Update on the status of EA Sports World
August 30, 2007 by pastapadre
As I addressed on Tuesday with this article, the EA Sports World site has not been functioning ever since the launch of Tiger Woods 08. This has meant that consumers who purchased the game have not been able to utilize advertised and highly promoted features such as Game Face.
I received word early on Wednesday that EA was aware of the problems (how could they not be) and that they were working to get them fixed. Despite that there was no indication of how long it could possibly take. Later in the day the following message was posted on the Tiger Woods 08 website and the EASportsWorld site (which has since been taken offline).
Due to overwhelming response, we are currently having issues with the EA Sports World website which is preventing customers to upload their photos for Photo Game Face in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08. The feature demand has exceeded our server capacity, we are in the process on fixing this issue and expect to have the site running properly very soon. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience - we will have this problem resolved as soon as possible. In the meantime, players can start a career with a regular game face golfer and still add photo face head later. Please check back for updates.
The question becomes why they were unprepared to meet the demand on this feature when there was no question it was going to be extremely popular. There are also problems such as online lag and a bug that freezes the game in career mode that they are apparently going to address in the near future.
Shawn over @ 5WG posted an article on Wednesday evening regarding the same topic I’ve addressed in recent weeks, which is the apparent inability of EA (although 2K is guilty as well when it comes to online leagues) to have all their game’s features functioning properly on and around release day. Whether it be online lag and disconnects or the disaster that has been EASportsWorld, it is completely unacceptable to have features unavailable when people get the game home. The excuses just don’t fly and they are irrelevant to the consumer who purchased in good faith expecting what was promised to be delivered.
They got their money, why should they care? I have learned my lesson with EA and 2K by waiting to see what problems are there before I buy.
My biggest problem with them is why do they even release the game without testing EVERYTHING out first???
And if some things dont work fix them before releasing, even if it means a delay in the game. Is it just me or does every single EA game have to be patched after release?
To me that is just insane. Take the time to fix the hgame before you release the game. Seems like common sense to me.
Solid read, very true. “Due to overwhelming response”–um didn’t they learn from NCAA release? There is no excuse for a company as huge in resources as EA to mess this up so bad.
Not only that, but there response to the EA Sportsworld is that it’s a BETA version. BS how long should a BETA be around it has now been a good 2 months since the EA Sportsworld and still problems persist.
easportsworld is a great feature, but if the bugs aren’t worked out everyone will quit using it.
When I first heard people say that EA should be sued I thought it sounded kind of crazy, but now I don’t see why they couldn’t be. If I buy a tool at a hardware store, and part of it is broken I can take it back. I’ve been a loyal purchaser of EA since the mid 90’s and I’ve just about had all I can take. This is just embarrasing. How could you call yourself a game developer when you just put beta’s on the shelf? I think ea must have management issues because there is no way anyone actually working on these games could be proud of what they have accomplished.
EA’s online abilities have been steadily eroding for years…
The Madden series began losing online features in 2006 and the trend has not reveresed itself yet. NCAA and Madden both released in the last 3 months with pitiful online experiences on their respective launch dates, and while the lag-issue seems to be largely gone on those games, there are still reports of dropped games, players receiving “losses” on their records when their opponent quit the game and a variety of other online maladies that ruin the overall experience.
Throw in the fact that for Madden there are - pardon the pun here - multiple maddening errors in uniforms that cannot be corrected online (or offline in some cases) due to the players being locked out of using selected jerseys in online play, and you have another online failure this year.
I shudder to think how butchered the NHL leagues are going to be.
The main problem I have with all of this is that these types of online features - gamecast, gamernet, NCAA uploadable highlights - are the future of gaming and EA, one of the biggest and most deep-pocketed companies in the industry, keeps dropping the ball at every turn. It is high time for them to get the act together and put out a product with fully functioning features and not just that, but also with fully functioning ground-breaking features that set the industry standard.
If they do not do this, then ultimately they will fail and someone else will replace EA as the dominant game publishers in North America (and much of the world). No one ever thought that Sony would come out and knock out Sega and take Ninentdo off the #1 console perch either…but it happened when Ninentdo failed to adapt to a changign market quickly enough.
Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it….is anyone at EA studying these days????
They don’t have to do anything as they have no competition and buyout the closest thing that may compete. It will not end until the leagues stop granting exclusive contracts or people stop buying the games. I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Sad!
man ill tell you what everyone on here is tellin the truth i bought the game the day it came out just for the game face pretty much and it dont work!!!!!!??????? come on this is bullshit and noone can sew them because they have so much money we would have no chance
Ridiculous. It is June 24th of 2008 !!!!! and the same problem exists….they just dropped the effort to fix this problem all together and or never felt it necessary to fix…fucking fat cats..