bargora
09-06-2005, 07:19 PM
I found out about it this weekend. And now you can read about it at 1up.com. (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143445)
[IMPORTANT] Xbox® Steel Battalion - Notice to End Campaign Mode
Thank you very much for your continued support of Capcom’s Steel Battalion product.
As of Friday September 30th, 10:00AM-12:00PM PST, Capcom will be ending the online services for Campaign Mode of Steel Battalion. We appreciate your continued support of our product, and sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may cause. Thank you for your understanding of this matter.
However, we will continue services and support for both Free Mission Mode and System Link play.
Please enjoy Campaign Mode for the short time it is still available.
Thank you very much.
Needless to say, I am dismayed.
Anyway, if you were thinking about getting around to buying SB:LOC, you might want to think twice. Here's why. While Free Mission can be played nearly exactly the same way that Campaign can be (the major differences: you don't get optional parts, and there's no record of faction victories), most of the maps and VTs are not available from the start in Free Mission. In fact, only four of the thirty-one VTs and four of the twenty-five maps are available when you log on to Free Mission for the first time. The other 27 VTs and 21 maps must be unlocked in Campaign mode. Once you've owned a VT, for however short a time, the VT will be unlocked forever afterward in Free Mission. Also, once you've played a map in Campaign mode, that map will be unlocked for you in Free Mission.
So when Capcom shuts down Campaign mode, any new players will be purchasing a severely neutered version of the game.
Now, there be hackers, and there is a way to soft-mod your Xbox and FTP a gamesave onto your hard drive to unlock the good stuffs, but it's a pain in the ass and requires an Action Replay, a memory card, and a first edition of Mechwarrior or one of those James Bond games, because you have to do some sort of Linux exploit. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to hear when you're thinking about getting a new game.
Of course, it's possible that Capcom would release a patch for the game that would unlock all VTs and maps in Free Mission mode. However, no such patch has been announced, and, given Capcom's history of support for the game, I'm not holding my breath.
I was speaking with another player a couple of nights ago, and I gloomily opined that pretty much everybody who was going to buy and play this game already has. But apparently I'm wrong. I guess there have been a lot of new players as of late. I suppose that with a game this expensive, people keep waiting until they can find a used one for less than 1 arm + 1 leg.
Anyway, this game has only been running for 19 months. Isn't that a rather short period of support for an online-only game? I'd think that this is a bad precedent to set. I can't think of any online game that's had a shorter period of support.
@ l'gallerie d'peanut: Yeah, yeah, I know. There aren't that many players, you didn't buy the game, $200 is stupid for one game, that controller is too confusing, who cares what happens. Just remember: It's all good until your ox gets gored.
[IMPORTANT] Xbox® Steel Battalion - Notice to End Campaign Mode
Thank you very much for your continued support of Capcom’s Steel Battalion product.
As of Friday September 30th, 10:00AM-12:00PM PST, Capcom will be ending the online services for Campaign Mode of Steel Battalion. We appreciate your continued support of our product, and sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may cause. Thank you for your understanding of this matter.
However, we will continue services and support for both Free Mission Mode and System Link play.
Please enjoy Campaign Mode for the short time it is still available.
Thank you very much.
Needless to say, I am dismayed.
Anyway, if you were thinking about getting around to buying SB:LOC, you might want to think twice. Here's why. While Free Mission can be played nearly exactly the same way that Campaign can be (the major differences: you don't get optional parts, and there's no record of faction victories), most of the maps and VTs are not available from the start in Free Mission. In fact, only four of the thirty-one VTs and four of the twenty-five maps are available when you log on to Free Mission for the first time. The other 27 VTs and 21 maps must be unlocked in Campaign mode. Once you've owned a VT, for however short a time, the VT will be unlocked forever afterward in Free Mission. Also, once you've played a map in Campaign mode, that map will be unlocked for you in Free Mission.
So when Capcom shuts down Campaign mode, any new players will be purchasing a severely neutered version of the game.
Now, there be hackers, and there is a way to soft-mod your Xbox and FTP a gamesave onto your hard drive to unlock the good stuffs, but it's a pain in the ass and requires an Action Replay, a memory card, and a first edition of Mechwarrior or one of those James Bond games, because you have to do some sort of Linux exploit. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to hear when you're thinking about getting a new game.
Of course, it's possible that Capcom would release a patch for the game that would unlock all VTs and maps in Free Mission mode. However, no such patch has been announced, and, given Capcom's history of support for the game, I'm not holding my breath.
I was speaking with another player a couple of nights ago, and I gloomily opined that pretty much everybody who was going to buy and play this game already has. But apparently I'm wrong. I guess there have been a lot of new players as of late. I suppose that with a game this expensive, people keep waiting until they can find a used one for less than 1 arm + 1 leg.
Anyway, this game has only been running for 19 months. Isn't that a rather short period of support for an online-only game? I'd think that this is a bad precedent to set. I can't think of any online game that's had a shorter period of support.
@ l'gallerie d'peanut: Yeah, yeah, I know. There aren't that many players, you didn't buy the game, $200 is stupid for one game, that controller is too confusing, who cares what happens. Just remember: It's all good until your ox gets gored.