Depression often makes the simplest tasks seem overwhelming. Guys, I think Konami needs a prescription for Prozac, because they're kinda pathetic.

@phrali said:

the whole argument about whether the 360 or the ps3 is more difficult to develop for is just stupid at this point. Both of these systems have been out for like 20 years. If you havent figured them out by now, you should just give up, stop making excuses, and start making flash games instead

That's what's truly weird in this case. I'd have said that if you haven't figured out the ps3 by now (which I *still* haven't, I fucking hate even trying to think about those goddamn SPE pipelines. Does anyone here know how to trace which prepare-to-branch instructions result in dead ends? Please point me at some documentation, if so), stick with the 360 (which is remarkably easy to code for).

But yeah, if you can't track down and squash bugs on a 360, given the amazing SDK resources for it, you shouldn't be coding at all. PS3, I don't envy anyone trying to code for it.

This sucks. It's starting to feel like, if you compare this with the skyrim ps3 dlc issue, certain developers simply don't care about one half of their market.

So Konomi is done with SH now? Cause uh...I don't really think anyone is going to trust them handle it properly anymore (if anyone was left that still trusted them with future SH games)

They're like an opposite version of Bethesda. If those two combined, they could make a competent game. Or they could make the worst most broken thing ever.

I wanted to buy a Konami game the other day but I had technical difficulties paying for it so I aquired it in another way.

@Binarynova said:

Also, because it's so expensive. Am I right?

@Zabant said:

This is one of the first realisations I have seen of my biggest fear during the current generation. Game companies no longer have to worry about getting games out the door working and of a high quality, and people accept it because, HEY PATCH IN THE WORKS.

Well guess what, there isn't one, they have your money, nyah nyah.

Disgusting, and I predict the first of many such cases.

Yeah. If this becomes a trend: ugh.

Ironically this has been a trend in PC gaming for years before consoles came about. The idea in the original Playstation days of not being able to patch your game was a great motivator to not release it broken in fear of horrible press urging people not to buy it. It is sad to see consoles relying more and more on post-release patches and a "well we can fix it later" mentality. At the same time the Microsoft cert system is a pretty good deterrent against releasing games with bugs although it shouldn't be mistaken with a lengthy and expensive QA process that should be facilitated by the developer. Ultimately it's not the patching process of Microsoft that's holding Konami back or lack of funding. They took a very old Playstation 2 game and altered it to work on a newer generation XBOX platform so there were obviously problems to be had. It is possible that the difference of hardware and software pipelines etc is so great that they would have to rebuild the game from scratch to facilitate the fixes they were able to implement on the PS3 - which of course something no one would do. The blame though, is squarely on Konami for not seeing this sooner, or worse yet seeing it and failing to do anything about it in order to get a quick buck out of thousands of people before the word got out - which ultimately seems to be the case. It is incredulous to think that an industry giant like Konami just didn't know there was something wrong with their game, as that would indicate that literally no one put it into a console and played it after the game went gold.

"Konami tells Joystiq that they will continue to sell the Xbox 360 version of the Silent Hill HD Collection. "Consumers with any questions regarding their purchase" can contact Konami customer support, the publisher told us."
 
So unbelievably gross.

After the FEZ issue maybe Konami are just hoping people will let it slide. This is fucking pathetic and makes me worry about the Zone of the Enders HD collection.

Two thoughts:

1. So the Konami name isn't even worth a money losing patch or two?

2. Nice to see another genre ("Permanently broken") of PC game successfully transition to consoles.

Where are all the Phil Fish haters now?

Konami have always been cheapskates, but this is a new low.

Another reason why we won't see a purely digital distribution model for a console generation, because Konami will chuck a hissy fit if the processors are somewhere different.

"Fuck it Phil Fish did it, we can totally do it too! Thanks for your sixty dollars bitches!"

Incompetent and full of shit as ever. Never change Konami.

As someone who has the misfortune to own the 360 version this is rather frustrating to hear. Was playing some Silent Hill 3 but wound up stopping, hoping that a patch would be coming to fix issues like out of sync audio, music seeming to drop in some scenes and go silent, and most annoyingly of all achievements popping up drops the game to about 1 fps till the 30 second cutscene ends about 7 minutes later. Or you reset the console.

Not sure why they aren't bothering to patch it. As for the charge for patching on 360 from what I am aware the first patch comes free then after that (barring exceptions) they start charging.

Seems pretty off just going "hey, we shipped a completely broken product, we know, but we don't feel like fixing it. So go buy it everyone, it is in stores now".

This circle jerk of blame and apathy is not complete until we hear Notch's opinion. ;p

I'm not going to say that "Shipping Broken" deserves a concept page. But I'm not not going to say that...? ;) Guess it's List time. Come help me fill it to the brim with shame!

This is mad lol.

WE WERE GOING TO PATCH IT BUT THEN WE DIDN'T BECAUSE

Signed, Konami

Blame Microsoft, They charge huge amounts of money for a company to release a patch and make it difficult for anyone (even developers) to make modifications to games. The Xbox 360 console is very closed off and playing it too safe.

@oscarandjo said:

Blame Microsoft, They charge huge amounts of money for a company to release a patch and make it difficult for anyone (even developers) to make modifications to games. The Xbox 360 console is very closed off and playing it too safe.

Oh fuck me - developers have been releasing patches on the XBOX 360 forever, and Konami aren't some tiny indie company who can't afford to deploy a patch.

I blame Konami for not fixing their own broken-ass product.

@Smokey_Earhole said:

@Turhaya

Konami let a busted version of the game collection go gold and get out the door. Unfortunately not as rare as it should be. The release quality of a game should be higher regardless whether or not day zero patches are the status quo.

In the other corner you have what is basically Microsoft's taxation of game patches and DLC. The idea was allegedly one of quality control, yet I've only seen these policies do more harm than good. Instead of sticking to their guns that acted to discourage poorly developed titles, wouldn't it be better to allow these types of patches gratis of releases on their system, and therefore elevate the brand as a whole?

"Technical issues and resources", whichever company is more at fault, still doesn't serve the customers that fuel their business. Build a better product and for heaven's sake let those people improve their product easily! Maybe there really were unsolvable technical issues. My bet's on money.

A more nuanced perspective, apart from the majority of knee-jerk reactions here. Please understand that Konami made a vile move - but it's Microsoft facilitating said vile move with a conceptually sound but ultimately broken system. It doesn't make Konami's decision amy less problematic, but the blame should be placed accordingly.

Conceptually sound but ultimately broken? Before the beloved Phil Fish decided he had a problem with it, we didn't blame Microsoft when game publishers decided not to fix their fucking games, nor was it at all commonplace for high profile publishers to essentially say "yeah, we know the game is busted, but... well... fuck it we got your money bwahahaha". And it still isn't, which is why this decision is absolutely, one thousand percent shitty.

That is a raw deal. Got the game through a rental so at least I didn't give Konami money for it

@oscarandjo said:

Blame Microsoft, They charge huge amounts of money for a company to release a patch and make it difficult for anyone (even developers) to make modifications to games. The Xbox 360 console is very closed off and playing it too safe.

I don't buy Phil Fish's argument (or his game), but he at least had some extenuating circumstances. Konami is not a two dude development team who were "powerless" under Microsoft's thumb. It's not their first rodeo, either. The expectation, from a consumer stand point, is that your product will ship working and functional. If it does not, the onus is on the developer and publisher (the ones who made the product that is flawed), to fix it. Microsoft's $40.000 patch process (after one free patch), while not super awesome, was originally designed to avoid a widely-held fear of a reliance on patches, which has worked well out for the most part. When JBlow and StepToe had their "discussion" last year about the problems of certification, I think Microsoft''s policies comes off pretty well when held up to scrutiny.

The certification and patching process will most likely change to adapt to the rules of a new console marketplace, but there's no reason to change things before that imminent time.

@Oddy4000: Stepto, not StepToe

well if they cant fix what they broken then they should be fined heavily.....

@Shaolinstyle said:

well if they cant fix what they broken then they should be fined heavily.....

By who?

I don't have either version, and haven't played a single Silent Hill game before, but this is enough to make me seriously consider not buying a Konami game again. They're not what they used to be anyway.

Several 360 users have badgered me in the past (I only have a PS3), but I don't care. I sympathize with you. You bought a game, it was heavily broken, and now they aren't owning up to their mistakes and fixing it. You deserve better. Platform doesn't matter, the games do, and you've been robbed.

Yikes.

If this is the kind of support we can expect from "HD collections" Sony and Microsoft better reconsider their "no backward compatibility" stance.

Start holding your breath....

Now!

Obviously everyone is comparing this to the Phil Fish situation, and with good reason.

But a huge difference is that, while the Fez patch may have borked the save files of a minute percentage of players, leaving the rest unscathed, the Silent Hill collection has completely unavoidable issues for everyone who bought it. There's no getting around the shitty technical glitches in that game.

At least the Fez owners who got screwed by that patch still have a perfectly playable game they can enjoy again. SHHD owners are left with a buggy mess that will never be fixed.

@oscarandjo said:

Blame Microsoft, They charge huge amounts of money for a company to release a patch and make it difficult for anyone (even developers) to make modifications to games. The Xbox 360 console is very closed off and playing it too safe.

Haha, like hell. 40 000 dollars is chickenfeed to Konami. The PR hit they're taking for this is orders of magnitude greater than that would've been.

This shit is always a bummer. If it's any consolation to 360-only owners, at least the vast majority of games are developed with the 360 as the lead platform and the PS3 ports are usually lacking.

This happened the other way around with NHL 2K10. While the 360 got a patch the PS3 owners were left out. Reality of the business I guess. Maybe the 360 version sold way less.

Is there like sweet price for worst videogame company out there, or why is Konamani trying so hard to loose their customers?

I mean, if they can't fix it, they can't fix it. I really doubt they're taking this lightly. Or, I hope that a genuine effort was put in. I think it would have been smart for them to keep their mouths shut about it though, kind of comes of way worse when they make it public knowledge. Maybe I'm just being optimistic.

Guess who will be buying Konami games used (if ever)? This guy!

Seriously, I understand when technical issues cause a game to be broken on a platform (a la Skyrim). It's not the developer's fault that the architecture of the systems are different enough to cause problems. Furthermore, I'm not a developer, so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. That said, when you know a game is going to be broken, you should be up front about it to your consumers, and if you know you can't fix it, you should consider pushing back your release date so that you can put more time into solving the problems.

That's fucked up, if they don't even do refunds for those with the 360 version at this point this is just evil.

Will this affect the sales for the re-release of the MGS collection in 360 and PS3? For a matter of principle, I hope it does.

Reading stuff like this makes Activision and Infinity Ward look good.

When MW2's online became vulnerable to cheats on PS3 (after the PS3 got hacked), they initially stated that patching in a fix would be too time consuming and costly; as IW was working on MW3 and BlackOps was already available. But in the end they patched it anyways.

@LibrorumProhibitorum: I doubt it.

For what I understand from the PR announcement, its because Konami didn't want to commit the resources and I+D costs of the patch.

@oscarandjo said:

Blame Microsoft, They charge huge amounts of money for a company to release a patch and make it difficult for anyone (even developers) to make modifications to games. The Xbox 360 console is very closed off and playing it too safe.

Why would we? 40,000 is spare change to Konami, even counting only sales for that game alone.

And its not like the bug was reported by a small group of people. They changed the distance fog. How did this got gold?

Weren't companies complaining earlier in this generation of hardware about how difficult the ps3 was to program for?

Whatever. If the PS3 was the one not getting patched no one would say shit.

Didn't know a page for Feces existed. Which then led me to the Fecal Personification page. Which I noticed wasn't attached to the Mr. Hankey page. So, um, yeah...fixed.

...Giant Bomb takes me to some weird places sometimes.

Konami never liked Microsoft to begin with. Racists.

@Doppelgamer said:

I don't have either version, and haven't played a single Silent Hill game before, but this is enough to make me seriously consider not buying a Konami game again. They're not what they used to be anyway.

Several 360 users have badgered me in the past (I only have a PS3), but I don't care. I sympathize with you. You bought a game, it was heavily broken, and now they aren't owning up to their mistakes and fixing it. You deserve better. Platform doesn't matter, the games do, and you've been robbed.

QFT

I think this kind of feeds into the argument of whether or not patching has done more good that harm on consoles. In my opinion, I think patching is fine and, furthermore, absolutely necessary if a game is broken or buggy. On the other hand, it is NOT ok to release a game that is fucking broken with the intention of maybe eventually getting around to fixing it with a patch. It's just bad for the consumer and more importantly, the early adopter who supports your game developing ass buy being a loyal fan of your work. So why would you screw over the people who pay your fucking bills? All it does is sour your reputation. Do you think people are going to support you in the future if you keep bending them over with half assed ports?

I like how they say "some users" instead of the truthful "all users"

so they're basically admitting they don't know how to fix it

FYI I emailed Konami and they apologized and said if I bought the game new prior to 8/8/2012, I could exchange it for any game on this list. I'll be getting the Silent Hill HD Collection on PS3.

As an Xbox owner this does not make me feel comfortable about purchasing Zone of the Enders HD collection when it comes out or Metal Gear Lightning Revengeance. Or any other Konami game.

It ain't my console's fault. Hell, I have a PS3. But why should I trust them on the PS3 either? Konami is the problem.