You can update your PS Minis Angry Birds -- if you contact customer service

by JC Fletcher on Sep 5th 2011 7:30PM

In January, Chillingo put out a PlayStation Minis version of the megahit Angry Birds. Then, in July, it was replaced by one published by original developer Rovio, with better load times and other improvements; however, since it was sort of a new game by a new publisher, players couldn't just update to the new one without paying for a second copy of Angry Birds.

PSN Stores finally got word of a kludgy solution, from Rovio's VP of Franchise Development, Ville Heijari. "...anyone who purchased the older version can contact PSN customer service directly," Heijari said. "PSN customer service will check your account to verify the purchase, and provide you with a voucher to download the new version."

That's a bit of a hassle, but it's definitely preferable to dropping another four bucks on Angry Birds.

Source: PSN Stores

Tags: angry-birds, playstation, ps3, psn, psp, rovio, sony

Reader Comments (53)

Why would someone pay $4 when it is readily available for free on so many other platforms?

@Nightmaru
Because other platforms cost more than $4.

@Nightmaru
Hell you can even play it on the internet for free.

@mikeburnfire
I never knew that Google Chrome costed money to download let alone more than $4

I told them I would buy ten copies of this game and this only makes it easiar.

And that is not complicated right Joystiq? But the Ambassadors where...

@Vidaluko

WHERE?? WHERE ARE THE AMBASSADORS?? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THEM, YOU SICKO!!!??

@stiqlol
Every dollar counts. hell this "it's only 3 dollars" mentality is exactly what all of these digital distribution models are hoping for. People who will happily piss away a few dollars a week without thinking and then do it again in a year when trading in for a new device or without realizing there's a free option. The slow erosion of money you could be using for other things.

This game is fun for like the first 10 levels after that its boring. Not woth the money.

@Mustang Fanboy
I must be dreaming. Someone dissing Angry Birds AND getting upvoted?

I never thought I'd see the day and here I thought I was crazy for being completely unimpressed with the game.

@Mmmmz

Joystiq is a gaming website with only a tiny casual gamer reader base. Non-casual gamers dissing Angry Birds? I see it almost everyday on various gaming websites.

Ya but will my game save transfer because I refuse to replay all those levels just for that.

@thevoid No, the save does not transfer according to users at Neogaf.

Why would you buy this game at all?

@IAmTheBabyJeezus
That's a good question. I understand people playing this game on mobile devices to kill time, but it's really just a glorified flash game. You can play better ones on Newgrounds.

@mikeburnfire
unfortunately Newgrounds dosent work on a PSP.

Spend two bucks more, and get Mighty Flip Champs DX!

@Kirkpad
Horrible game.
For a similar price you can buy W.T.F! an excellent game.

@Rain
W.T.F. was never released from Japan I think.
I forgot all about that game.

@Rain

Metacritic begs to differ. W.T.F is rated 20 points lower than Mighty Flip Champs on average.

@pluupy, It was released in America to poor reviews and many overlooked it.

Why the hell would anyone buy this on psn? Its free on android, free on google chrome browser, and only a dollar on iOS. Mobile time killers need keep away from my consoles, I know the blurring between casual and hardcore games is inevitable, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna sit there and watch it happen without voicing my opinion.

@Sire Hankbob
While I agree I wouldn't want to pay to play something like this on my PS3, you have to realize this is a PS Mini title and thus playable on the PSP and soon PS Vita. Not everyone owns an android phone or iphone if they want to play this game on the go

@Sire Hankbob
Well, also until recently, people were acting like the thing was hot shit instead of steaming shit.

I guess the novelty has worn off.

I'm sure most were buying it simply due to the relative hype it received. That's why I downloaded the free version on android. I'm so relieved I never paid for it, though.

@Sire Hankbob

Free on any HTML5 browser.
and for some reason it runs better in IE9 than it does in Chrome.

@Ordeith
That's because people are too lazy to optimize a website for anything other than IE and FireFox.

am i the only one who thinks this game gets boring after like 10 minutes? and four bucks seems like a lot when android and ios have it for free or 1$.

@Knives Chau It was 3 bucks on BAN's App store, but they ended up getting Seasons and Rio for free if you bought the base game.

Not worth 4 cents, let alone 4$ IMO.

Looks like a couple of people are getting a "No" from Sony when asking about this though it seems like both of them called versus sending an email. Either the original news story isn't true or the CS people at Sony aren't aware of this just yet.

@Wompdevil I emailed last week after Rovio told me it was all worked out, and Sony responded with:

"the nature of your inquiry exceeds the scope of the Consumer Services Department. Please call the phone number below for more information regarding your request. Currently, we do not have a toll-free phone number. You may reach our North American corporate office by dialing:"

I love how people praise Rovio for their originality when their game is a updated version of Crush the Castle

@Dooliss

In that respect, no one should be praised for anything since everything is an updated version of something else.

@Jason B

No, Angry Birds is literally a reskin of Crush the Castle.

It's not based on. It's not an updated version. It's not inspired by. It is the same game with different artwork.

Crush the Castle 2 has way more depth, more options, more levels, and is more fun than Angry Birds. It should rightfully have the position Angry Birds does.

@Jason B

Valid point, but both of those are horrifically bad.

I think it's interesting that Chillingo's pretty much been shoved under the rug on this one. Must have reached some agreement.

Weird to have switched publishers post-publishing.

@Gooblechev What's even weirder is that switching publishers means creating a completely different title in PSN. There's seriously no way to ask Sony "Well, we're taking over distribution, can we please have access to post updates on title IDs blah, blah, and blah?"

@Gooblechev If I remember, Chillingo were bought out by EA, but Rovio and Angry Birds weren't, hence the change in publishing duties.

What a boring solution. They should be offering treasure maps that lead to the vouchers.

I just contacted Rovio last week and they said they had worked it out with Sony, so I wrote Sony and they said that this issue is beyond the scope of customer service and I'd have to call their corporate office long distance at my own expense to discuss the matter. I wrote to Rovio back in July and they never wrote back, at least they did this time even tho it led nowhere. I also sent this story to Joystiq back in July and they ignored it.

Hey Joystiq, now that you've acknowledged this problem exists maybe you can get in touch with Sony and put some pressure on them to sort this out.

@SolidSnakeEyes

No kidding, just got off the phone with Sony customer service and to get to the point, all he said was I had to buy it again. He didn't even check to see if I had bought it previously. He basically considered it its own entity.

@Bumper And what really sucks is these stories are now reporting that the issue is resolved. People are gonna forget about it and move on meanwhile us purchasers continue to be screwed. I got someone on Playstation Blog to look into it and he said that he doesn't see an easy solution and basically washed his hands of it. Rovio either ignores me or tells me it's all worked out. Sony tells me to f off basically. And the game sites and blogs aren't covering this properly at all so we end up out in the cold.

@SolidSnakeEyes
yeah My friend just called and they gave him a similar puzzled look apparently. It seems stupid to have people screwed over this way. I almost bought a playstation mini this week, but if something like this isnt resolved soon I'll be damned if I ever do.

@PN04 Someone at neogaf claims he emailed in and they sent him the voucher. Inspired by this I decided to email Sony again. I got a more positive response this time:

"I appreciate you writing to inquire on receiving the Angry Birds voucher. Please be aware, I have noted your PlayStation®Network account regarding your Angry Bird request. Please allow 7-10 business days as we are in the process of researching your voucher request. We will respond to you once we have completed this process via telephone or email.

Thank you in advance for your patience and I am confident that you will receive a resolution in the allotted time specified. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to email me back."

@SolidSnakeEyes
So I just got word, my friend contacted Sony through their service request form and mentioned the voucher issue and how the service rep basically said he was crazy and apparently they're going to give him a voucher after all. Interesting.

It seems like it's on a case by case basis, if you;re willing to go through the hassle of calling them first and then finding the quote from Rovio and emailing it to you they'll give in. I can only guess they're doing it so that they dont have to kick out a new voucher for everyone that bought the original version and try to snag a few re-buyers to havent heard this is an option. Kinda shady but at least they seem to cave if you call them on it.

@PN04 I linked them to the quotes from Rovio the first time I emailed them and that was the same time they told me to call their corporate phone number at my own expense. Reading some posts below this one, someone got told there are no performance enhancements in the new one. Rovio said themselves that there ARE enhancements and the performance has been improved. These Sony service reps are absolutely clueless. Apparently some are giving you the code, some are telling you call corporate, some are denying any improvement, some are claiming they are two entirely different products, on and on. WTF. If one of these blogs could contact Sony directly and get an answer it would help us all out but the story everyone's going with is "You can get a voucher, problem solved!" Very unfortunate.

@Aguiluz Yeah, like a grammar textbook!

@weiweizz
I really wonder if anyone ever clicks these things.

No need to contact Sony if you are in the UK
Just log in the PSN store
Search for Angry Bird
The search engine will find the latest version (in UK published in June 2011).
Click download
Presto you got the latest version of Angry Birds
I hope it works in the US as well.

Here's the response I got after contacting PlayStation Support:

Hello M,

The update you are requesting for the game Angry Birds, is not a game update. It only changes the developers name from Chillingo to Rovio. This change does not affect the game itself. There are no better performance or better frame rates in the game. Again, please be aware this is not a game update.

Regards,

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Angry Birds

You can update your PS Minis Angry Birds -- if you contact customer service

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:34PM Nightmaru said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:46PM mikeburnfire said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:57PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 12:53AM Bakabakabaka said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:35PM mcnichoj said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:41PM Vidaluko said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:58PM King Johngie the Fourth said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 6:53PM PN04 said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:41PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:13PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 9:15PM dragunrising said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:43PM thevoid said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 4:32AM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:44PM IAmTheBabyJeezus said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:57PM mikeburnfire said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 6:54PM PN04 said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:47PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:53PM Rain said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 9:14PM pluupy said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 10:01PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:54PM Sire Hankbob said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:00PM Wompdevil said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:17PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:24PM Ordeith said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 12:04AM mahouneko said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 7:55PM Knives Chau said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:15PM LOMDR said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:05PM Hookah said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:11PM Wompdevil said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 4:36AM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:35PM Dooliss said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 8:58PM Jason B said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 9:15PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 9:16PM Dooliss said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 9:31PM Gooblechev said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 11:15PM kmeisthax said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 5:42AM Vordus said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 10:54PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 4:17AM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 4:38AM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:40PM Bumper said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:44PM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 7:02PM PN04 said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 7:08PM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 9th 2011 12:34AM PN04 said

Posted: Sep 9th 2011 12:40AM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 10:34AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 10:47AM KirbyCommando said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 12:58PM Phantom68 said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 7:37PM yodaut said

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