Mr. Dark

Holy crap, check this out:

http://forums.testdriveunlimited2.com/showthread.php?t=27505

That's pretty much smoking gun evidence they 'shipped' pre-release software. QA and review builds as final, retail software. I don't think that's ever happened before, as in, a company being caught red-handed, has it?

Guys? You've been punked. As of 9:45 tonight, dev on the forums replied to another server problem report with:

Hey Everyone,

We are currently working on resolving the issue. We are sorry for the delay.
In the meantime feel free to visit these links for further updates:

Xbox: http://forums.testdriveunlimited2.co...splay.php?f=95
PC: http://forums.testdriveunlimited2.co...ad.php?t=23911
PS3: http://forums.testdriveunlimited2.co...ad.php?t=24424

The link to the PS3 forum hasn't been updated since YESTERDAY.

PR smoke and mirrors, the note from the producer means nothing. Just checked, everything on my PS3 is identical to before, NO CHANGE, NO UPDATE.

@Nofriendo

Time to throwdown some Disney Parks geekistry:

Disney World is the name of the overall area in Florida. Magic Kingdom is the name of the Disneyland-like park in Disney World.

While Disneyland and Magic Kingdom have many attractions in common, few are identical. Even the mostly-identical Haunted Mansion has a different exterior and an additional interior scene. Disneyland has TWO entire 'lands' unique to it (ToonTown and New Orleans Square) while Magic Kingdom has Liberty Square. Some attractions, such as the 'Mountain range' which includes Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain, have the same names in both parks but the rides are completely different.

Most 'Disney geeks' would choose Disneyland and it's attractions for inclusion in a game like this. Why? Simple: Disneyland was created by Walt. Disney World and the Magic Kingdom were not: they opened in 1971, five years after Walt's death. Disneyland definitely has Walt's touch, and for a game about Mickey and Disney's past, it makes sense to use the Disneyland attraction roster for the game.

I was at this multi-band fest in Kansas City back in 98 or 99. Coal Chamber was up next. This was at a place that normally didn't do shows, so all day the power had been up and down like a yoyo, all sorts of problems.

While Coal Chamber (Dez from Devildriver's first band) was setting up, another outage, with a loud POP. A few minutes later, Dez comes to the stage, completely enraged.

He basically screamed at the audience that the promoter was such an idiot that they'd managed to blow all of their sequencers and digital stuff, which was worth thousands and meant they couldn't play.

The promoter comes out, tries to play it off like it's no big deal.

Out comes Meegs, the guitarist, and SMACKS the promoter on the back of the head with a champagne bottle! Knocks him right off stage and into the crowd.

CHAOS ENSUES.

The promoters friends and crew storm the stage, met by Coal Chamber and their roadies. Out come some of the other bands, including a couple of dudes from Slipknot, masks included.

The next band eventually took the stage, but the guitarist cracking the promoter over the head with a champagne bottle and knocking his ass into the crowd was definitely the rock and roll moment of the show.

Okay, you need to hand in your Music Game Intellectual Currency badge and step away from the keyboard. Eye Of The Tiger is on the board, some unknown likely POS band called Silversun Pickups is on the board, and you bash Bob Seger, one of rock and roll's most legendary singer/songwriters? 'Old Time Rock & Roll' was all but a novelty single, sounds nothing like his other stuff. Like A Rock, Turn The Page, Hollywood Nights, Strut, and so on and so forth...the guy has a legacy of hits that predate you by a few decades.

I think one thing the article overlooks is that unlike the prisoner's dilemma, there are not two choices. It's not as simple as sharing or not sharing. For example: how many bands are actually worth signing exclusivity deals with? Very few, I'd wager, and even then you could never hope to tie down even a majority of music lovers even with a dozen major bands. Aerosmith? Great! Good luck! I -hate- them, and have no interest in them. Def Leppard? You couldn't pay me in achievement points to even -listen- to the new track, nevertheless pay and play. Just two examples. The only way such a strategy could be successful is in a 'format war' similar to what just happened with Blu Ray and HDDVD, where you hope that eventually enough 3rd party content providers will move to one side that the whole issue reaches critical mass. Even if you had a centralized way to pull vast amounts of music (say, exclusive deals with a label that publishes and holds rights to -all- it's music...which doesn't exist these days) you still would always have the chance of having a deal-breaker: my Metallica trumps your Def Jam Records. I agree with other commenters: the exclusivity deals by Activision display a certain element of desperation and a large amount of greed on the part of Aerosmight rather than fan service or real business savvy. (Exclusives are a lousy deal for the folks holding the music rights...why sell to one person when you can easily sell to two?)