Kane's Wrath Patch & Ladder Season 2 Delayed

[Sonic 296]

Some bad news here. Especially if you were waiting for the new Kane's Wrath patch which was scheduled for a release on July 4th. Unfortunately the patch and the start of Ladder Season 2 has been pushed back to the week of July 7 - 11th due to some immediate technical fixes that are required. To go with the announcement of the patch being delayed, EALA General Manager Mike Verdu has issued his own statement on the subject, which you can read below.

 

"A WORD FROM EALA GENERAL MANAGER MIKE VERDU"

 

We are finally on the cusp of releasing a long overdue patch for the PC version of Kane's Wrath, the expansion pack for C&C3. This patch addresses desync and balance issues that should have been fixed months ago, and I apologize again to our customers for the long delay. The wait for the Kane’s Wrath patch has been a low point in our product support for the last few years, and I take full responsibility.

 

As General Manager of the studio that makes Command & Conquer games (as well as the Battle for Middle series), I care a great deal about our product quality and support.

 

I am very proud of our games and the teams that made them. From C&C Generals to the two Battle for Middle-earth games to C&C3, I feel like we have brought great RTS experiences to millions of people who have spent tens of millions of hours playing the games and having fun. That's what I live for... it's why I'm in this business. I can’t think of a better reward than to know that we have built games that people are spending time with and enjoying. I know that some in our community may dislike certain products or aspects or features of the games overall – and I'm humble enough to realize that we can always improve and do better – but in my heart I believe that we’ve made some good games that have delivered value to our customers.

 

I am not as proud of our record in supporting our games after launch. In fact, I'm downright unhappy with that aspect of our business. There have been some bright spots: For example, our community manager's passionate advocacy on behalf of our customers, the huge patch 1.05 for Battle for Middle-earth II that was a labor of love between our team and the community, and our fast response to some initial problems on C&C3. But overall, the level of support has been lacking. We tend to put out a limited number of patches for our products and in many cases those patches take longer than they should to finish, test, and release. It’s been a chronic issue for more than four years, and we need to fix it.

 

Our support woes are not the fault of the line developers who work here. We have some of the most talented people in the world on our RTS teams here at EA Los Angeles. The basic issue is the tension between developing new products and supporting our older products. Creating a patch requires hundreds – and in some cases thousands - of man-hours invested by an interdisciplinary team... as well as close coordination with our quality assurance department and other parts of our company. Our teams and leaders have the best of intentions and desperately want to continue supporting our games… but we find ourselves constantly trading off between new development and support. It’s very hard to juggle this work and there are often dependencies and complexities involved that wind up hurting both the new project and the patch efforts. Our issues with support are not a matter of being greedy; believe it or not we have actually spent seven figure sums supporting each of our products for the last few years (if you added up the effort invested and money spent on patches and support for Generals, the BFME games, C&C3, and their expansion packs, we could have built an entire new product). It actually boils down to a matter of logistics and management.

 

We've been wrestling with the logistics of support for a long time and we need a new approach. After all, some of our competitors have been providing a high level of post-launch support for years, so we know it can be done... and done well.

 

I'm happy to announce that we have established a live team for our RTS products. Its mission is simple: To protect and serve Command & Conquer – the C&C community, the individual C&C games, and the C&C universe. The live team is starting small, but over a period of many months it will be staffed with a number of developers who will be dedicated to support. Over the next year, more and more support activities will be carried out by the live team instead of by the teams that actually build the games. Red Alert 3 will start out supported by its development team and will transition to live team support a few months after release. The live team's laser-sharp focus on support eliminates the inherent conflict between new development and patching/maintaining our legacy products.

 

I am not going to say that this initiative is going to instantly solve all of our support issues – and I don't think we have the credibility with our customers to make that claim anyway. In fact, it will take considerable time to get this effort spun up and working well. But over a period of months and years, I believe the benefits of this new approach will be evident. My hope is that the community will be able to look back on this period and say, "this was the low point – and then things started getting better".

 

-Mike Verdu

EALA General Manager

This is going to disappoint a lot people and I'm sure this will bait the anti-EA brigade into more heated discussions. Give EALA time and they will deliver the patch.

[Luk3us 63]

lol.... I can't say I didn't see this coming.

[Sonic 296]

And so it begins....

 

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?t...22&tstart=0

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?t...59&tstart=0

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?t...08&tstart=0

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?t...32&tstart=0

 

What the hell is wrong with some of people. Its just a patch for video game.

 

One of those threads calls for APOC to quit as community manager I don't envy this aspect of APOC's job.

[Luk3us 63]

EA needs to hear this tbh. If they don't they'll just continue on as they have been. So bring it on I say, EA can only handle so much bitching before somethign changes.

[Nmenth 291]

EA's past actions (or lack of action if the case may be) has put me in a state of indifference. I'll take the patch when it comes, but I am hardly surprised when the coming is slow.

[hagren 0]

People need to relax. It's better the patch is as good as possible instead of some quick fix that brings us nothing.

Also, it's not like EA would be the only one having slow patching.

[recover 2]

The live team's laser-sharp focus on support eliminates the inherent conflict between new development and patching/maintaining our legacy products.

I thought that part sounded pretty interesting... anyone think they'll manage to patch the old games?

[Luk3us 63]

rofl, how about no.

[recover 2]

I just hope we'll get this patch before the C&C anniversary.

[sith_wampa 6]

I rofl'd last night in the game lobby. Everyone was bitching about the patch. :lol:

[Banshee 28]

It's funny, but it is pathetic. I stand for the words I posted on my site about that:

 

we, true modders know the following: the patch will be done when it is done. It's just like asking when mod X will be released. Pure waste of time and, annoying to those who are working on it.

[Gben 20]

Well I'm dissapointed in any delay, but it''s not the end of the world!

 

But I liked Mike's post.... fills me with optimism.

 

Why sack APOC - why shoot the messenger just cause you don't like the message?

[Pyrodaimon 0]

Before I say anything else I want to know sumthing, didn't something like this happen with ZH?

 

I mean, sumthing regarding the patch(es).

Edited July 5, 2008 by Pyrodaimon

[rEdaSbLood 1]

one of two ways to look at this: negatively or positively.

 

EA may need the push from the community, but they also need some empathy from it. so both sides need to consider each other...

[Foreva1st 0]

What the hell is wrong with some of people. Its just a patch for video game.

 

One of those threads calls for APOC to quit as community manager I don't envy this aspect of APOC's job.

 

Because these people actually play the game! Unlike many of these C&C fansites where the people simply play the single player campaign and a few games of skirmish... and maybe just maybe a game or two online. If you had actually played online Sonic you would realise that a HOTFIX for the desyncs was needed less then a week after the game was released, but no it has been plagued online games for the past 3 or so months now.

 

Then a patch to fix the major imbalances (mechapedes / purifiers) within 2 weeks. Then take time to patch the rest that was needed.

 

It's always the idiot single player newbs that defend EA, sigh

[Sonic 296]

So people who are content with single players/skirmish are idiots? Well news flash, I hardly play that either.

 

What I was actually meaning was these people on the official forums bitching and moaning about this patch must have something else more important going on their daily lives.

[TheRoadToDawn 0]

OMG, quit the bitchin and moanin.

 

I am a single player/skirmish person. You know why, cause i work most of my time at a job to help pay for my college let alone an apartment for my fiance, so money is tight with not enough internet to go around. I appreciate some LAN parties from time to time, but its mostly single and skirmish for me (with the help of those whom make more difficult AIs, kudos to them).

 

Yes I am annoyed that EA is takin so long with the patch for C&C KW (hell right now its behind me), but you know they are only humans being whom happen to be split right now trying to create the next gen of C&C: Red Alert 3 (which i would so like to get my hands on as soon as possible).

 

I believe they are doin there best to support the community, and (I cannot believe I am sayin this, but i am sayin this) you must remember Westwood had thier share of difficulties when producing and patching thier games, hell they forgot to include the save ur skirmish option on TS when it first came out (no pun intendend, just an example).

 

I am a patient man, as everyday of work makes the time fly by, and i can wait another few days for a patch. its not goin to kill me. APOC has my support for stayin on the C&C staff, and I believe Verdu has done the right thing for creating a team. I have some faith, and i pray it will not fail.

 

What im tryin to say is: You will hear no bitchin from me this time round and i would appreciate it for other players to do the same. At least they are trying.

 

Update:

From what i am reading, EA ought to just "switch over" and check out our forums just to avoid the critics. lol

Edited July 6, 2008 by TheRoadToDawn

[Luk3us 63]

Let EA have it, that is the only reason they will improve their support services. If you don't make a noise, they won't care. All you guys trying to be reasonable are not helping the situation at all.

 

Being quiet and doing nothing, will result in, nothing.

[Gben 20]

It's always the idiot single player newbs that defend EA, sigh

 

I don't believe any of us excusing EA for their lack of support, in particular I was defending APOC - it's not his fault.

[NB: I haven't bothered to visit the official boards to see the uproar though. Why waste my life?]

 

I fervently believe we do need to speak up, loud and proud, when there are errors or failings with products - as Luk3us has suggested... but the best way forward to is to be reasonable and persistent. Much like how the mod section of the community summit went down apparently. Because it's not what you say but how you say it that makes all the difference in the world.

 

So for example, the difference is while we're dissapointed with the state of the affairs, the vast majority of us don't resort to personal insults... ahem unlike what you just did.

[sith_wampa 6]

Because these people actually play the game! Unlike many of these C&C fansites where the people simply play the single player campaign and a few games of skirmish... and maybe just maybe a game or two online.

Then maybe you don't belong here.

 

If you had actually played online Sonic you would realise that a HOTFIX for the desyncs was needed less then a week after the game was released, but no it has been plagued online games for the past 3 or so months now.

Listen to Sonic. Go find something better to do with your time rather than bitch to a bunch of people who don't care about you because your precious game isn't working to perfection. Did you ever think that the dev team members have jobs? It's not to cater to your needs, its to make games. They currently are working on other more important things right now. Maybe you should try getting a job too.

 

Then a patch to fix the major imbalances (mechapedes / purifiers) within 2 weeks. Then take time to patch the rest that was needed.

Absolutely wrong. Neither of those units are imbalanced.

 

It's always the idiot single player newbs that defend EA, sigh

Oh, just shut the **** up already. You're the damned noob around here, buddy.

[Sonic 296]

Easy there sith_wampa, Foreva1st is entitled to his opinion, albeit an over the top one. People are being ridiculous in their expectations about this patch. Yes Kane's Wrath has problems, EA knows that, and in a few days the patch to fix these problems will be released.

 

It has been explained many times before but people seem to forget that you can't just whip these patches up and give them the masses. Patches require hours upon hours of testing before they even go through the final QA process. Everything they change in the game has to best tested to make sure it doesn't break something else in the game.

 

So Foreva1st your theory of a hotfix for the desyncs, the patch later for balance, doesn't really work out to good.

[sith_wampa 6]

Easy there sith_wampa, Foreva1st is entitled to his opinion, albeit an over the top one. People are being ridiculous in their expectations about this patch. Yes Kane's Wrath has problems, EA knows that, and in a few days the patch to fix these problems will be released.

 

It has been explained many times before but people seem to forget that you can't just whip these patches up and give them the masses. Patches require hours upon hours of testing before they even go through the final QA process. Everything they change in the game has to best tested to make sure it doesn't break something else in the game.

 

So Foreva1st your theory of a hotfix for the desyncs, the patch later for balance, doesn't really work out to good.

 

Sorry Sonic, but I become easily frustrated when people refuse to think.

 

You're right, these patches take alot more time and work than most people think. Ignorance is another one of my pet peeves.

[Sonic 296]

You may have seen some new floating around about the patch being available for download. Don't download yet, it has not officially been released and its not the final version of the patch. The message below from APOC explains....

 

Some of you may have seen the KW Patch was put live on our Large Downloads server. If you posted this on your website, please take it down immediately as this file should not be downloaded until we say the patch is live. Part of the reason its up there has to do with our patch process, but you absolutely should not download the file until we say its live.

 

I will e-mail everyone and inform the boards when our patch is live and post the exact links on our official website, which you can then mirror, and also encourage everyone to update automatically through the game.

 

We are aiming to start the upload later this afternoon, no promises, but when its live officially, I will let you know.

 

Thank you so much for understanding, for further updates from me, please review this thread:

 

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?messageID=3750263

 

I would also ask you remind the community to not be so quick to judge before the patch has had a moment to breath.

 

Thanks,

APOC

A proper news update will appear when the patch is officially available for download.

[Gben 20]

Funnily enough xfire has KW patch 1.01 ready for download... I stopped it.

[Luk3us 63]

I downloaded it, its most likely the final patch, just EA haven't made it official.

 

Its quite interesting, but damn, they really screwed the game imo. Its damned slow....