Another lot of wasted hours trying to locate a feature for a game I recently purchased that is no longer available.
Features being turned off is the entire reason I stopped buying titles on day of release. Companies have been culling game features, regardless of the effect on the end user since consoles went online and (unfortunately) gave you the ability to do so.
Is it billions or millions of $s a year you lot make in profit and yet you need to cull features from the end user who potentially dropped ~10% or more of their wage on your titles? When running a service should scale in regards to user demand and effect on company profit per title (support demand, hardware demand, etc). What is the threshold for retirement of a services and where is that published so we may stay informed of the pending doom for our beloved titles?
This problem will only become more rampant as titles move from dedicated servers to matchmaking and DLC. The more power you hand back to the companies releasing the games the less long term support we will see. Paid DLC is not support, free DLC is debatable support.
What is your support review period for the online services of games? This becomes more of an issue with the inclusion of online integration.
Is it stated on any packaging that online services for "XXXXX" title may be discontinued after "X" period based on the results of a review. Can you assist the buyer with not buying a broken game at point of sale? In not doing this the effect on a companies reputation is fairly evident at the moment.
Moving forward all games publishers should provide an information pack listing what online services have been discontinued at the point of purchase to allow their customers to make an informed purchase instead of buying a broken title. This is what I consider customer support.
This is a reactive approach http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates, I am looking for a proactive approach to the problem of broken titles being available at point of sale.
http://www.ea.com/news/we-can-do-better ... you can do alot better, easily with minimal financial impact to you current bottom line. Customer SUPPORT should pull you out of the slums where your company does get voted "The worst company in America".
While you may not sell a $20 broken title because the customer was informed about broken features, you may sell a $90 title because the customer felt supported at point of sale.
