DLC Content Missing from PS3 EU store

[hmxhenry]

At this point a detailed explanation of what went wrong, what's being done to fix it and an ETA of a fix would be the least they could do.

Hey all, sorry for the delayed response. This thread is obviously long overdue for an update. You're correct in assuming that the EU PS3 Pro guitar community is not a large one, but that doesn't mean that we aren't lobbying hard to make sure you get the content you deserve, and I apologize if my lack of frequent updates has given the impression that we're ignoring these issues. Hopefully this recap helps.

What's wrong: content is missing, missing from select regions or priced incorrectly. This is bad. Unfortunately, we don't maintain any of these stores ourselves and can't fix anything without help from Sony.

What's being done to fix it: all the issues listed in this thread have been flagged to our support rep at SCEE. They have a limited number of testers so we are somewhat at the mercy of their schedule, and for a game that releases more content every week than most games do in a year, I'm sure you can imagine that we are already keeping Sony pretty busy. The last few months have been especially hectic given our own submission for Rock Band Blitz, as well as an influx of other devs submitting PLAY / PSN titles for Sony to test. So everyone is jockeying for test time and as a result, older issues sometimes get pushed to the back burner.

The triage priority we've recommended for testing is as follows: delivering new RB DLC -> replacing missing RB DLC -> delivering new RBN DLC -> replacing pricing on old RB DLC -> replacing missing pro upgrades -> replacing missing RBN DLC. These issues were prioritized based on the number of people likely affected, which is why missing RBN songs or pro upgrades may not be the top priority.

ETA of a fix: this info I don't have, but I have a meeting with our DLC Production team this week and will ask them to see if they can re prioritize the Bombtrack pro upgrade with SCEE and make sure it's at the top of their list once Blitz is cleared for take off.

Please trust that we are as frustrated with all of this as you are, if not more so. If we had complete control over the store and could change things ourselves, we would. I hope the above info helps.

[TheDescent]

Thank you Aaron for the support! It's nice to see which are the priorities here, and I always thought things were sorted like this.

It's always nice to see you taking the time to answer us in such a precise way.

[rko389]

ETA of a fix: this info I don't have, but I have a meeting with our DLC Production team this week and will ask them to see if they can re prioritize the Bombtrack pro upgrade with SCEE and make sure it's at the top of their list once Blitz is cleared for take off.

So I guess we have to wait for the upgrade we paid for, until you've released Blitz? That's fair. As if it's not already hard enough being on the PSN in Europe, being a RB player in Europe and being a Pro Guitar owner. I guess that's also Sony's fault you would rather put your new game first (not that it come's as a suprise anymore) This is the problem with HMX, it's always someone else's fault for every single issue with RB3 and it gets tiring hearing it everytime, you haven't once held your hands up and accepted reponsibility for all your mistakes and your poor customer service for anyone not in the US or not on Xbox, you just ignore everyone for months and then you wonder why people get annoyed? How about we get that Pro Upgrade we paid for by next weeks store update, or I get a refund from Sony and stop buying DLC from you?
No more Pro upgrades for me I guess, after this, which isn't the first time

[randomas]

Thank you Aaron, that was all I was asking for.

On a side note, I do realise this is a 0.99 € issue. But it really gets up my nose on principal.

Rko389's response may seem excessive, but it's not really because there's a huge difference between fixing a "bug" affecting few players, and another is consciously deciding to postpone honouring your side of an economic transaction to when it best suits you in complete and blatant breach of contract.
You openly admit to it as well by telling us (and I appreciate this) what your priorities are. I hope you do realise that any consumer association worth their salt would have you for lunch.

And please don't forget there's also the "you don't know what you've lost" pro upgrade, it doesn't affect me, but there are others. Blitz's release is imminent if I remember correctly so now that I know I'll sit and wait.

Thanks again.

Matt

[hmxhenry]

Thank you Aaron for the support! It's nice to see which are the priorities here, and I always thought things were sorted like this.

It's always nice to see you taking the time to answer us in such a precise way.

We're juggling a lot at the moment with the Blitz announcement, but I'm glad I was able to pop in and help a bit.

So I guess we have to wait for the upgrade we paid for, until you've released Blitz?

That's not what I said, and I don't think that will be the case either. It's not as much "until we've released Blitz" as it is "when Sony is done testing Blitz". This isn't something we can fix on our side, we need Sony to do it for us.

This is the problem with HMX, it's always someone else's fault for every single issue with RB3 and it gets tiring hearing it everytime, you haven't once held your hands up and accepted reponsibility for all your mistakes

I don't think that's true at all. There have been plenty of instances where we've dropped the ball, but even in those instances, given the way game development works (on every console in every region) we can't just snap our fingers and correct things. We are at the mercy of SCEE (and SCEA and Microsoft and Nintendo) to correct any issue with DLC. It's just an unfortunate truth that some consoles and some regions have better processes in place than others. Believe me, we are just as frustrated as you are. If you're not getting an update from us it's because our phone calls are going unanswered. We are sometimes just as in the dark as you are.

On a side note, I do realise this is a 0.99 € issue. But it really gets up my nose on principal.

You openly admit to it as well by telling us (and I appreciate this) what your priorities are. I hope you do realise that any consumer association worth their salt would have you for lunch.

I completely understand the principal, and it gets up my nose too. Please trust that 0.99 for you is significantly more for us, and that only multiplies when several upgrades are missing or numerous songs are priced incorrectly or the store updates a day later than expected. Not saying that your 0.99 isn't important, just want to make it clear that we're both losing out when things like this happen. It's obviously in our best interest, from both a financial and community standpoint, that the store run smoothly, and if we could be doing more to control that we most definitely wood.

I think there may have also been a misunderstanding regarding the triage priority. I laid that out in the hopes of illustrating the usual plan for escalation, and should not be taken as the exact process used in this situation. I do not know how much of the onus is on Sony, and how much falls to us, how much (if any) funds have been received for purchased upgrades, etc.

I've revived this request with our DLC production team to see if they can reach out to SCEE to make this a top priority. I'll follow up once I hear back from them.

[primusumirp]

I don't want to blame anyone for these problems but just wanted to point out that the EU region can be a nightmare for Sony to keep their store updated in comparison to for example the US. There's dozens of countries, several different currencies, country based policies and laws to obey and many DLC have restrictions on what countries and when they can be put available. When you add to the mix a software provider (HMX) who even has DLC for their DLC (pro upgrades) and puts out weekly a lot of DLC, mistakes are bound to happen.

To me it's enough that these missing and mispriced DLC are noted by HMX and sent forward to SCEE for correction. I understand there are at the moment factors that likely delay putting these missing pro upgrades available, like Blitz coming, summer vacations etc and that's okay.

I wish HMX would verify asap after the PSN EU store updates that everything's ok and if not, they would add the info on missing or mispriced DLC on OP of that week's sticky DLC threat. I'm not sure how much that would help but I think it wouldn't hurt either.

[rko389]

I do realise that HMX are a busy company, especially with Blitz now coming out, there may be certain things you can or can't say due to legal reasons (even reading some of the posts i've seen about the amount of work that goes into submitting DLC etc sounds like a ton of work), and that Sony EU must be a nightmare to deal with when it comes to publishing, but I still maintain that this could have been handled a little better on HMXs side. Although I appreciate your continued support of the game and the way you do handle the majority of issues, there are times when a few updates for people would be much welcomed. It's just a very annoying experience when you're a customer and you pay for something and you can't have it, and as I said being a PS3 user in Europe is infuriating at times. I really do hope you sort this issue out soon, because the servers seem to be running great after the few months of uneasiness (thank you for sorting that out by the way), so I'm sure you guys can sort this out too.

[robbiecon]

Bombtrack, and Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone hmxhenry

[randomas]

I've revived this request with our DLC production team to see if they can reach out to SCEE to make this a top priority. I'll follow up once I hear back from them.

Much appreciated thanks!

[hmxhenry]

I don't want to blame anyone for these problems but just wanted to point out that the EU region can be a nightmare for Sony to keep their store updated in comparison to for example the US. There's dozens of countries, several different currencies, country based policies and laws to obey and many DLC have restrictions on what countries and when they can be put available. When you add to the mix a software provider (HMX) who even has DLC for their DLC (pro upgrades) and puts out weekly a lot of DLC, mistakes are bound to happen.

This is all spot on. Each console and each region has their own way of processing DLC, and the fact that we're able to put out weekly content on 360 US, 360 EU, PS3 US, Nintendo US and Nintendo EU without hardly any issues at all should be a pretty good indication that we have our act together.

I wish HMX would verify asap after the PSN EU store updates that everything's ok and if not, they would add the info on missing or mispriced DLC on OP of that week's sticky DLC threat. I'm not sure how much that would help but I think it wouldn't hurt either.

SCEE is supposed to test everything in a retail environment and our QA is supposed to triple check afterwards. Often times there are inconsistencies where songs will appear to work fine in the dev environment but not on a retail console. We've asked SCEE to verify that and we'll be adding an extra fail safe to test DLC on our end. When we're able to catch that info soon enough we'll definitely add it to the main announcement post, but it's not uncommon to see the first complaints pop up days later since there isn't as large of an audience buying songs on SCEE.

I do realise that HMX are a busy company, especially with Blitz now coming out, there may be certain things you can or can't say due to legal reasons (even reading some of the posts i've seen about the amount of work that goes into submitting DLC etc sounds like a ton of work), and that Sony EU must be a nightmare to deal with when it comes to publishing, but I still maintain that this could have been handled a little better on HMXs side.

I agree, this definitely isn't the smoothest things could have gone. You are right that things are especially hectic right now, with the upcoming launch of Blitz, increased travel for industry events and a few unannounced HMX projects we can't talk about right now. There are a lot of different conversations on the forums and I wish that I was able to update them all daily.

Bombtrack, and Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone hmxhenry

Yep, we're aware and we're on it!

Much appreciated thanks!

You're welcome. Thanks for your patience.

The latest update from SCEE is that they currently have one tester managing all RB submissions (Blitz, weekly DLC, RBN releases, etc) which would explain the bottleneck. We've stressed that Bombtrack, at the very least, needs to be a higher priority since people have actually paid for it, and hopefully we'll have an update from them soon. I will be out of the office until Tuesday, but I'll check back then to see if there has been any progress.