"Random sampling" of stealth action game collector's edition found to contain nonfunctional bonus-content memory devices; Ubisoft lowers price of premium package to $70 as a result.
The good news: The collector's edition of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction just got cheaper. The limited version of the game had originally been priced at $80, but publisher Ubisoft today decided to lop off $10 from its suggested retail price of $80. (The game is also available as a $60 stand-alone product or packed inside a $400 250GB Xbox 360 Elite bundle.)
The bad news: There's a reason for the last-minute discount. Ubisoft reps informed GameSpot that a "random sampling" found that many of the USB drives included with the Splinter Cell: Conviction collector's editions are defective. A representative for the publisher emphasized that not all USB drives included in the package had problems but declined to say what percentage would not work properly. The rep also declined to say what exactly is wrong with the USB drives, saying, "We do not have that information at this time."
The somewhat better news: Details on how to receive the bonus content included on defective USB drives in the Splinter Cell: Conviction collector's editions will be available on the game's official Web site on Thursday, April 15. The drives were to include a variety of content, including a "making of" video feature, wallpaper, concept art, storyboards, and more information on the game's development.
Ubisoft emphasized that no other part of the Splinter Cell: Conviction CE is defective, including--first and foremost--the game itself. The package also includes an art book titled Fifth Freedom: The Art of Splinter Cell, a pair of decals, a prequel comic book called Digging in the Ashes, and special box art.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction will be released for the Xbox 360 on Tuesday, April 13, with a PC version to follow two weeks later. The game, which has suffered several delays, is rated M for Mature in the US and Canada.
If you visit splintercell.com they'll tell you to go to splintercell.com/usboffer in order to download the content that was going to be on your usb drive. Instead you have to go to Ubisoft.com and click on the contact us link at the bottom of the homepage. From there go to technical support about games and click on splinter cell conviction. After that click on the link for the usb content question, and they'll direct you to the ACTUAL website, which is splintercell.com/usbFILE
It's nice that they showed that it comes with a game disc and manual, I wasn't sure that those were included. lol
TO eze_sl89, Microsoft didn't make the game or the USB drive, that was Ubisoft's mistake.
To brendanhunt1: $60 Splinter Cell: Conviction OR $10 extra for a 512 megabyte USB drive that works but lacks the content it was supposed to have, a steel case, two collectible decals, two codes that unlock special armor and a special weapon and a hardcover art book. Do a little research in the future.
The game disc looks different than the one in the picture, and ther is no actual comic book, its in the USB which for me doesn't work. I have to say that im not going to be buying anymore special editions from Ubisoft anymore.
uhhh i dont get how to use the f**king thing.... i cant find the port... so i just put it in my wallet
yeah mine defective..and i already paid the full 80 for it..so what am i supposed to do now? great job ubisoft..way to screw your customers..
wow that sucks now I dont know if im going to buy the CE or not with this new information
I have been looking at the comments on this and they are very interesting. I think that it is good that they have admitted to a mistake, but to be honest just like in comic books special editions are designed to make you pay more for the same product. I havn't purchased a SE since RE4 in the metal case, and that was the same price. In my opinion SE should be the same price and should go to the die hard fans who pr-order months in advance. At least in that case if the game does suck they have a nice shinny case to lok at.
To Guitarist1980 - THATS WHY ITS CALLED A DEMO. Maybe you should look up the definition... its NOT the final product. Ubisoft puts out quality games. Yeah, the demo was rough, but its a DEMO. Ive been with Splinter Cell since the beginning. Awesome series.
I don't know why I bother reading the comments on this site anymore. 90% of the posts that are made on here are by whiny little children (or adults acting like whiny little children). Just because its the internet and you CAN act like a moron, doesn't mean you should.
wow i love how people find any reason to whine about stuff... half of you would never even use that usb stick... you're getting all the other CE goodies for 10 dollars cheaper... All the content will be available online... AND if you are one of those with a working usb stick then you made out on top!
I agree with R3NeGaDeAnGeL, every SINGLE game that comes out now, you pay full price, and then 2 weeks later there's DLC. Why wasn't that DLC part of the game you just paid for? Are we supposed to buy games every month, all the while buying the DLC for the games we bought the last month...screw that. My budget for video games isn't $500 a month. Also, who cares about special editions..it's like DVD's that come out, you but it, then 6 months later , there's a new "special edition" meh @ $ Grabbers.
You would think someone did a check of the drives before they got put in the box and sealed up, not after they already shipped to retailers. I mean its good they owned up to the mistake and made the content still available through download. But this isnt like the Bioshock CE when the statues got busted cause an idiot dropped the crate during shipping, this still shoulda been caught earlier. a lot earlier
I have a stock pile of free USB devices that came with games :P. Ive always assumed they never worked so I never used them, lol. Guess I was right.
As soon as this game is the deal of the day for $40 or less on Amazon I'm buying it. So in about 2 weeks given how games and their discounts have been scheduled on Amazon so far.
Despite the implemented DRM fo the PC version, they still believe they have fans. This collector's edition is dedicated to all those, that support their cause.
I'm reading some of these comments below and I can understand the frustration everyone is feeling at this announcement. However, I feel that Ubisoft deserves some kind of praise for owning up to these issues instead of keeping it secret and letting it blow up in their faces later on. Even if someone does get a faulty USB drive, they will still be able to access the content on it; it won't be lost to them forever.
After experiencing Ubisoft's new drm for pc games I won't buy another of their products. And now they go and ship defective stuff to be bought by their fans...awesome. They probably got a good deal on the drives. Wonder if the game works...the PC on sure as hell won't very well, but then again I guess we should get used to them selling broken things for full price.
Wow gee what a bugger i didnt get that making of and wallpaper and concept art. Luckily i can download it! Are they serious you pay for a CE and you get a faulty usb with a making of video and other crap! I remember on the first one you got the making of with the game!
People are far to obsessed with special editions these days, almost every game is getting a collcetors edition, easy way to make more money I suppose.
If they are making the content universally known on Thursday anyway, then that's not a big deal at all... more importantly you get all the other cool aspects of the pack for $10 less. I will probably get the limited edition copy now.
Yeah, really isn't that big a deal if content is still available. It doesn't necessarily mean the drive is broken, maybe their is just an issue with the content on it. But, I guess having the game delayed again to fix this would be a better idea...
Read guys! The content will be available online!!! Why are you crying over something you didn't even loose??
They do this from the business perspective. If you have ever seen Fight Club you may remember the part where he talks about how when a car company notices a problem they do a calculation. This calculation factors the cost of a total recall to the cost of paying off the lawsuits they would get from the deaths and injuries their product would cause. If it turns out it would be cheaper to just pay off the lawsuits then they just keep quite about it and pay off the deaths because it saves money not lives. Though in this case it may not be lives; it is the same idea and this is unfortunatly how all big corporations work that is why many games suffer now. Why else would MW2 be plagued with so many bugs you would think it was put together by high school kids and free time? They don't care about the gamer just the money, they know they can get away with it and so they do.
Wow i cant believe they didnt do a recall. So its basically they said screw the customers we still want ur money. NIce Ubisoft Nice. Its like every generation of gaming the respect for customers who are spending alot of money to these game companies are going down and down every generation.
Here a idea people. Buy the game with out the usb drive. That is what defective not the game.
Sounds like something Microsoft would have a hand in. I'm talking about the faulty product part, not the dropping of the price to be fair. If Microsoft really had their way the price probably would have gone up $10 instead to cover up their mistakes. At least judging by past record that would seem to fit the trend.
too bad on the stick, at least they are working on it preemptively, Currently stuck with no access to DLC for Dragon Age on the PS3, and that stuff expires soon.....
Wow...so let me get this straight--to combat the issue of defective USBs, rather than recall or do some sort of trade-in program, they lower the price and call it a day?? Okaay Ubi, that really kinda being lazy and a bit tacky, don't you think? :|
SMH c;mon UBI you coulda lowerd the price from the get go not all of us are made of money
They will probably offer the much desired online versus mode for a pricey DLC....damn you DLC's...let's go back to the good days of gaming where everything we wanted was included from the get go!
@ParappaDeAmig You were clearly incorrect. Some fools seem to think companies obeying the law are doing them a favour, I am not like you, I don't suck up to corporations just because the admit they screwed up. Companies the size of Ubisoft shouldn't make such an idiotic error to begin with. If you refuse to see that then there's no help for you.
I just played the demo on the 360 version, there is 0 anti aliasing.. its jaggy city. On top of the poor IQ there is an abundance of noticable screen tearing. To me the game looks unappealing visually speaking. The pc version can take care of all of that exept for the small fact it comes with horrid DRM... bummer.
@ StJimmy15 Well I did (and often still do) try to present different ideas in different ways but the immature attitude of the users on here can not handle that. So I have resorted to treating them the same way. Most of the comments on here always revolve around people say console 1 is better than console 2 or something about Halo being crap. The only 'thing' that I truly believe is that the 'current' Activision is terrible for the industry. It is a great business but a terrible game company. I love games and people should enjoy as many games as possible. You know what, just for you I will totally change my ways for the next little while. I am going to be very informative, helpful and encouraging (oh and I will try to be funny too). With the amount of games that I own and play I know for a fact that I have something valuable to bring to a gaming community. So, sorry to all the little gamer hearts that I have broken, I will be a better person from now on. I will use my knowledge (not opinion) to promote and inform people of what games are about. As an example of me doing this previously I will remind people of how I called Alpha Protocol crap around last September. That was met with very harsh words towards me. And wouldn't you know it Sega thought that it was crap too and delayed it for almost another year. People on here need to learn how to watch a video of gameplay to learn, umm how a game plays.
So, I am going to go back to being nice and informative, hopefully people put their (opinions) aside and consider others thoughts. Regardless of all that, Let Me Google That For You is great.
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