Harmonix Posts PR's to G4 (Les Paul Compat and Strum Bars)

[TheVoiceOfReason]

Just saw this come accross on G4's The Feed (I'm sure it will pop up in the announcements forum eventually but I wanted to pass it along as soon as I saw it):

On the broken strum bars:
"As sometimes happens when new products first go into manufacturing, we discovered an imperfection with the strum bar in an early production run of guitars that were shipped at launch. We want to inform you that we have since identified and fixed the issue in all subsequent production runs of the guitars.
If you are experiencing a problem with your guitar or any of your other Rock Band instruments, simply visit the customer support website and we will send a replacement immediately. Harmonix is dedicated to creating 100% customer satisfaction and to those of you who've encountered any hardware issues, we are sorry for the hassle."

On the PS3 Les Paul:
"Some of you have contacted us about the PS3 edition of Rock Band--from issues with guitar compatibility to frustration that stand-alone guitars and drums for Rock Band have not yet hit stores. Please know that these issues have our full attention. We are listening and we read everything that is posted on our forums. We are committed to providing the best play experience possible and working hard to ensure that we solve these problems as soon as possible. We promise to keep you updated and, in the meantime, we thank you for your patience."

That is at least better than the "open standard" response we've seen on here. Let's see how it goes.....

[toelessfoot]

Sounds good to me!

[killroy420]

thanks for the heads up on this press release, hopefully some of the outraged fanboys and fangirls can calm down a little now....

[SoulScreme]

Yeah, it helps to know they're working on the PS3 issue.

[TreoRock_]

Awesome!! Now how hard was to say that HMX? We all love Rock Band, but come on we didn't pay premium for crappy instruments and you know that. Now, let's worry about getting more good DLC after you are done with all these hardware issues.

[Maggot_Brain]

Good, finally some kind of communication.

Much more needs to be done, however.

(Did I mention I LOVE Rock Band? I just want it to be all it can be.)

[stiper327b]

thanks for the heads up on this press release, hopefully some of the outraged fanboys and fangirls can calm down a little now....

Hopefully, but not likely. The outrage will just be reallocated to another issue, likely something over which HMX has no control. They'll just be indignant that it happened at all and berate HMX for allowing it to happen in the first place. They won't acknowledge positive progress, just the negative stuff.


Yeah, it helps to know they're working on the PS3 issue.

Anybody who didn't think they were actively working on the PS3 problem, or any problem for that matter, is severely deluded. HMX knows that, ultimately, the customers pay their salaries, and that especially in today's era of instant communication, bad PR is the worst thing that could happen to a company. They've been working on this since the very first mention of the problem was made, I can guarantee you that.

[Smidget]

This has all been said in scattered bits on the forums already (in one way or another) but hopefully seeing it in this form, combined, will calm down some people.


Anybody who didn't think they were actively working on the PS3 problem, or any problem for that matter, is severely deluded. HMX knows that, ultimately, the customers pay their salaries, and that especially in today's era of instant communication, bad PR is the worst thing that could happen to a company. They've been working on this since the very first mention of the problem was made, I can guarantee you that.

what? a sensible post? this can't be right...maybe this thread has some hope of being a happy one!:rolleyes:

[TheVoiceOfReason]

thanks for the heads up on this press release, hopefully some of the outraged fanboys and fangirls can calm down a little now....

While I agree that some of the outrage is a bit over the top, I can totally sympathize with those having issues after having spend $170 on a product (or those PS3 owners of the standalone that are unable to do anything but sing). It is extremely frustrating and we should expect more. I wouldnt' call them fanboys, after all what are they being a fanboy of? :)

If there was no "outrage" over some of these issues, I guarantee they'd go unaddressed. I have limited experience with Harmonix as this was my first HMX purchase (which is why its shame that the experience be tainted with the Les Paul incompatability issues), but I'm pretty sure EA wouldn't do anything to rectify any problem unless there was public outcry. So the flaming can serve a purpose, if only to let the companies know its a problem for their consumers.

Jury's still out for me on the Les Paul issue, this communication is a step in the right direction though.

Every business makes mistakes, the true colors of any business show through in how they handle their mistakes and take steps to prevent the :)

[TreoRock_]

Here is the link:

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/681152/Harmonix_Responds_to_Rock_Band_Concerns.html#readm ore

[SoulScreme]

Hopefully, but not likely. The outrage will just be reallocated to another issue, likely something over which HMX has no control. They'll just be indignant that happened at all and berate HMX for allowing it to happen in the first place. They won't acknowledge positive progress, just the negative stuff.



Anybody who didn't think they were actively working on the PS3 problem, or any problem for that matter, is severely deluded. They know that, ultimately, the customers pay their salaries, and that especially in today's era of instant communication, bad PR is the worst thing that could happen to a company. They've been working on this problem since the very first mention was made of the problem, I can guarantee you that.

Well, the first official statement from EA, about open standards and blah blah blah sure didn't seem like it. Also, how could the PS3 version have passed QA to go into production without this being known? I assumed that if they launched despite it and hadn't said anything other than PR stuff within a week, they weren't going to fix it.

[Eagoyle]

Or straight from the horse's mouth...
http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=11578

[J-Rock]

If Rock Band is patched to allow the Les Paul to work, I'd be a happy camper (take a clue Red Octane, you'd be selling more games and the customers would get what they want).

[Bluvox]

Honestly - I wish there was a way to determine if you have the flawed equipment or not. Like saying "if you box was created after 10/26/07 you have the newer version" or something. Best would be if the units had a hardware revision on them so you could identify what you have by the revision number.

But glad to see they are posting up responses, and really glad to know they read the boards!

[TheVoiceOfReason]

Or straight from the horse's mouth...
http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=11578

Yup, just saw that. When I posted this thread, they hadn't posted that yet. Not a bad idea to have mention of it on here as this is where the original threads started anyway.

[DoctorWho]

While they didn't come out and say "we're fixing the Les Paul issue" I feel MUCH better that they're aknowledging it. Sigh of releaf!

I too love this game, and I would recommend it to ANYONE if they would just get these issues fixed!

[glide]

With regards to the PS3 issue; "working on it" could mean "we'll have another Rock Band Guitar available for you to purchase soon".

[TheVoiceOfReason]

With regards to the PS3 issue; "working on it" could mean "we'll have another Rock Band Guitar available for you to purchase soon".

Haha, yes it could, but we'll lets not jump the gun. Now that Harmonix has told us their working on the issue, a little bit of patience is in order until we see what the result or lack thereof is :)

[AdamWill]

Definitely a better reply, both for the lack of 'open standards' bs and the inclusion of 'we're working on it'. So now RO and HMX have effectively equal responses. Thanks HMX.