Euro Gamers Lash Out At SCEE
See Full ImageThe newly revamped PlayStation Store is now up and running in all territories, but after a few days, it seems European gamers aren't so happy with the results. In fact, it has sparked a major backlash directed towards Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, centering on the fact that Euro gamers tend to get the short end of the stick far too often.
The uprising is taking place in the official European PlayStation forums, and as you can see, they have a number of complaints. The first bit revolves around the freshly unveiled Store:
"The revamped store has also been grossly mismanaged for the EU. It's like SCEE took hold of what SCEA passed them, and all the functionality was ripped out. Why are images so slow to load? Why are the catagories so badly organised compared to the US store? Why can't we have video previews likey the US do? Give us the same store functionality as the US."
Well, as we've seen from feedback on our site, the slow-loading icon issue has certainly affected the US Store as well, but it is true that the European Store is arranged differently. For example, there is no specific "Demos" section and a "Preview" button is mysteriously missing. But this may just have been the straw that broke the camel's back, as there are many other complaints included. For example, they point to the official PlayStation blog headed up by SCEA in the US, whereas they're forced to settle for the third-party ThreeSpeech blog. They also call SCEE's approach to online play "messy." We suppose you could toss in the obvious one (getting big-name games later than other regions), but that one is starting to dissipate in this new generation of simultaneous worldwide releases for blockbuster titles.
Bottom line- European gamers aren't too happy with SCEE right now, and while we don't agree with the headline, "a track record of laziness," we do feel your pain. That post is now in the feedback section of the site, so maybe they will receive an official response at some point... We can pretty much guarantee, though, that SCEE is confined by a variety of limitations and restrictions that SCEA doesn't face, so that's one final point Euro gamers should bear in mind.
4/17/2008 Ben Dutka
Comments (Beta)
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 12:45:08 PM
You have to remember, SCEA and SCEE are part of the SAME COMPANY. Do you really think how the two divisions conduct business would differ greatly if it weren't for the aforementioned gap in limitations?
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ThePoetRazel
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 1:40:57 PM
If it's not SCEE's fault then who's fault is it? Is it EU regs? PEGI? BBFC (in UK)? or national laws?
I think we EU gamers deserve better. So i want to know who it is that's keeping up this separate and unequal segregation. Then perhaps we can send our grievances to the people who can do something about it.
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Ultimadream
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 11:17:05 AM
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BlinkBoy
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 12:28:56 PM
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But it is just minor details for me.
The content part I would like to get answer to. Maybe the content need to go through more Rating systems over here. As UK have their BBFC, while we in Norway and pretty much rest of Europe got the PEGI ratings, plus many different languages to translate to, but it shouldn't be the biggest problem to solve.
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LegioN
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 1:12:33 PM
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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 2:04:13 PM
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As for "segregation," I don't think that exists, either. You may not have noticed, but there are significant differences between Europe and the US when it comes to the games industry; just look at the difference between the ESRB and the BBFC. That's only the tip of the iceberg, trust me. I'm not saying Euro gamers don't have a case, but too many of them are simply assuming SCEE is somehow "lazier" than SCEA and I can pretty much guarantee that's not the case.
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JToTha2
Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 3:30:52 PM
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ThePoetRazel
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Thursday, April 17, 2008 @ 11:16:10 AM
I think we've let them hide behind that excuse for too long. The least they could do is issue an actual reason for our poor service here. Or maybe try to make up for it with other things. If we can't have some things other regions have, perhaps we could get something they don't have.