European PS3 Owners Raise Ire Over SCEE Treatment of Home

Joe Haygood from Aeropause writes:

"One of our readers sent in a link to a thread over in the European Sony forums, and their current outrage over the treatment of Home in Europe. It seems that right now, Home is far more broken than it is here in the states. Also, European users are also griping over the fact that the free content that has come to Japan, and the extra content found in the US, has yet to show up in the European version of Home."

[Shane Kim]

HAhahah I really like the map. It sometimes feels like that actually.

[Bren86]

Yup, EU home is complete crap.

[Bren86]

Also there is STILL no demos tab on the UK playstation store.

[Nathan Drake]

http://ecochildsplay.com/fi...

Once you're done,come back so we can have a mature discussion on what SCEE should ACTUALLY be doing

[LoVeRSaMa]

This is what I was talking about yesterday when I was attacked by the disagree fairy.

I Love Sony and its Services, but I feel Home EU has been neglected, you can see my opinions in that forums post on the EU forums.

[FantasyStar]

Being an American, I probably can't understand what's down overseas to our Euro-brothers: but well..can't complain about a free service really. Well...free for us: money-making for them in ads-revenue.

[Conan997]

bad conversion rates...

but that doesn't explain why scee has always been screwing over EU since the 90's

[Gadbury]

Hi guys,

I'm totally behind this. I have set up a Feedback Forum where us European users can log our complaints and issues.

Everyone is free to use the site. Would be great to get together a list of all the issues together with some evidence / facts to back up the arguement.

Log your complaints here: http://ps3eurogamers.uservo...

Please use it and keep it clean - the feedback forums are moderated!

[panasonic23]

lol @ pic so funny

[cp68]

Home has been developed in the heart of Europe, and yet, Europeans get the worse treatment. Of course, that is only regarding Home. But what about the the general service provided by SCEE these past 2 years?

Something needs to be done, and fast that is. This shaft cannot continue. Rally people, and boycott SCEE.

[Nathan Drake]

Not only are you commenting with your other account,but you appear to be the one they call "Nasim".

I've heard a lot about you ;)

[darkequitus]

He even claimed my PSN id was fake and failed the challenge of my callout. The real Nasim was a bitter individual who never had a PS3

That can't be him

[hay]

Boycott SCEE? Yeah, bite the hand that feeds you, really good choice. I know that Sony support in EU sucks enough to be a vacuum cleaner, but boycotting isn't really a solution. It just prooves how immature some people are when they prefer to be angry and run around screaming like monkeys instead of actually trying to write to SCEE and explaining how it is, and how fans feel about it.

[Ddave_73]

Its not just home however home does certainly bring these problems out into the wild a bit more.

I pay more than anyone else and get less than anyone else, that is disgracefull.

Buy a ps4 when it comes out ?

Yeah right, you can only fool me once sony.

[Nathan Drake]

Rather than cry a river on here,hows about you actually contact them with your complaints and concerns on how they're running the Playstation business over there?

If all else fails,sell your Ps3 and buy an Xbox 360,I'm sure Microsoft will provide you with the high quality experience you seek from Sony

[dan-boy]

you are the new nasim. a shamless virgin sony fanboy. and it never ceases to amaze me how all the worst sony fanboys have loads of bubbles....says alot about this site me thinks

just do everyone a favour, find the highest building in your town, and throw yourself from it's roof. your pathetic. sony doesn't love you, it doesn't pay you, yet you are here defending them like they are a family member. very sad indeed.

[Creepy-echo]

Sony treat us europeans like the last dogs.Overpriced stuff,dualshock 3 came later,playstation home etc.Sony if you treat us like dogs than we will treat you back like dogs.Sorry...they are getting annoying.

[Sayai jin]

I am an American that lives in Europe and I see how Sony's name is very popular first hand. I understand how Sony does so well in Europe. PSN/Home are free services and we can all agree that free is good. These complaints seem valid about Home and I think Sony needs to address these issues and resolve them. They need to do this because this type of whispering becomes louder and louder over time.

[StanSmith]

It has gone too far now SCEE. Europeans have had enough of their underhanded ways. They overcharge us on the PS Store and they don`t even bother to release content day and date with the USA and Japan.

I am sure this is the point where the Sony fanboys will stand up for them and say "But...europe has many languages it takes time to localise." However, the obvious flaw to this is that Microsoft have none of these problems. They often release content in the marketplace everywhere at the same time so what excuse should Sony have.

Also i want to make this clear that i like my PS3, however, Sony are now making me wish i never paid £425 for it at launch. Also WTF at the Everbodys Golf DLC? £3.19 on UK Store and $2.99 on US Store! Thats some heavy taxes there SCEE! And Please tell me how Eight days and The Getaway managed to get cancelled for the crapfest that is Home! Home is shocking. Only Warhawk works on Game Launching.

Also i have seen articles starting to appear saying "2009 the year of the ps3." These same articles appeared at the end of 2007 and as i look back this year, the best thing to come from it was MGS4 and Gears 2. Everything else has been lackluster.

I don't believe the ps3 will come out of 3rd place. No matter how many people now say a price cut will do it, God of war 3 etc will do it, to put it simply...IT WON'T. LBP/MGS4/R2 were supposed to push the PS3.. None have done anything for the console and the sooner the fanboys except this the better.

Also the latest article on here with a quote saying red bull island won't be appearing in home now until after the new year...well i have just one thing to say to that....WAITSTATION 3...DELAYSTATION 3. No matter how Sony Fanboys spin this, it is true.

One Final comment...Yes Home is in beta stage however it will never leave beta due to Sony adding and changing stuff over the next few years so can both xbox and sony fanboys stop defending and attacking Home with comments like for example "but its still a beta wait until its fully released" /end rant

[Nathan Drake]

*slow claps* That's right,stick it to Sony!

[StanSmith]

You are the typical Sony fanboy i am talking about. They are screwing up again and you continue to support everything they do.
If you have no interest in the cause that is to make sony wake up and to bring them back to the greatness they were with the ps2 then leave now!

You are making yourself look a fool. Go and buy an xbox is not the solution! Sony changing their attitudes is! So far the americans and the japanese have not supported the PS3 the way Europe has, yet they receive better treatment.

And as you said about localization, You again show ignorance as Microsoft are able to provide content worldwide on their marketplace on the same day. Please tell me how it takes 7 Months to change Blast factors languages on the main menu of the game LOL

[dorson]

yea i been skimming these forums and nathan is probably the biggest sony d1ckrider in SDF. i love my ps3 but u come off as straight annoying

[LittleBigSackBoy]

Yeah that's right slag nathan off because he likes Sony, i love sony and i'd buy almost anything they made, do you know why? because they've never let me down with the stuff i buy...

EDIT: bubbles for you nathan for having some ba**s

[brando]

its ok to like sony or whatever, but when ur constantly coming off as annoying it degrades every sony fan. but i guess u hang from the left testicle of sony. bubbles be gone from you!

[Creepy-echo]

They are failing on every front.Guess that it doesnt need long time before the ps3 will be out of the gaming industry.Sony,I wish you more luck with the PS4,if they plan to make it.

[Nathan Drake]

If you're going to put your console up on ebay,PM me the address so I can bid on your games

[Creepy-echo]

The whole company is getting stupid.

[LittleBigSackBoy]

Because you say so right?

[Mr_Luke]

SCEE is obscene. Really. There's nothing else to say, they're totally crap since ever: Home here is crap, games come out 1 year after, PS Store often years behind the others (someone said SSF2THD???)...

[mjones1994]

I am still waiting for god dam SF2THDR to come out on the store.

[Nathan Drake]

Why don't you read up on approval and distribution of content in a foreign region?Might help you understand why you have to wait

[sak500]

@nathan you seem to be the sane version of Nasim. Since you've also joined recently i believe. Dint bother to chk your history just first page of ur profile. Since you're so much loving sony and your ps3 show us what you're made of and post your ID atleast. I doubt u even hv the console. You spend more time on n4g than anywere else.

[kewlkat007]

but that's just me....

HOME = BETA software still in BETA.

[StanSmith]

How many more times must this be said? Home will always be in a beta form as sony will continue adding and removing stuff!

It will NEVER be complete! Please stop using this as a means to defend Sony & Home!

The fact is Sony lied about home! They promised Game launching and Equality across all versions of home when it reached the open beta this year!

[darkequitus]

it is not about it being in beta. it is about the EU home being crap compare to everywhere else

darkequitus: psn/xbl

[Karum]

You're right it is still in BETA but that really isn't the point for a lot of people. A lot of people are pissed that they don't have the same level of content as other regions.

Now I read that Nathan Drake there had mentioned about distribution for different regions and stuff but content such as the Far Cry space or Uncharted space has very little, if anything in it that needs to be localized I would say. The same can be said for that music playing section in Central Plaza playing unlicensed music in the US space or that little flying saucer game the US space has.

Sorry, as much as I love my PS3 and will enjoy what Home will bring along with Sony products in general, SCEE are epic fail in more ways than just Home.

[Mikelarry]

doesnt mean anything. the US and japan are still in beta is that stopping them from getting all the extra content,you guessed it No Fair treatment is all we demand, its not too much to ask from sony.

[yourgodisdead]

.said in an interview recently that SCEE is the most profitable division in SCE, so what gives?

*i think it was him said it

[Mikelarry]

glad ppl are joining in and taking this seriously

[ultimolu]

Sony needs to do some firing over at SCEE because from what I've seen, the Europeans do get treated like crap there. I'm not sure why it takes so long for stuff to cone out on their side. :/

[tatotiburon]

home sucks worlwide

[uckitsayitchbay]

I went on the EU HOME and had no problems what the fÜck is this guy talking about?

[Mikelarry]

complaint is about the content in general. just take a stroll into the eu home space and store and you would understand.

[StanSmith]

You had no problems? So you were given exclusive access to the red bull island were you? The far cry and uncharted game spaces? You danced at the jukebox in our square? Played a space mini game in the square? Thats right, YOU DIDN'T BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THERE! This is the issue at hand!

You believe that the store items were not overpriced for europeans compared to the rest of the world? This is another huge issue people have with SCEE!

Please drop the fanboyism!

[LoVeRSaMa]

Go on the US home, the Japanese home then EU home and you will see what were talking about.

[MazzingerZ]

@MARIOFTW

I live in Scandinavia and I think the prices are ok at least here, we pay more because we earn better salaries, that easy, we have less inflation, poverty is not a problem, and so on... please stop using that "over priced" stuff as an argument and calling anyone that disagrees with you a "fanboy"...are you at least from Europe to know what you're talking about?...it's mostly UK people that likes to complain about everything

800 MS points in the US are not the same as 800 points in Sweden neither and no one complains.

PLEASE if someone knows of DLC and map packs that are cheaper on the X360 than on the PS3 for the same game let me know...or arcade games like bionic commando and similar

...on the X360 is worse as depending on the x-change rate the amount to be charged on my CC for those 800 points I bought varies everytime

On the PS3 you see the price in your currency and it doesn't change, it's fixed and when I buy stuff if I need funds, only the amount I need to complete the transaction is charged...I'm not forced to buy more than I need like on the X360, Microsoft's retains your money until the next purchase...nice...

[BrianC6234]

Can Europe just agree on one language? Maybe if they do that they'll get things quicker. Japan is mostly Japanese and the US is English. How many languages do European games and DLC have to support? It really makes things more complicated.

[SmokedOut]

At least europe has like 6 different theatre rooms to choose from, we in the us have a whopping 1.

[Mikelarry]

the theatre anyday for extra content in our store and home. its not right and european users should not let this slide. its about time we demand some fair treatment from sony

[Kantraz]

Listen, almost every european people can speak English, and I live in Denmark, and the only games having Danish translation in them is;
Motorstorm and R&C:TOD. Even our Store is in English and the only Danish you finds there is the pricing...

So stop saying that transltion is the reason!

[MazzingerZ]

...weird... I live in Sweden and LittleBigPlanet, QuestForBooty, Resistance 2, and other kids games also have swedish dub and all the PS Store is in swedish if I choose Swedish as "system språk"

It's because of localization...I find amazing that SONY cares about small languages like ours...how many people lives in Danmark...4 million? 8 millions in Sweden...and SONY deliver games in our languages and people still says thay SCEE sucks? Sorry but NOT.

For some countries like Portugal, Poland, Spain, France, etc a game in their language has a higher value that any english version...for me it's priceless to be able to buy games to my kids that they will 100% enjoy thanks to the swedish dub...

Microsoft don't do anything like this, the only game ever to feature Swedish dub was Viva Piñata and that's all...I was very dissapointed...the new Banjo and VP games features only English audio...WTF? and no one complains about the ZERO localization on the X360..I just don't get it...maybe I do: most of the ones complaining about SCEE are from the UK who speak english hence don't see the value in SCEE localisation work nor the faults in the non-localisation on the X360

And by the way, the voice actors are really good, SONY seems to have as high standards as Disney regarding that matter

[JohnSlaught]

Apparently Kantraz haven't played many PS3-games, since there are a lot more translated to Danish. But I agree that language shouldn't be the barrier for more content in Home, as most Europeans can live with English-only, at least in the open beta. And stop the discussion on trade laws, the European Union has the internal market which makes it easy to introduce products to the whole of the union.

[sajj316]

outrage over a free service ... relax and take it easy!

[dorson]

that free service crap excuse doenst cut it.why are u guys under the impression that just because its free its beyond criticsm. tell me, would you pay for home service the way that it is now? no right? so thats why its free.

[00]

The outrage is about the content of the free service compared to others who get more, when it should be equal in the amount of stuff you should have/get.

[Mikelarry]

it do you. as others have mentioned because its free doesnt mean the service/ content has to be mediocre. its free for the us and japanese but do you see them offering the crap content to those users. and this outrage is not just about home its bigger than home its about fair treat for european consumers.

[StanSmith]

Outrage over a free service? You really have not got a clue! Europeans pay MORE for Ps Store content and Home Content! Its not just taxes at play here its Sony adding their own tax on top as well.

You are obviously a Sony fanboy who can't see when Sony are screwing up, So let me brake this down for you.
PS3 Console- US= $399.99 UK= £299.99 or $599.99
PS3 Games- US= $60 UK= £39.99 or $79.98
Ps Store downloadable content- Everybodys golf add on- US=$2.99 Uk= £3.19 or $6.38

Do you understand now why people are angry? We paid for our consoles just like everyone else in the world. The PSN is apart of the price tag you pay for the console IT IS NOT FREE!

Please drop the fanboyism!

[Bladestar]

"outrage over a free service ... relax and take it easy! " and this is the reason why Sony made Home free... because it's ok for it to suck as long as it's free... while charging people for home items like apartment items and clothing.

Tell me... what do you rather have... Sony to charge $4/month for a service that deliver on all it's promises... that actually works... which you have the right... to complain and scream and demand! or something that's broken, unusable and you do not have the right to complain or demand anything because it's "free"... why the hell do you think people pay for TV Cable when they can get antenna signal for free?

Take xbox live for example... though sometime it has issues... if the service have problem... Microsoft gets on top of it immediately and keep people up to date with information about what's going on...

at this point... no one knows what's going on with home... because you do not have the right to know... because how dare you knowing when or if things will be fixed or added... it's free! so a big (&*@#*^@#$ from Sony!

I honestly do not understand Europe unconditional loyalty to Sony when Sony threat them as peasants compare to other regions in their untouchable empire.

[kewlkat007]

apparently it's not about being FREE. It's about everyone getting the same FREE SH!T on all levels, when it was promised to them.

I do not like in EU, and do not understand some of the strategies, so I'll gladly take my @ss out of this thread.

[Lucreto]

Europe gets shafted each and everything and I won't defend them but there are a number of issues they have that other countries don't have.

Firstly there are a number of different languages and they all take time to translate. But this should be done when the game is still in development but they don't talk with each other.

Secondly Europe is not like the US each county has there own media watchdogs that judge each game and that takes time as each have there own rules just like Gears 1 and 2 are not in Germany. This can be out of SCEEs control and have to wait for all countries to come back to them with a rating.

Thirdly the prices are higher due to the exchange rates, VAT and other taxes are higher in Europe and in US and Japan.

The main problem is that the individual parts of SCE don't talk to each other and all do there own thing. SCE need to be restructured to be more efficient and aim for global released to all games and equal treatment all around.

It is not straight forward and it never will unless Europe becomes the United States of Europe.

edit to the disagreers rebuttal please.

[Karum]

I think you make some good points, have an agree and a bubble.

[Chrissy]

But according to NPD USA hates sony.........

[LinuxGuru]

I believe that Sony should do away with SCEJ, SCEA, and SCEE, and just combine them into SCE International (SCEI).

For things to run smoothly all across the board...they need to be unified first.

They should choose one location that is geographically in the middle of all SCE-supported regions, of course retain all original satellite locations.

Unifying under the SCEI moniker would enable Sony to carry out movements worldwide, and bring down any issue with one fell swoop.

Their budgets would be combined, staff is combined, efforts combined, everything would be combined, and they could attack issues and development of games and applications, as well as hardware together.

Agree?

[Omega4]

Sony obviously bit of more than they could chew, it seems like HOME has created more problems than it solved for PSN

They still got a long way to go before they can even compete with XBL on the original Xbox let alone NXE on the 360

[LinuxGuru]

That would be incorrect. The PSN more than competes with XBox Live on many levels.

In 2 years, the PSN has nearly as many members as XBox Live has gained in 7 years.

I'd call that progress, don't you think?

[Omega4]

The difference is the XBL members actually use the service while the 14ml PSN members likely just created an account to log onto the PS website

Do you seriously believe that PSN has anywhere near the number of active members of XBL? Seriously?

[ionstorm]

sorry linux but thats innacurate, of course it has the same amount users because it comes with the system. the real question is are they using the service? thats what count

[Karum]

It does come with the system but it doesn't come with a ready made account. You actually have to go and sign up.

I will concede though that some people have multiple PSN accounts, personally I have 2, my main EU based account and my US account which doesn't see much use unless something gets released stateside long before it does in EU. It's reasons like that people have multiple accounts so I do think if the PSN was more universal there would be a fair few less registered and active (yes I said active because of the non-universal nature of the PSN store those multiple accounts are used often by a lot of people) accounts.

Ask yourself this though, how many of those 15m or so LIVE users do you think pay the yearly fee to play online? I'm betting it isn't close to all of them. I'm not trying to bring down XBL, it's abviously a great service but let's live in reality here.

[rajman]

This has been happening for along time and Ive become used to it now (waiting longer for content) but charging EU guys more than US for dlc is ridiculous man....I mean us EU havent even got the damn video store yet which I soo want! And our weekly PSN store update sucks compared to the US

[SpartanGR]

When a company has to deal with a 100+ f....g languages and cultures what you expect? Living in europe is the best, just not for electronics. NA is the consumer's paradise.

[Gadbury]

Hi all,

I'm totally behind this. I have set up a Feedback Forum where us European users can log our complaints and issues with SCEE.

Everyone is welcome to use the free site. It would be great to get together a list of all the issues together with some evidence / facts to back up the arguement.

Log your complaints here: http://ps3eurogamers.uservo...

Please use it and keep it clean - the feedback forums are moderated!

Cheers!

[sak500]

OK let me get this straight, you guys had multiple accounts so that you could download from any region, their region specific demos etc and now you can't d/l home from other region account?

[Sjoeter]

thats why i really really really (to not piss off all you Sony fanboys i don't say HATE but dislike!) really really dislike Sony! the don't give a Flying f8ck about us European gamers!

[anubis12]

home broken...no way

[Captain Tuttle]

Keep buying those PS3's Europe. Maybe Sony will treat you decently some day.

[Karum]

Could say the same to anyone that bought a 360, on a world wide basis no less.

[Ngai]

i miss those days people flamed Home because it wasnt important and said its about games.. what the fukc does it all matter? Its fun, enjoy it. More or less. Who cares? Im enjoying it. Less is more.

[LeShin]

This might seem like a silly thing but why don't SCEE just put up up the US versions of the PSN games and let the gamers decide to get it or wait for their native language version? The delay of Streetfigher HD is ridiculous! I was lucky that I set up a entropay credit card at around the launch of the PS3 in the UK so I can buy things off the American store as I here you can't use that technique anymore. The same thing happened with Super puzzle fighter which didn't come out for bloody months which is what prompted me to buy things of my American account!

The thing is, the more they delay Streetfighter HD, the less likely people are going to purchase it. I know at least 5 friends of mine who say they probably won't get it now.

Why?

Because bloody Streetfighter 4 is coming out very soon, so why bother with the old version?!

I don't care what the poster Nathan Drake says, the European store layout has nothing to do with localisation so why the difference? There are many little "niggles" which have nothing to do with localisation laws at all, the implementation of trophies in certain games for example.

[cmrbe]

Hell over this.

To x360 fans in here. The issue here is that other regions gets better deals MOST of the times compare to Europe which is nothing compare to MS shoddy nightmare hardware issues.

[cmrbe]

The treatment EU PS fans gets is first class compare to x360 fans all over the world.

[cstreames]

We have to keep pushing this, I really dont care what sony do to come up with a solution to fix things but i sure as hell now that a "Blog" totally 100% certainly wont go anywhere near patching up the mess they've made.

This wont happen over night and there really is no reason why we should accept any sort of "quick fix".

Push on and lets be heard!

[felidae]

oh Sony .. please do something right .. just once.

[mastiffchild]

The tax/VAT etc excuse used by(not just) Sony for hiking up prices of software in the EU(and even more in the IK f we're really honest doesn't wash -not for the differences we have to pay. Rock Banmd was nearly twice the price when it finally washed up here and we pay a premium on all our games with PS3 ones just being the dearest of a bad bunch. SCEE are directly responsible for the echange pricing at the UK PSN store and again we get late released and over priced downloads and less support when things go tits up.

Europe, and ye olde UK inparticular, have been more loyal to Sony this gen than anywhere(in comp to 360 at least) and when it suits the Sony use these figures to bolster theirposition while giving us zero in return and it stinks. Unfortunately MS are even worse(though they don't discriminate against their best market)to ALL their consumers and after seven elites in six months and a lot of grief getting consoles returned in a decent time I'd had enough of them and their "lets use the gamers own cash by selling a cheaply made failure machine to them so we can buy devs over to our team" strategy. Nit enough of us stood up to MS-more should, like I did, have written to them expressing their issues and(as I never got one response from seven mails)then voting with our wallets-give people like this a yard and...we'll see what happens next time.
Sadly, however, though my launch PS3 is still going strong 'm getting mighty sick of paying more and getting less because of SCEE arrogance and may be left with just a bloody Wii if they don't change the way they treat people here in Europe. And then I'll have, what, 6 games a year to look forward o if 2008 is anthing to go by(NMH, SSBB, MKWii, De Blob, Wof Goo and WL:TSD?). I like gaming on my PC but I'm a console gamerat heart and this gen MS have already lost my money while both Sony(with their europhobic posturing)and Ninty (with more shovelware than anyone ver imagined possible)are also letting gamers down right now. I've already told Sony of my issues with SCEE(along with many other gamers I know)and while nothing has yet changed at least I got a reply and the feeling that we might be getting heard at long last-lets hope so. If it was Americans having to pay more and wait longer I'm sure that Sony would have heard enough by now to have been forced into action but I fear we euros don't have the determination to complain when we're sold short and it's being taken advantage of.