Get ready for SingStar on the XMB!

Ok so… I know Singstar, not my thing and I don’t play it.
We all tried it that one time when everybody was drunk enough on Sylvester and never went back.
Why are you trying to force me to download this ? Don’t answer that, I know why…
This should be moved to Music where I’ll never look at it, or you should at least give me the option to deactivate it.
Have some decency Sony, just the fact that you shove this just above my games list, looking like this is a mandatory thing, is [DELETED] me off…

How about you explain to me Nina, why has this been forced upon me? I have never bought a singing game, I have never even debated buying a singing game, yet the icon is forcibly stuck there on my XMB. I know you want to make it easier for people who have it, so give them the option to put it there. Not forcing EVERYONE to have it. I am going to make a point of absolutely never using this. Seriously, what are the people at Sony thinking? I’d say a very small percentage of people actually own Singstar, so why the hell would you do this?! Absolutely ridiculous.

Completely understand we can’t transfer tracks to the hard drive but here’s a way you could make things more user friendly.

Have a list of all the PS2 and PS3 discs in the app settings, tick the discs you own, these songs would then all appear in your carousel, the PS3 will then tell you which disc to insert to play that particular song and you don’t have to all be hunched over the back of a disc box.

There could also be a simple display setting you could switch between, songs I can play RIGHT NOW, songs I own

Pityful attempt… “Downloaaaad me….. I’m fuuuuuun…..”

This is appalling, why would I want to have this on my PS3? I’m 28 years old, not 5.

Make this go away.

@96
You don’t get it, for people who use the Game tab a lot and have a plethora of digital titles in there, having to dodge Singstar every time you go into it sucks, it has no reason to be forced on us, why can’t it just be a free download on the store? We can’t delete it from our XMBs because…?

I already have a useless TV tab on my XMB, now I have this cluttering up my Games, fantastic.

No! None of this helps, I don’t want it on there and no-one else does either. Give us the option to remove it.

We don’t care about crappy SingStar, people buy Wiis for this.
I thought this was a gaming console…

This sort of thing is really starting to get on my wick (as it were). I can only imagine that Sony have taken marketing tips from Apple, forcing a “fun new app” upon the entire demographic. One can then assume that unless you’re deaf, you MUST enjoy music, and if you enjoy music you MUST enjoy singing! WOW! What an opportunity for Sony! I’m only gutted I didn’t think of it first – “What XMB really needs is an app for a singing game intergrated into the firmware update and completely immovable until Sony realises it’s angering a vast majority of people who use the PS3 to play games where you shoot foreigners in the face, or rip off a Greek God’s ears and make him wear them like a codpiece instead.”

OR, maybe you could do us all a favour and at the very least give us the option to REMOVE THIS OFFENSIVE CRAP. Thank you, and good day!

I actually seriously considered using my American/Japanese account just to get rid of this stupid icon from my XMB.

Our family will love this, especially some of the smaller ones that don’t know how to correctly disc swap Our PS3 is full of Store Songs. Thanks!

Hmm just been reading through some of these comments and it seems to equate to HOW DARE YOU GIVE ME FREE STUFF!!!!

I’m perfectly fine with Sony putting small things for apps where they are relevant, I have the Lovefilm advert on the TV section of my XMB and I don’t care even though I’ll likely never even consider downloading the app itself, but doing the same thing on the Games section is going too far in my opinion.

One of the best parts of the PS3 is the XMB and it’s comparative lack of advertising and general clean look compared to other platforms. This wouldn’t be so bad if the new Singstar ad was movable/deletable, but it isn’t, and to make matters worse, even if you download the game, it forces itself to the top of your download list at all times too. Once someone has seen the ad once, they are going to make their decision to download it or not. After that first time, it serves to do nothing but sit on their XMB in easily the worst possible place it could be.

I understand that you want people to play SingStar, and from what I’ve played of it, it is a fun game. But one of the reasons I, and many others, bought a PS3 is that it doesn’t shove advertisements in my face. If you want to put an ad or even get people to download something, fine, but you don’t need to FORCE people to see it.

You need to make this deletable. It’s horrible and over-marketing a product that I have no interest in.

I can do the same as you do :
Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off… Take it off…

At least move the stupid icon to somewhere where it won’t be so annoying, like the Music column.

I think Nina is my new favourite blog person. Giving a lot of these people a taste of their own medicine.

Well played ma’am.

@113
We have the right to complain about “free” stuff if it’s an inconvenience, and guess what? It is.

“Through your use of SEN First Party Services, you may be provided with information about SNEI’s or a third party’s products or services. This information includes, but is not limited to, promotions, advertisements, product placements or marketing materials within SEN First Party Services or a game, irrespective of whether the game is connected with or provided through PSN. You agree that SNEI and its partners and providers may collect information regarding your activities, access, or game play, and may use and distribute such information subject to the terms of SNEI’s Privacy Policy or the policies of third parties where applicable. SNEI does not endorse any of the third party products or services advertised, promoted or marketed.”

I do not view this as ‘Information’, I view this as intrusive.

People are getting angry over a free service!

But some XMB reorganizing is probably needed soon

@Splutterbug Free stuff ?
I’m gladly paying every year to get “free” stuff with PS+.
This is no “free” stuff since its basically just a more accessible gateway to the SingStore, which is… A STORE. Where you’ll have to buy songs if you want to be able to play your free stuff.
But even that I can understand, Sony has to find ways to make some bucks, no problem in that.
The problem is how they’re shoving it at the worst spot possible.

Also, one more thing – the reason people are annoyed by this forced ad is that we have come to expect a high standard in this regard with Sony. As an owner of a PSP, a Vita and a PS3, I’ve been very satisfied with how the XMB, as well as the main menu of the Vita, are clean and generally, can look how I want them to and aren’t filled with things I’m not interested in.

The kind of advertising that forces itself on you is cheap and makes it seem like the company thinks of you as nothing more than a number to add to a list of “People who downloaded this.” or “People who showed interest in this.”. This was a major reason for me in choosing the PS3 over competitors. It looked nice and well designed and not like it just wanted to get me to buy/download things.

We’ve come to expect a high standard for presentation from Sony, and forced advertising with obtrusive placement is exactly what is not considered high standard.

agree, get the forced icon OFF our systems, WE DONT WANT IT! , you
can keep it and i would really consider getting rid of the numb nuts who’s making these decisions.

time to annoy the hell out of my sister

@FortyPercent – well said!!

I don’t come here to comment much, but when I do, it’s because i’m not happy. There should be an option to hide singstar, and for the very least, don’t place it between the bluray game and the downloadable game section. Looking at xmb now, it’s all just crazy…. Tv/video service section… maybe singstar should have gone there. Life app is going to leave as well, so the network ‘tab’ will only have the browser and search eventually. As for the music and video sections, well they could be merged.

in short, anybody who wanted singstar, has it already and on disc – and they can’t even get rid of their disc because of the tracks on it
- the rest of us don’t want it, yet it was forced onto us

Thanks for deleting my comment, Nina. Showing about as much maturity as your arrogant comments here. Laughably bad PR.

Can we stop this placatory ‘you might enjoy it’ and have an answer regarding whether we will ever be able to delete the app-link, and when that might happen?

I don’t care whether I might enjoy it, I bought a playstation to play games on, not to act as a karaoke machine, so I will not be trying it. Ever. Not even once.

Please answer.

I am just adding my voice to the list of unhappy gamers.
I never had and never will have any intention of playing singstar. I actually feel a little embarassed seeing the icon on my XMB. I’m not one for singing and at no point will I try to use my PS eye (and embarrass myself further) for the sake of a demo. They’re not even the full songs.

Some people here have phrased it nicely (if unintentional in meaning), you have put it above all my other games. In a way you have given a demo priority over everything else I play or own. There is no need to force this kind of advertising on people (especially when it has the potential of missing the mark so horribly). Is it worth annoying the majority for the sake of a few suckers? That is pretty much the same as spam emails for dodgy medication.

@ nina , usually comments /replys from the blog team are rare but this is a really annoying update and nothing to be proud of, its going to cause a lot of negative feelings towards sony and its direction, you can read here and on psn/sen eu forums about customers thoughts and im sure your sarcasm/failure to understand the customer wont help. please take note of our feedback and present it to your superiors.

@Nina Scherer I already tried SingStar by my own initiative years ago, thank you. As I already said it’s not my thing, but I tried.
So don’t force me again with this and let me move this out from my games list.
I never complain about games not being released in the UK months after the US, I never complain about digital releases being clearly overpriced compared to what we can find anywhere else.
But this is [DELETED]… Fix this.

@Nina Scherer You should take a Salesman/Costumer Relations Formation…
You might even enjoy it

Posted on 24 October, 2012 at 10:33 am by Nina Scherer

Well, you’ll have to whine for a looong while then, I guess

So this is Sony’s offical answer?
Basically saying “It’s our system so we can force on you what we want, Then post arogant comments (as I see it) to justify the reason.
You Mizz Scherer have jsut made my mind up for next gen.

You could have at least let the people who hate it change the Album Name so it can be put into a Folder…

…Things like this shouldn’t be forced on people, regardless of whether it still needs to be downloaded or not, the fact that it is blatantly there is forcing it on people. Or at least trying to project the idea of “hey, i’m here try me out”.

People like organisation, renaming and organising Folders so stuff can be categorically sorted, this just poo’d on that theory.

Can we stop this placatory ‘you might enjoy it’ and have an answer regarding whether we will ever be able to delete the app-link, and when that might happen?

I don’t care whether I might enjoy it, I bought a playstation to play games on, not to act as a karaoke machine, so I will not be trying it. Ever. Not even once.

Please answer.

Please, let us remove that Singstar icon. I really dont like it in game category.

@Nina Scherer.

Nina, you seem to be employed by Sony in some capacity. If you have any ounce of human decency then please, I implore you, use whatever influence you might have to MAKE THIS STOP.

It is abundantly clear that none of your customers welcome this travesty, bar a small minority of young children. What may be good news for a very small number of users is in fact a huge irritation to the majority.

Sony’s motives behind this move are also questionable and obviously based on potential revenue from song purchases within this ‘free’ app. Fine. If that’s how Sony want to do it then OK, but this should be a download made available within the store only. It is quite frankly offensive to have this type of marketing imposed on us in such a way.

Until this is rectified then I’m afraid you will continue to alienate many more of your customers. I for one will be seriously considering moving to the XBOX.

I would appreciate a considered response to this Nina, as I believe many of the other users here would do too.

@nina , let the hate rage campaign begin, im shocked and stunned by your comments/replys and lack of pr skills, perhaps its time for another job.

OK, I wasnt going to say anything… but why are like 90% of people personally insulting Nina? She just posted something is all! And has replied 50 times. Thats a alot for this blog!

I dont like SingStar… but lots of people do. There not on this blog – cause there busy having fun enjoying it probably, lol!

And someone mentioned about having lots of digital titles? You can press a button, square I think, that categorizes everything on your XMB, for example pressing it will sort you digital titles into a Playstation 3 folder, for example, which cleans up the main “game” heading. I think you can even categorize this further. So do that and you wont accidentally hit SingStar!

i hope sony will look into it to maybe make a option to hide some things in xmb or remove.

To add on to my previous comment, I mean comments like “time to look for a new job”, are just hurtful and childish. :/

No offence Nina but clearly the vast majority of people, even the ones who like Singstar, do not like this app forced upon us with no way to move it, delete it, or place it in a folder like every single other game on PS3 allows.

Your sarcastic replies are not really helping anybody and are just making the people who have perfectly valid complaints more annoyed. Doesn’t seem very professional.

Maybe just stick to replying to the people with questions about the Singstar applications use and just pass the negative feedback on to someone who cares to listen to it and heaven forbid, maybe someone capable of addressing the issues so a future firmware can let us move it into a folder or delete it if we wish.

@Nina’s reply to FortyPercent

I fail to see how this isn’t a form of advert. You get Singstar with a few song demo’s. You then either need to buy songs from the store to play fully, or have discs of Singstar already in your possession. It’s just sitting there, reminding me of how I am not interested in Singstar, much like how I have no intention of buying 90% of things you see adverts for on TV.

The reason people are annoyed is because of how intrusive this is. I have no intention of buying anything Singstar related. If I did, I would have bought one of the many previous games. Having a free demo is no different, so why force the app onto EVERYONE’S XMB? You should be able to download the app from the PS store which then puts it there, much like how if I download a demo for any game, I can delete it at a later date. It’s then my choice whether to buy the game or not.

Having a big Singstar icon is not my choice. At least move it to the music section.

Personally insulting you? You’re the one posting responses that are condescending and arrogant. Instead of acting like a 5 year old and trying to throw Sony’s CUSTOMERS complaints back in their faces, how about you respond like a mature adult representing an international company and just say something like “your feedback is appreciated, we’ll take it into account”?

The thing is, I’m not specifically targeting you just because it’s Singstar. I’m not interested in Singstar myself, but I’ve defended it in the past because hey, I know that others do enjoy it. In fact, I thought it was a pretty good idea when I first heard about this app. However, placing the app right where everyone HAS to see it is horrible. It would be better placed somewhere where it’s not so obstructive, like the Music or PSN columns.

“Advertising is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage or persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners; sometimes a specific group) to continue or take some new action.”

Is this not the purpose of the new Singstar icon? If you haven’t put it there to get us to download the app, then for what reason did you force it to the top of all of our download lists? The Singstar icon is advertising no matter how you describe it.

I respect Singstar as a game and I respect it’s developers. I have the utmost respect for anyone involved in game development, and can understand how proud you and anyone involved in Singstar are about it. The Singstar series seems to be a great series of games from what I’ve played and many people I know love it a lot. But that does not stop this icon being a mark on an otherwise clean record Sony has with respectable advertising and clean presentation.

To make this clear, I am not complaining about Singstar. It being free is absolutely great. This complaint is simply the icon and it’s obtrusive placement.

So we get a forced Singstar icon on the XMB that 90% of PS3 gamers have never played before…why is it not a downloadable app like MUBI etc?

More to the point changing trophy views to be online only so we can view both PS3 and Vita is the bigger mistake…it now takes ages to view your PS3 trophies cos it is online…yeah you can switch it to offline mode but then you cannot see your Vita trophies.

Does Sony ever consult with actual consumers when they make these decisions??? It is simply not what we want.

While I would have appreciated a possibility to put it in a folder like all the other games, I’m not gonna whine.

But it has to be said: I respect you Nina, you are handling this abuse way better then I would

@homerjnick: Press triangle over the Trophy Collection icon and select Offline Mode. You won’t be able to see any Vita trophies but it will be a lot faster.

“Posted on 24 October, 2012 at 11:10 am by Nina Scherer
Here you go: No, you won’t. Don’t diss it before you try it. YOU MIGHT ENJOY IT!”

You understand that you’re mocking a potential customer by doing something they specifically asked you not to do? Sure, you gave an answer, but you wouldn’t go into a shop and say “Where is x item?” for the assistant to then say “It’s over there, let me show you. If you weren’t so useless you’d have found it yourself”.

You’re not being very professional.