'Haze' FPS on PS3, petition.

Johro

Yeah, I know that Haze was panned by the critics for it's glitches, it's awful AI, and most of all it's neanderthal dialogue, but that's the campaign mode over with. I have enjoyed playing the Haze online multiplayer for years, and made many friends playing it, and the Haze community is great.
This was all fine and dandy until mid October of this year when we started seeing this message whenever we tried to access the online play: 'Connection to Demonware failed. Please try again later.'

So we fiddled with our routers, checked our connections, opened ports, put our PS3's into DMZ's, all that craic. Nothing changed. I, meanwhile, tried to contact Demonware, and after long searches (they don't have a support section on their webpage as they have been acquired by Activision) I got hold of a phone number and rang them.
Demonware were sympathetic but explained that they had no information about the servers and that I would have to contact Activision as they had bought Demonware and they were now responsible for the servers.
I had already tried Activision, again with no luck, they have a support section but nowhere to ask a question, just FAQs, and no links to 'Haze' because Haze is not an Activision game, its Ubisoft's.

Anyway, here I entered into a long email dialogue with Ubisoft, who finally stated that they had: ''...discontinued server support for Haze well over a year ago, if the game has been up and running til recently we were not responsible.''
Now I was not at all impressed that Ubisoft, or any company, would just withdraw online support for a game without any notice, don't forget we were still getting the 'please try again later' screen with no explanations at all, and some of us had recently bought expansion packs for the game from the Playstation Store, the map packs are still available to buy, as is the game itself.
I've been trying to get Ubisoft to reinstate the servers, along with these guys on here http://www.facebook.com/hazegame and on my own facebook page I created just for the purpose.http://www.facebook.com/johro.haze (I hate facebook, but send a friend request if you want to help out and get the info)

The long and the short of it is, we would like any help we can get, consider that in time it could be your favourite game that's for the chop, (Ubisoft do Assassins Creed, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Call of Juarez etc.) and we have just created this petition. http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/ubisoft-reinstate-the-servers-for-haze#

Please sign it, share it and help us out.

tonydude

Good to see you making an effort but Ubisoft will do nothing, their endwar game was abandoned like haze and has had a big community trying to get the online support back for it, but to no avail.

F1ngers

tonydude wrote: »

, their endwar game was abandoned like haze and has had a big community trying to get the online support back for it, but to no avail.

Is that for the trophy "glitch" though? Where no-one can plat the game?

tonydude

F1ngers wrote: »

Is that for the trophy "glitch" though? Where no-one can plat the game?

yes and that would have been a small fix, getting servers turned on is a big thing

Carvin

Didn't know the Haze community ever took off. I was active waiting for this game, promoting the Gamebattles circuit and then the server problems tore that apart. Sad to see any game have its servers pulled but I doubt it can be helped.

Will sign the petition anyway, good luck. I know how annoyed I'd have been to see Warhawk pulled. Fortunately its survived even its company dissolving.

Johro

tonydude wrote: »

yes and that would have been a small fix, getting servers turned on is a big thing

I'm not sure. I would agree with this guy:


''I'd be curious to know exactly what the cost is associated with running a server to accommodate our community. Equally I would also like to know how many actually make up our community. At the end of the day, Ubisoft pulled the plug because of a financial pressure, based on what could be perceived as a dwindling community. This is the business way. However, Logic dictates that running a server could amount to a modestly small cost, with minimal "man hours" to monitor for faults ect. This is what I can't understand... The cost of equipment would have been written off years ago, so no payback there. On going costs, for a business the size of Ubisoft, running a few servers would be insignificant. Even the bean counters wouldn't have been attracted to this. So what was the trigger? Perhaps the server building itself was upgraded and trimmed down during the process? Who knows? I'd certainly like to understand the reasoning behind it. ''

Johro

Does anyone know if it's possible to get a third party to provide the server support for us, what it would involve and what the costs might be? Or who we might approach?

Johro

If anyone has any suggestions for us let us know here http://www.facebook.com/hazegame, we'd appreciate it.

Carvin

Johro wrote: »

I'm not sure. I would agree with this guy:


''I'd be curious to know exactly what the cost is associated with running a server to accommodate our community. Equally I would also like to know how many actually make up our community. At the end of the day, Ubisoft pulled the plug because of a financial pressure, based on what could be perceived as a dwindling community. This is the business way. However, Logic dictates that running a server could amount to a modestly small cost, with minimal "man hours" to monitor for faults ect. This is what I can't understand... The cost of equipment would have been written off years ago, so no payback there. On going costs, for a business the size of Ubisoft, running a few servers would be insignificant. Even the bean counters wouldn't have been attracted to this. So what was the trigger? Perhaps the server building itself was upgraded and trimmed down during the process? Who knows? I'd certainly like to understand the reasoning behind it. ''

It takes power to run the servers too.
Also I'm not sure that the cost of equipment is the factor, rather the availability. They're probably planning using it for another game.

If you set up a private server (shouldn't be too difficult) the problem would be how to connect players from the game to it. It would most likely have to be a private server. There might be some licensing problem for Ubisoft handing over the connection.

Its sad how temporary online gaming communities are

gizmo

Johro wrote: »

Does anyone know if it's possible to get a third party to provide the server support for us, what it would involve and what the costs might be? Or who we might approach?

Given that the backend services are powered by Demonware tech and they are now owned by Activision, I'd imagine not. This isn't the first time this has happened, the situation is basically the same as that of Race Driver: GRID.

With Ubisoft falling into the third party licensee category they would have needed to shell out for an extended contract. With the player base probably so limited, I guess they didn't think the cost, however meagre, was justifiable. Bearing that in mind, I really can't see any kind of support being re-enabled unfortunately.

Johro

That's a fairly shitty situation then ain't it? Haze was released in 2008 I think, so okay, it's 5 years old, but it's still popular as a multiplayer. I just think it's not on for a big company like Ubisoft to just withdraw the servers for ANY game regardless of its age or number of players, but I accept it as the reality. It seems wrong that you can go buy a game which claims to have an online multiplayer capability, them have the online support taken away, so what you're left with basically is a game you can only play the campaign mode in, which, let's face it, is boring once you've done it, even on different difficulty settings. Most FPS games are desirable mostly for their multiplayer aspect.
Also the server was withdrawn without any notice to gamers at all, many are still wondering why they're looking at this screen that says 'Connection to Demonware failed. Please try again later.' No explanations. Just that.
And finally, the Haze community is a very friendly one and I guess that's missed too by a lot of gamers, many friends were made playing the game, these guys are still communicating on the Haze page on Facebook and on Haze forums, and would very much like to see servers reinstated.
I see your point of view though, and I know the business point of view, I just think a company who's revenue was €1.058 billion in the 2008-2009 fiscal year could do more for its customers.

Johro

Ultimately what I'm saying is that while most games are entertaining enough, we tend to look for multiplayer capability to give it a more lasting appeal. When you take away the support for that we're not left with much, and for me it borders on dishonesty, certainly misrepresentation, when you sell it as an online multiplayer. Add to that the fact that expansion packs (extra maps and such) are still available to buy in the Playstation store (many of us did buy them not so long before the server died) and it starts to smell.

Johro

Thanks for the replies by the way, we'd appreciate it if you'd sign the petition also, even if you think it won't work. We want to give it a go anyway, and if it doesn't help us at the very least we've shown the big corporate boys we don't like the way they treat us, their customers.
I don't expect to get a lot of signatures over the Christmas holidays, but am hoping it will pick up in the new year, and will be getting some media exposure. Thanks for your help.

gizmo

Johro wrote: »

That's a fairly shitty situation then ain't it? Haze was released in 2008 I think, so okay, it's 5 years old, but it's still popular as a multiplayer.

Is it though, how many people actually still played it?

Johro wrote: »

I just think it's not on for a big company like Ubisoft to just withdraw the servers for ANY game regardless of its age or number of players, but I accept it as the reality. It seems wrong that you can go buy a game which claims to have an online multiplayer capability, them have the online support taken away, so what you're left with basically is a game you can only play the campaign mode in, which, let's face it, is boring once you've done it, even on different difficulty settings. Most FPS games are desirable mostly for their multiplayer aspect.

Also the server was withdrawn without any notice to gamers at all, many are still wondering why they're looking at this screen that says 'Connection to Demonware failed. Please try again later.' No explanations. Just that.

I guess it depends on how the server support was removed. Ideally what they should have done was have a popup in the game announcing the server removal and remove the map packs from sale. You should also be entitled to a refund if you bought the game recently only to find the multiplayer functionality was inaccessible.

Johro wrote: »

I see your point of view though, and I know the business point of view, I just think a company who's revenue was €1.058 billion in the 2008-2009 fiscal year could do more for its customers.

Actually Ubisoft ended fiscal 2011-12 with net income of €37.3m whereas they made a net loss of €52.1 million in the 2011 fiscal year. I'm assuming, based on what you said in the OP, that it was in the latter period that they decided not to extend their contract for the Demonware servers for Haze.

Johro

Assassins Creed 3 will probably make up for much of that. I won't cry any tears for Ubisoft.
As for numbers of players, it's very hard to say. It was never a problem getting a match, like happens in some games, and from the facebook page and forums it still seems pretty popular, but I guess this is the test really, how many Haze fans are really out there and how many care enough to take a minute to put their name down on the petition. In the end it WILL come down to numbers, definitely.

Johro

gizmo wrote: »

Ideally what they should have done was have a popup in the game announcing the server removal and remove the map packs from sale. You should also be entitled to a refund if you bought the game recently only to find the multiplayer functionality was inaccessible.

I put exactly that to Ubisoft in one of my many emails to them, and they completely ignored that part of my complaint. Their replies were usually in the vein of 'we don't have any information' and they refuse to give us a definite yes or no as to whether the servers would ever be reinstated. They wouldn't rule it out altogether.

Johro

Carvin wrote: »

It takes power to run the servers too.
Also I'm not sure that the cost of equipment is the factor, rather the availability. They're probably planning using it for another game.

If you set up a private server (shouldn't be too difficult) the problem would be how to connect players from the game to it. It would most likely have to be a private server. There might be some licensing problem for Ubisoft handing over the connection.

Its sad how temporary online gaming communities are

So what we need is the server AND a matchmaking service. Like what Demonware did before Activision swallowed them up.

christophicus

Johro wrote: »

So what we need is the server AND a matchmaking service. Like what Demonware did before Activision swallowed them up.

Not going to happen.
There's no way Ubi will publish that code, in fact they're probably contractually forbidden from doing do by Acti.

Usually the terms of service for large publishers will ensure that they must provide a 30 day notice period prior to shut down (often published via boring text without a fanfair on their website). There is no way in hell that Haze was making any money for them whatsoever, and I highly doubt that the playbase was very large at all. A lot of money was pumped into that title, and it flopped hard. I'm surprised they kept the servers online for as long as they did. That's a credit to the company really, others would have switched them off much sooner.

A petition is all well and good, but there are plenty of other games that are far more financially viable and genuinely deserve to be brought back. Haze was just a weak, underperforming, title that should really be forgotten about at this stage.

Look on the bright side. Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical Design, who created Haze) are currently working on Homefront 2. Assuming THQ can hold it together, you may well enjoy what they do with that title.

Johro

I doubt it, Haze as a story is fairly crap, the AI is non existent and the dialogue is truly awful, but again, the multiplayer makes up for all that. I know Free Radical are now Crytek, and if I was gonna look at any game it probably be Crysis 3, but for the moment I'll see what happens with the petition. Another thing is, I live in a rural location with an inconsistent broadband connection which 'Haze' doesn't seem to mind too much, probably because it is an older game, other games, like Black Ops for instance, are nearly impossible for me to play most days because of the lag inherent in my connection, and many players say they experience the same thing.

Johro

Yeah the petition is tough going. Here's an example of where we're at:
Petition Snippet.png

Headshot

Fair play for the efforts thou.

I added my name to your petition there