the following and startling response:

Well I have nothing else to offer and I too follow forums and have many friends who play and enjoy the game for all of its features. As an avid gamer, I would also disagree with any legalities involving a single aspect of a game as online experience may change at any time. The publishers have the right to shut down the servers for their game at any time as well which based on the number of reported posts from users may be a viable solution over the free PSN.

In any event, if you would like to send your game disc into us, we can either;

a) Exchange for a sealed (unopened) copy of the game that you can take back to the retailer
b) Swap for another platform
c) Exchange for another Activision title of equal or lesser value.

These are the options that we are able to offer to you as a one time courtesy.


Let us know how you would like to proceed.

My Response:


So what essentially your telling me here, is that you've released a product that is known to have some major connection issues, and a threat here to the gaming community to keep their mouth shut, or the publisher might exercise it's rights to pull support for PSN?

I'm not going to accept or decline your offer at this time, however do have the legal right to accept the offer should the publisher pull support for PSN, or the next patch 1.06 forthcoming from the developer does not fix the connection issues with the free multilayer advertised with the shipped game, ON ALL PLATFORMS!

Considering this stunning threat from you on the PSN networks, if I chose to accept your offer it will be with option 1. I will never purchase an activision game again ever on any platform. I strongly disagree with punishing the users for mistakes made during the development process, and know several consumer advocates here in Canada that would be very interested in what you wrote here.

All gamers want is what they purchased here with the game, and able to enjoy it. So far I've seen nothing in respecting the PS3 gaming community on any front from activision, nor by treyarch on this. If you guys had issues with respect to PSN than it should have been a strictly XBOX PC release. I could seriously see some very strong legal challenges coming your way from the gamer community if PSN support is yanked after release. You can count on that.
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The saved files of the full conversation with Activision can be found here.

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Have a news tip you would like to share, or additional information on the stories posted? E-mail jkobonews at rogers dot com

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree completely with you, sir. I've been nothing but disappointed with the Black Ops online experience on the PS3 since I got it. I kinda hope Activision DOES pull PSN support for the game so they can learn just how bad not having the PS3 players will be.

I'm reminded of a petition that was going around a while back. Someone started a petition to get PS3 players a full refund for the game since it was obviously a cheap port and an inferior product. I signed that petition and I'm still waiting for my money back...

The World Is Not Enough said...

No Activision, it's fuck you! You are not in control here Mr. Activision. You can not treat PSN like some second class citizen. What is it they say about three degrees of separation? I think that out of the hundred or so friends I have online that at least half of them would return their copy of the game based on the mention of a lack of support for the PSN and the other half would return it the day you dropped PSN. I think it is a great idea to alienate yourself as the publisher who doesn't want to deal with PlayStation, that way I know where to look on the case when I'm buying my next games. Fix it now! I'm not asking!

Travis said...

They told me the same thing when i complained to the BBB "We cannot provide you with a refund, a refund can only be issued by the retailer where the game was purchased. If you no longer want the game you can send it in to us and we will provide you with a sealed copy so you can return it to the retailer for a refund.
Initial Response Summary
We have offered the customer a sealed copy of the game so that it can be returned to the retailer for a refund."

Jaiden said...

Check responses from Activision’s social media guy, Dan Amrich.

@4thirty5 I do not see “shutting down servers” as an action item here. http://bit.ly/edbU7T I think someone’s inaccurately implying intent.
( http://twitter.com/OneOfSwords/status/27555689522012162 )

@4thirty5 To me it’s the difference of “nuclear weapons exist” and “duck and cover, the button has been pressed.” Theory vs. action.
( http://twitter.com/OneOfSwords/status/27556885662007296 )

Scott said...

I really don't get why Activision, Treyarch and Infinity Ward are not all over this, how hard is it to compare statistics of legitimate players against cheater and just ban them?? Also Black Ops was glitchy as all hell well before the PS3 was hacked... What was it Microsoft actually brought when they paid for early rights to this game, seems like they also got the majority of the development team too... Don't get me wrong I love COD but please stop tell me that it is someone else fault that Black Ops is better on the Xbox for any other reason than bad coding and corner cutting. The PS3 is practically a mini super computer and the Xbox is a repackaged mediocre PC in a pretty box.

Please stop counting the 100’s of millions of dollars that we have given you and remember where all that money came from, we love your games just please stop treating us like we are idiots or we will find another game franchise to get behind.

Trivun said...

Ummmmmm, Mr Koblovsky, I'd just like to say that this was not a threat from Activision in any way, shape or form. The representative was simply stating the possible options, and indeed I feel that if it means no problems, removing online support is a viable option, albeit only in a worst-case scenario, if it proves the problems cannot physically be fixed at all. Either way, Activision have not 'threatened' you, or indeed any gamers. They simply stated an option, along with other options, and you have taken this completely out of proportion. However, I do understand that you are angry and upset about the situation, and about the apparent lack of regard for the customers of Activision. I guess sometimes it does simply take an unbiased third party, such as myself or others, who can look at the situation from the outside, at both sides, and see the kernels of the truth. On the one hand, you are fully justified in your feelings towards aActivision, and indeed I believe personally that the game should have spent more time in development to make sure bugs such as this were fixed before shipping. After all, so many games get released nowadays riddled with bugs and glitches, that could easily be avoided without the need for patches if the publishers just give the developers a bit more time. Activision as a publisher are indeed a prime example of this. But on the other hand, you yourself have fallen guilty to an error in both judgement and miscommunication, resulting in the unfair demonisation of a company for something completely different to its original mistake, and indeed the poor treatment of a representative who has nothing personally to do with any aspect of the development of the game, and is not to blame for any of the current problems.

Overall, therefore, there isn't really anyone 'right' or 'wrong' in this situation, neither yourself nor Activision. Both sides are at fault to some degree, though you have good reason to feel the way you do; you are completely mistaken in your assumption that Activision would go so far as to threaten its customers. After all, it wouldn't do Activision any good to alienate the people who pay for it's very existence through their purchases and subscriptions, would it?

mike said...

it's not just psn thats having the problem i have had many games on xbox that i could not even move let alone play the game and i own both systems so i know how it feels i myself have not played a real game of bo in over a month because of there poor connections

PhantomJDP said...

You guys think they have done nothing about they have but for some reason they can't fix it. David Vonderhaar has posted many times on his twitter that they have spent countless hours trying to fix it and they have been trying the game was way worse when it was first released. So don't act like they don't care they just can't do much about.

Max said...

It's almost the same with PC almost all attention is going to the Xbox 360

Liam said...

hey just need to tell u. your save file of the convo only goes to the 1st response of activision, i suggest that you copy paste the text and save it as a .txt file

seansiscoe said...

lol if they do this they will be losing a lot of clients and there for would be retards if following through with such BS and i for one would not buy another Activision game again (all my respect for the company would be gone)and trading the game for some thing of equal vale ha thats a joke the only game you could get from trading it in after such an event happens the best game that you could get for it would be terminator salvation .... if your lucky the game its self is not nearly good enough for jack squat with out the online capability. im sorry Activision but you really need to rethink this for a minute! do you want to lose most if not all of you PS3 clients (and some Xbox because i know i wont buy a single game of yours on any of the consoles and i have all the latest ones) so think can you afford to lose the great majority of your clients? (i will boycoughting you if you decide to follow through)

seansiscoe said...

lol if they do this they will be losing a lot of clients and there for would be retards if following through with such BS and i for one would not buy another Activision game again (all my respect for the company would be gone)and trading the game for some thing of equal vale ha thats a joke the only game you could get from trading it in after such an event happens the best game that you could get for it would be terminator salvation .... if your lucky the game its self is not nearly good enough for jack squat with out the online capability. im sorry Activision but you really need to rethink this for a minute! do you want to lose most if not all of you PS3 clients (and some Xbox because i know i wont buy a single game of yours on any of the consoles and i have all the latest ones) so think can you afford to lose the great majority of your clients? (i will boycoughting you if you decide to follow through)

Ian said...

I fucking hate black ops and my question is why the hell is modern warfare 2 better than black shit? Modern warfare 2 is older and was supposed to have horrible connection they must have got confused.

I knew activision was gonna go down hill after they made the spider man games.

Hector Rodriguez said...

Go ahead drop the psn and feel your wallets shrink.. Fucked up how ya downplaying us.. Go to hell.. Give me back my mutha fucking money..

Matteo said...

I don't see the problem, you shouldn't even be playing FPS with a controller in the first place.

I am sorry, I couldn't resist.

Gaurav said...

Activision is probably pissed at Sony for not providing them with enough money (Activision being the greedy bastards that they are) and Microsoft can probably feed Activision with a continuous supply of cash to not interfere in any way with them and leave their wimpy asses untouched. Why do you think the Call of Duty franchise as a whole is so biased towards the Microsoft platforms (especially the 360)? There is basically no connection problem with the 360 and even map packs get released first on the XBOX. Fuck you Activision, fuck you...

Gaurav said...

Activision is probably pissed at Sony for not providing them with enough money (Activision being the greedy bastards that they are) and Microsoft can probably feed Activision with a continuous supply of cash to not interfere in any way with them and leave their wimpy asses untouched. Why do you think the Call of Duty franchise as a whole is so biased towards the Microsoft platforms (especially the 360)? There is basically no connection problem with the 360 and even map packs get released first on the XBOX. Fuck you Activision, fuck you...

ranarvaza said...

while theyre at it they can just pull the plug on xbox and pc too... thatll just leave the wii hahahha

awaremix said...

:)

Ehren said...

Are these options available to all people who have bought black ops on PS3?

Aaron said...

This sounds like more an issue with Playstations online capabilities more than it is BOs servers. Not saying what Activision/Treyarch is right but yea. It's not their fault the PSN wasn't able to handle such a huge overload.

homedawggg1234 said...

If ur ganna do this then give me an xbox for my ps3

lol_pwnd said...

i think this is awesome, thats what happens when you dont have to pay for online service

nadoes said...

There are major problems on X360 as well with hitboxes not registering and latency problems.
There is a 200+ page thread on the treyarch forum about this but we get dismissed by that p.r. disaster JD_2020. This has been going on since xmas and I've sold my copy a couple of days ago. TreyArch is the worst developer EVER

David said...

lol : back opps = final cod game 4 myself

ps3 games = 59,99 € = pure ripp off

u companie love ms.

never again i purshase a game from activision .
respect us = u get respect from us .

i go 2 ea = battelfield 3

reamer_14 said...

i stand by if they are to pull the plug on PSN i will not buy any game activision publishes

Liam said...

I strongly agree with you. We PSN Gamers are always being classed as the "bad side of gaming" and the XBOX360 being the "heaven for gamers.
An example of this is the way everything for Call of Duty comes out a couple of months after the XBOX360. And the way that most of the machinama directors are playing the XBOX even tough it costs money for online subscriptions and PSN is free. Prove to us, Activiosion, that you are a multi-platform producer and make the two games equal.

yours in gaming
$TM

Ryan said...

This is completely irresponsible journalism and ridiculous. The author took a line from a response and used it totally out of context.

Duff said...

It should have been an Xbox only release, the PC version sucks even more than the PS3 version, at least that one only has connection issues and no issues with absolutely everything else.

deabo0o said...

Activision Dosnt Realise that we vote with our wallets and if we dont want call of duty around anymore we will stop buying it
Activison can keep giving us this shit.
They think Call Of Duty can survive on just Xbox and PC
Losing almost half there Profits
GOOD LUCK

Jack said...

im a big COD fan and staunch supporter of the PS3. I bought an Xbox last week because of this. very disappointed with the fact that i done this just to play with my mates on Black Ops. Activision, u suck

anthony said...

Fuck this shit!!! IM a psn player and if they don't fix the connection problem or if they "pull the plug" i will be 1 more person playing on EA's battlefield bad-company series OR if not i would like a X-BOX360 and a Black ops disk free + free online!!!!

Rudy DeSantis said...

Jason, I completely agree with your post. I wrote this "Open Letter To Treyarch," on a COD complaint thread 12/20/10. http://callofdutyblackopsforum.net/topic/736-an-open-letter-to-treyarch/

kmiki94 said...

This isn't what I expected from Treyarch, I'm going to boycott Black Ops and other Call of Duties as a form of protest. I hope some of you will join me.

goldenuzi4u said...

Last time I checked, PS3 players DONT pay to play online. I have xbox360 and I DO pay to play online, so if this is really what they are doing, then maybe all of the PS3 players will start to respect xbox a little more.

Alex said...

@goldenuzi4u i think u got it the wrong way there buddy. its ur choice to pay for online on xbox and its our choice to stick with PS3's free online. if anything, u people should start respecting us...

Socc3rfreak27 said...

all the people saying that the ps3 cant handle the game and that we dont pay for online is just ignorant. You waste your money on something and because you make the wrong choice you have try and take it out on the people who didnt. PS3 is a better system it is well made and not a POS like the 360. that being said, the 360 does pay the companies to design the game for the 360. You have pros and cons for both, dont think because you have a 360 you know everything about the ps3

ggg said...

This is not a good decision, taking down the servers will result in people playing mw2 and WAW or Cod4 which currently have a 4:5 hacked match ratio, this will worsen the problem and create more hackers. There are about 1,000,000 players right now on the psn playing black ops, you take the servers down and where will they go? MW2 probably and they will be exploited on EVERY gamemode by cheaters running GeoHot's Custom firmWare.

Jason K said...

Interesting comments here guys, thanks. Treyarch has responded to this post. I've posted their response here:

http://jasonkoblovsky.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-troubles-headed-towards-activision.html

Matt said...

Hey, i play black ops on my new PS3 that i got on christmas....
i was unbeleivably excited, being the hardcore online PC gamer untill i reached into the game and got all of this TERRIBLE connection. I was beginning to lose hope in my entire PS3 and now, i read this article and i am SHOCKED on activisions approach here. When speaking to the gaming community u need to be straightforward, as in no nusing threats to scare us into hiding and not complaining about their crap connection for instance. What they should have done is slowly reach out to the community, and ignore all of the trash mail that theyregetting.

AND PEOPLE, STOP HARASSING ACTIVISION BY LEAVING THE BAD CONNECTION STUFF EVERYWHERE... TRUST ME THAY KNOW WHATS HAPPENING, AND THEY DO NOT NEED TO BE REMINDED MY EVERYONE!!!

If they do decide to pull the game off PSN i will get all of my money back and boycott all of their future games. Avtivission will then go bankrupt and beg and plead for the PSN back, when ill be back to their activision games...

Warcrimes said...

This could be taken completely out of context for all we know. I think posting this without also posting Koblovsky's previous statements is irresponsible.

Some of the nerd rage that comes from the gaming community is ridiculous.

jdionio said...

Hacktivision doesn't care about the consumer. They only care about money going into their pockets. Btw, the hacks/network issues have been going on over on the 360 too. I wish they would pull their support from the XBL and PSN groups. Then they will see how much money they stand to lose and how many pissed off people won't come back after this fiasco.

HoEzSaYiMFaMoUs said...

FUCK ACTIVISION! we spend our hard earned money on a game, that may get cancelled? FUCK THAT! I know I wont be buying anymore COD GAMES

Stephen said...

This is why I play Battlefield. Dedicated servers only have very occasional problems. In almost a year of service, they screwed up a bit on the first day, and this last week they've been buggy, but here's the difference between DICE and Treyarch: DICE fixes these kinds of problems. I skipped out on BO cause I knew this sort of crapp was gonna happen. Treyarch is lazy and just copies IW, and Activision is retarded. I asked I friend if he was getting BO, and he looked at me like I was crazy and said "NO! Fuck Activision and everything they stand for!" I guess he saw this stuff coming too.

jamie said...

i have been playing on the play-station since i was a child i love the console, since call of duty multilayer came around that has been my social life, i do nothing else work all day day and come home to play call of duty and i must say black ops is generally a fantastic game apart from daily kicking me out and its not my internet connection as i have tried it with other online games, plus this has happen to many of my online friends which reaches across the world.

if this situation does not get fixed i will have to buy an xbox as i haven't heard any problems with there online play,

i don't wish to buy an xbox i hate the controllers but all i want is to play call of duty and if it doesn't work properly for the PlayStation then xbox it is

chaswombat said...

I think this is Bullshit, just because you can't get the PSN working doesn't mean you can just shut it down. Over 5,000,000 people have bought Black Ops for the Online and if you take that away from us we will think u guys don't care about us Ps3 players. I am a Ps3 player myself i play online and it is enjoyable but if you take that away from us we will never forgive you. Some people can't afford Xbox Live so we play on the Ps3. When i got my copy of Call of Duty: Black ops I was so happy because I could play online with my friends and if you take that away from us we or meaning I will never forgive you. Also if you take away the PSN for Blcak Ops this will be one custumer you will not be seeing again

yeri said...

i just tell u 1thing.
Make sure u have all your settings right in your Modem/Router/wireless shit/ps3, like NAT type etc. it will improve your connection a lot for gaming. Also buy a bigger data plan. When u have all that set up right, BO will almost everytime make u host of the game. (when it doesnt on the start it will do it during host migration in-game). If u are host, u can't lose connection to yourself, only to other players but they will just time - out and a new player will join in for you to shoot his head off.
With dedicated servers u have a much more stable connection, cause it doesnt have to host a game on someone's Ps3. it only depends on where in the world the server is located, if it is far away u will have bad connection. Also players from like africa, can form lag cause of there slower Internet connection to the world.
But believe me, fix all this, host all the games, and you won't complain again.

Jason K said...

@yeri

The network settings are exact to specifications provided by Activision and the Treyarch support staff. I'm DMZ'd with open NAT and good connection speeds, and "local only" on search settings. I have no system cashe to clear either.

The issue is with the party system, and game coding around that. The only games where connection drops rarely occur are in parts of the game where parties are not available. As soon as I connect to games where parties are available connection drops constantly, or when I'm teamed up with a party. This should be an easy coding fix for the Developer. There is no reason why we've had to wait over 3 months to still have this issue unresolved!

yeri said...

@ Jason K
And u never notice that u are hosting the game? Do you lose connection when u are host?
And do you lose connection during matchmaking or in game? cause the Host migration thing wasn't working well in MW2 either, they just copy pasted it. lol
Also we are looking forward to an new mappack, do you think activision is planning to lose all that money to for example ea?

Jason K said...

@yeri

Some games I am hosting others I'm not. Loss of connetion happens in both cases. Usually connection drops when parties are involved. Sometimes host migration does start, but in most cases it's the connection interrupted error usually all game members get kicked back to pre-game lobby, than the lobby closes.

I'll wait 6 months before I drop any money on the map pack to see if they actually coded it properly with no errors. By then I'll probably be playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtz-PeE7GJQ&feature=fvw

I think I'm pretty much done with the COD series after this and level of dissent coming from both Activision and Treyarch on the PS3 community. It's also way too much BS for something that is supposed to be entertaining. I don't think I'll support either of these companies on any platform again. BO will be the last purchase I make in the COD series and from the publisher and developer. Time to move on to games that work, and developers that respect the community.

J said...

So....Battlefield, anyone? I'm done with COD.

spiderdanny3 said...

Ok first off whoever said they should pull the plug should fuck themselves. I paid for the game for online. I will get a group together to find ways to sue Activision and Treyarch because they would be breaking our rights as gamers. I'm glad it's not a strictly 360 PC release because I will not pay for online gameplay. I'm not a sucker like most XBox gamers.

Eric said...

I agree with most of you. Treyarch and Activation for wheel barrel loads of cash from ps3 users. Quit being so cheap and fix the problem before its too late. You guys can't afford to loss off the ps3 community. It is what it is now but going forward get off your ass and fix it.
I would also like to say that your veiled threat to turn the psn off only makes everyone more upset. Please don't say that it wasn't a threat because that would insult our intelligence. Get it fixed do it now or reap the whirlwind of people no longer buying your products.