Thrashdragon
17th Dec 2007, 01:31 PM
As with any first generation hardware, there have been some issues with the Rock Band peripherals breaking/not functioning properly. My guitar was one of those affected...on the second day of use the strumbar started failing intermittently, and eventually stopped registering downstrums altogether.
I went online to the support page, and two days later had a new guitar in my hands. I didn't have to send the broken one in first, either. That was pretty impressive (especially considering Microsoft takes up to six weeks to replace a 360 and you have to send the old one in first, leaving you with nothing). This was also not what I expected from EA, of all companies.
Even stranger, there was some sort of mixup and a large number of people that had ordered a replacement peripheral during launch week had their orders caught in limbo. As compensation, EA is giving all of them a free EA game...and it's not some old Madden game, either...it's any game you want from the EA catalog (minus Mass Effect).
In comparison, Activision (currently the largest third party publisher in the world) has blocked the release of a Harmonix-created patch to allow the Guitar Hero III Les Paul to work with Rock Band on the PS3 (it already works on 360, Sony apparently has no third party controller standards).
So this is odd. Is EA finally trying to clean up their image, or did their contract with Harmonix/MTV Games to distribute and provide tech support for Rock Band specify this kind of service? Does losing their place as the largest third party publisher mean they've lost some of their traditional arrogance, as well? If so, I know where they can find it (cough*Activision*cough).
They're still EA, so I'll still be a little cautious about them, but I have to admit I'm not quite as jaded about them as I was.
I went online to the support page, and two days later had a new guitar in my hands. I didn't have to send the broken one in first, either. That was pretty impressive (especially considering Microsoft takes up to six weeks to replace a 360 and you have to send the old one in first, leaving you with nothing). This was also not what I expected from EA, of all companies.
Even stranger, there was some sort of mixup and a large number of people that had ordered a replacement peripheral during launch week had their orders caught in limbo. As compensation, EA is giving all of them a free EA game...and it's not some old Madden game, either...it's any game you want from the EA catalog (minus Mass Effect).
In comparison, Activision (currently the largest third party publisher in the world) has blocked the release of a Harmonix-created patch to allow the Guitar Hero III Les Paul to work with Rock Band on the PS3 (it already works on 360, Sony apparently has no third party controller standards).
So this is odd. Is EA finally trying to clean up their image, or did their contract with Harmonix/MTV Games to distribute and provide tech support for Rock Band specify this kind of service? Does losing their place as the largest third party publisher mean they've lost some of their traditional arrogance, as well? If so, I know where they can find it (cough*Activision*cough).
They're still EA, so I'll still be a little cautious about them, but I have to admit I'm not quite as jaded about them as I was.