Sad News... No More In-Game Code Giveaways

Official News
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@Sirrian

What does this mean for the future of redeem codes on console? I know Sony initially objected to free stuff for their platform, but I thought it was resolved. Are you going to try and keep parity with PC/mobile therefore no codes?

On the only note console players care about. How is the “chat” approval going? Considering you guys have been submitting “chat” for 4 months unsuccessful would it be prudent to hire a consultant for a few weeks that specializes in game console submissions & approvals to get this update deployed?

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We’re approved on Sony, and just pending a final approval from Microsoft… hopefully tomorrow (?)

I wouldn’t really say we’ve been submitting chat for 4 months… it makes it sound like we’ve done dozens of submissions and suffered a constant stream of failures. It’s more like 2 initial submissions, after which we turned chat off, followed 3 months later by 2-3 more submissions each of which showed up a privacy issue which was resolved.

5 Likes
23

Fair enough. As a player I just want the new content, and am pretty sure I’m not alone. I hope it gets the green light.

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Hi, thanks for explaining this to us. And here’s me waiting for them to reappear on the ps4. I really don’t want to turn it into a flame war but I’m constantly amazed why people continue to buy and support Apple and the like. Screw those bastards.
Sorry, but this is BS.
I think you guys deserve more support and I really hope you can put a wider range of things to buy in the PS and xbox store so we can gain vip levels, AND help you guys make some money.

3 Likes
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The Microsoft ecosystem is arguably worse than Apple’s.

I could show you dozens of reasons you wouldn’t want to buy from any of them. But that would mean no games, no devices, and no content at all.

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Every time i say that Apple sux big time, i get blamed! Well, this is another reason for me to hate them!

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I still don’t know why you can’t just leave codes out of ios version. It’s utterly ridiculous that every single other platform has to bow down to effin’ apple.

1 Like
28

The Apple model, has been for years, to create an easy to use environment that draws you in, then charge you repeatedly for an always changing and proprietary money loop… they have done it with Macintosh since the 80s through current. It’s not to improve or further enhance a technological evolution, its to force their patrons to buy their products, their cables, their version of whatever like an addiction.

Other companies have similar mindsets… MS tried to force IE on customers and continues to try and create a MS approved environment were businesses pay for licensing…

The difference is Apple’s approach is predator / prey… appeal to those otherwise less savvy folks out there with our virus free simplicity… only to get you hooked… and then feed on you. The price for their simplicity / ease of adoption is far above and beyond the sticker price of any particular device you may be purchasing. If you have been in the industry as long as I have, you’ve seen it time and time again and it’s a rather ugly modus operandi.

Others are far from innocent, but Apple is a master at the game of addiction and proprietary adoption with forced change and repurchases. The latest apple macbook pro, does it yet again… with new interfaces and cables once more.

Did you buy that new iPhone 7? Missing a headphone jack? No problem, there’s a USB proprietary Apple dongle for that… $9.00 x how many customers…again?

Think it’s just a coincidence that the iPhone 7 won’t directly connect to your new MacBook Pro?

Seriously - think about it for a second. They keep doing this, and their die-hard patrons, or the blissfully ignorant continue to jump on board… albeit with DECLINING consecutive quarterly stock prices… and sales… heh, for a few reasons… but now in late 2016, their two flagship devices from a company that “prides itself on its ecosystem” do not and will not connect to each other without a special converter cable… that they sell, at release. Coincidence?

Apple doesn’t include the needed dongle in the box with the new MacBook Pros either… You paid that rediculous sum, and you still have to buy it your cable for your new flagship devices separately. Heh… gotta hand it to them, they are in a league of their own with this sh!t.

I’ve watched it happen for years in IT. It’s a vicious loop, and they are better at it, than anyone else in the game… and some customers, even defend it… < SMH >

Good times.

5 Likes
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Because other wise they would have to hear from the 'why not me’s in the world…exactly like you are doing now. Except their way, everyone on is on a level playing field and a small percent is complaining while the other way there is not a level playing field and a small percent is still complaining.

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@Sirrian, @Dan_ozzzy189 has a good point. A quick way to apply pressure back on Apple is to let the customers do it for you.

What if - you kept redeem codes in… and what if, ONLY those versions of the game on the corresponding OS’s that allowed it to work, could take advantage?

Everytime customers said, why cant I use it on apple - you could direct them to apples policy… and let them know where they could voice their complaint. Perhaps Apple, with their ever declining sales, could then rethink their policy, lest they lose more customers to their harsh ways.

Its worth consideration, if nothing else. Your game, your community, your ecosystem should not have to suffer at the hands of their very poor policies.

Just a thought.

5 Likes
31

The iPhone 7 (which I don’t own, BTW) ships with the Lightning adapter. It’s essentially free. And Samsung, who pointed at Apple and laughed when they removed the headphone jack, announced that they will be removing the headphone jack in the near future.

I’ve been using Macintosh for years. Is the hardware arguably more expensive? Sure. That’s because Apple doesn’t have a “discount” line like most of the Intel/AMD OEMs. They also don’t have near the number of issues that those PCs do. Imagine that.

In those years that I’ve been using Apple products, I’ve paid less than $100 for add-ons, software, apps, or anything else. There are all kinds of public and open sources for software that don’t cost a dime and are developed by the community. It’s primarily easy because of the Linux kernel. It’s also the reason why I don’t have to pay some predatory AV company to “secure” my computer.

I’ve actually spent more on Gems of War in the last 6 months than I have on other software in the last 6 YEARS.

Does Apple do a lot of things I dislike? Sure. But having dealt with Google and Microsoft professionally for over 20 years, and seeing what they’re up to “behind closed doors”, I’ll stick with Apple.

2 Likes
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No, not true. It’s available across a wise range of platforms yet Apple are the ones demanding it taking out so you think that’s fair on everyone else? Interesting.

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Unfortunately there is one major issue with limiting features to specific platforms. The platform with less features can easily go and say make things the same or we are banning your game on our platform.

Regardless of the reasoning platforms will complain bitterly about differences.

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You’ll need a $25 thunderbolt to lightning adapter with the new laptop.

There’s no speaker phone jack on the iPhone 7, but you can buy a $9 USB to speakerphone adapter.

Apple sales continue to fall per forbes for a number of market and tracking related issues around cost to value and proprietary & forced obsolescence schemes.

I have been in the IT industry for well over 20 years myself and presently am a Lead Communications Engineer for a world wide headquaters. It’s not my first rodeo. I’ve dealt with all manner of technology vendors, and still do to this day including many folks here wouldn’t recognize as well as carriers and network & security manufacturers. In short, Apple is regularly traveling this road of proprietary purchases coupled with the carrot of ease of use.

I hope they whether this round well, despite regularly quarterly sales dropping. Competition and innovation are always a good thing. Between my daughters and wife, we even have a number of Apple devices in our home. That said, we do not stay on the latest models, and we cautiously purchase.

I have always recognized what they do well, for the simplicity, and also recognize that have been and remain leaders in an industry of forced obsolescence for profit.

Cheers,

4 Likes
35

Then they really need to ask themselves why they’re wanting to limit their own platform!

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Sure… a risk… but it’s not the end of that story either. When push comes to shove, you find out just how much Apple has over Gems of War client base.

“Take a loan and the bank owns you… take enough loans, and you own the bank.”

  • Business 101.

I don’t know what client share dependencies Gems customer basis is apple only… but I expect its far from the majority.

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The iPhone 7 SHIPS with the necessary adapter. Did you not see that the first time I said it?

As for the rest of it, it sounds like we’re in similar professions. Like you, I don’t ever have the latest and greatest. I have a 2011 iMac that I bought used for $800. Put in a SSD and some extra memory and it’s i7-based architecture runs Windows 10 faster than the HP laptop I bought last year.

I’m not trying to argue that Apple isn’t guilty but if we’re going to indict them for anticompetitive practices, we have to be honest about the industry as a whole.

I mean really, there’s more outcry over a headphone jack than there was when Google first announced that it’s Chrome OS would not have local storage, AT ALL. The flash memory was for caching and paging functions. ALL of the users data would be stored in Google’s cloud, where it could arguably be mined for advertising purposes, or worse. And before we suggest that Google is above such things, they’ve already been caught doing it multiple times.

And speaking of proprietary purchases, my iMac shipped with OS X Lion. I’ve upgraded to a new OS every year, for free, without so much as a hiccup. Until Windows 10, Microsoft couldn’t say any of it’s software was free. And having done dozens of manual Windows 10 upgrades, I can say without a doubt that “without a hiccup” isn’t even possible.

Beyond that, I have to be mindful to pay extra on new machines even if they have Windows 10, because if I accidentally get the “sorry you’re a home user, you’re screwed” version, I can’t do Windows backups to a NAS or other similar things that even the least-savvy users want to do in 2016.

Finally, when I buy an Apple product, I can be assured that I will have a uniform experience right out of the box. I don’t have to worry about yet an extra layer of “buy my stuff, it works better” intrusions that ship with every LG and Samsung phone and every Dell and HP laptop, just to name a few. OEMs set the standard for predatory user experiences, tricking new users into everything from signing up for yearly anti-virus subscriptions they don’t need to paying 40% premiums to get an “authorized” ink cartridge.

2 Likes
38

Back to the topic at hand - any chance for some “super codes” with bigger loot and more redemptions available prior to the fun police crackdown?

2 Likes
39

If Microsoft continues to hold things up, is there any chance the PS4 update happens before Xbox? I know they are both consoles, but aren’t they independent from each other? I hate to even ask this, but it’s taking forever.

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I just got a good format for giving out codes too. :frowning:

@Sirrian, does that mean I should slowly mass distribute every single code I have now over the next week or so? :wink:

1 Like