Get ready for SingStar on the XMB!

at this point the only thing you can do is stop using your UK/EU PSN account and create a new one in a country that does not support ps-store or register to a US account

@GANTZn00b
The ‘news’ is 6 days old but I left my disregard there anyway. Yet another straw…

It is fascinating that they think that they’re doing us a favour with their spam. On the other hand, it’s just sad.

oh sorry its really older , but i noticed it today

at least when they close this thread to comments in a few days, we got somewhere to carry on our complaining

Never mind, it’s coming back to live now. At least for a short period.

*life

so this thread really is being ignored if after all this they still think that they can post that and still act as if we should be grateful?

We are few, so why should they bother!? I think we need at least 10000+ votes to be taken seriously. As far as I can see, we have about 2000 votes. Not enough to stop a huge marketing campaign.

youre right, in the grand scheme of things it doesnt matter to sony if they alienate even 1000 people through this… cheers sony for such great customer service!

I wouldn’t say a thousand people is small, look at the BBC when a similar amount of people complain about a television program, that many people making a complaint would usually garners an official response.

Put it this way, I can’t see any future Singstar news or blog post not being marred by a negative response due to this, Sony can dig their heals in but so can we, I’m going to be EVERY BLOG, EVERY NEWS article that relates to Singstar EU complaining about this, I’ve already written three emails of complaint to Playtstation customers services today and will continue to do so until we get a response, I don;t care if I have to send an email every day until the end of the gen, I’ve invested a ton of money into the Playstation brand and have been a follower since the original Playstation, we’ve been loyal through thick and thin, when they took back compat away, when they took SACD support away, when they took ‘other os’ support away, when they tried to thob us off with no vibration in the controllers, all the PSN down time, seriously, and now they force this **** on us?

We maybe few but we’re the people that are standing in line at your console launch paying over the odds to get the next gen off the ground, we’re the people that support your brand from the beginning.

Another email to SCEE:

It is obvious that SCEE do not want to address the issue of the Singstar icon and continue in showing their distain for those very customers who buy their products.

I’ll change the emphasis in light of SCEE not wanting to address the issue at hand, and in the process appeasing thousands of European PS3 users, by simply allowing us to delete what we do not want.

Therefore, rather than asking about getting rid of the icon I ask a question from an aletrnative angle:

What is the business rationale behind keeping the icon in light of such hostility towards it?

I hope to receive a considered answer to this question rather than a copy and pasted answer from the Book of SCEE Standard Reply Handbook.

And if, as you claim you are passing these communications on to the relevant departments, I would like them to consider this scenario:

Microsoft decide that if you are using Outlook as your email client, then they should send you an email that will sit at the top of your list of incoming email advertising a Microsoft procuct that you will never use. This email automatically opens everytime you open Outlook and you can’t move it to another folder or delete it.

That is what SCEE have done to us!

another week… silence!

Not only have SCEE lost a lot of customers over this but they’ve also totally destroyed any hope Singstar had of increasing its popularity. Well done SCEE.

its nice to see that after nearly a month, theres still people prepared to voice complaints/opinions…

in a few days when this thread gets closed to replies ill be looking for new singstar blog posts to voice my opinion on, anything related to london studios will have my opinion posted on it…

sony have more or less ignored us for nearly a month, sorry fred i dont believe anyone has been looking at this… (apart from the times i reported my own posts, its the only way i KNOW someone at sony has seen it)

i certainly wont be standing outside again for a midnight launch for the next playstation, did that for ps2 and ps3, waited to 9am for vita though.

xbox gamertag: kieranmarsh

@ #1513

expect those feedbacks to be deleted immediately , i just posted a promise to get sony allstars battle if the remove that singstar icon (was being serious, not planning to get it but would if they listened) , the comment was gone after few minutes

no anti-singstar post will be tolerated outside of this soon locked blog

Wow over 1500 comments – mostly complaints!

Are Fred and his friends still discussing things?
Please let us delete the intrusive icon.

theyre still discussing what sort of biscuits to have in the meeting…
digestives, custard creams, hobnobs… ‘maybe bourbons’ someone suggests, ‘try them, you might like them’!!

theyre still discussing what sort of biscuits to have in the meeting…
digestives, custard creams, pink wafers?… ‘maybe bourbons’ someone suggests, ‘try them, you might like them’!!

had to edit that last post, seems certain biscuits need to be moderated!! haha, and i have to put up with singstar morons but cant post the word boub**??

@kieran I’ve added you on Xbox, jamesthedefiant. Just another PS singstar refugee!

At this point I’ve given up on it going, got my last 4 games on xbox & yr gold membership. It would be nice if we at least got a confirmation from Fred before comments are closed that its staying and we’re wasting our time trying to get it removed.

before this thread gets closed, id like to thank sony for shoving this advert down my throat for a month, ignoring all the complaints, and not even giving me the option of removal, thanks for the malware sony !

great time to work on gamer points and forget about all the time i invested in trophies

its sad that i have 2 ps3 that are now just expensive bluray players…

wow, i really have some points to catchup on :p im only 24k behind you

but in the last month, ive been enjoying forza, its just as good as gt5, and tonight ordered black ops

Well Sony, you’ve done it.
After owning a Playstation, a PS2, a PS3 with PS Plus, a PSP and a PS Eye, you lost me as a customer.
I still hope you will remove the SingStar for the rest of your customers, but I am gone.
I have never seen a company with such a contempt for its customers.

its far far worse than malware… you can get rid of malware

i dont think its even contempt that they have shown us… we havent even been worth the effort of acknowledging…

fred summed it up with ‘if/when i have something to report’ after this thread gets closed whats he going to do? pop round my house to bring me up to date with the news?
all sony are waiting for is the 30 days and replies get closed and then fred doesnt even have to pretend to care anymore

unlike some its not about an icon on the xmb,

its all about ruthless, intrusive advertising on our personal systems that gets to me
, how far is this going to go sony? more and more bloatware shoved at us with no option of removal?

seriously if this is how gaming systems are going to go in the future then count me out of next gen,

adverting is friggin everywhere these days and guess what if your like me i tend to do the opposite of what an advert wants when its forced upon me, i boycott and stay well clear of it.

at the very least give us the option of removal, and while your at it let us remove, netflicks, love film, music unlimited and at least 2 of the playstation stores, your console has become a joke to be honest.

your sincerely

I agree ! It’s not even contempt they are
showing.

NINA: from the statements you gave I conclude
we cannot blame you:
It’s ovious: you’ve been playing so much
sing-star that, intellectualy you are now
incapable to understand why we are angry.

Fred: YOU and your colleagues
should be ashamed about how sony
is dealing with it’s customers. You lost
me as a customer !! Never expected sony
to be so incompetent but I guess I was
being very naive !

Just sent another email back to our good friend Peter at Sony Head Office, asking if he could shed any light on why this has been made optional in the US but the same courtesy has not been extended to us in the EU. Should be interesting to see how they dance around that one…

poor fred, tbh i think we know its not his fault, but as the only human contact we have had on this subject, i do hope he passes on our frustration to someone at sony and understands why we feel like we do at sonys complete lack of acknowledgement of us, even after 1500 posts.

on a happier note, tonight, i ordered call of duty and hitman on xbox ive given up on sony now

Polite request.

So when will the green triangle appear next to singstar to remove it PERMANENTLY from my system?

A date sooner rather than later would be the Super, Fantastic, Best, Most exciting answer?

Please singstar i couldnt sleep last night that Singstar Icon is stressing me out, i want it gone now,

Please remove it, please dont ruin our home menu by advertising on it

Damn you Illuminati New World Oder

another day with the singstar icon , another day im upset and disappointed with my console, thanks sony

Your’re not alone.

I try to avoid the icon as good as I can but it still spoils a nice
and comfy evening full of gaming or watching movies. I want my old
life back.

Yet another fob-off (reply to my email – see post 1512)- Could anyone enlighten me to what actually is the SCEE position he refers to. Seems to me the position is ‘ar5e-in-air-head-in-sand’:

Thanks for your further e-mail.

I’m sorry that you still feel frustrated in regard to this matter however, once again, I would like to assure you that all of your comments have been passed to our teams. I understand that you remain dissatisfied with this functionality however, we have nothing further to add and our position remains that as I have outlined previously.

Should you have any further queries, please contact PlayStation Support on 0844 736 0595 where a member of our team will be happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Peter Wardle
Sony Computer Entertainment UK Limited

I guess the position is that we should be grateful that we now have an easy and convenient way to access SingStar. Or to quote Nina:
“the icon will be there but you of course have the option of whether to install it.”

i hope it wont be on my ps3 XMB anymore , im tired of going to these forums everyday but what else can i do , before i got that singstar icon i was a satisified customer but im getting reminded of it everytime i turn on the console so i can help myself then going here to ask for a fix , all i want is what US have , a choice

i never had anything against singstar until this firmware update , but after it has been forced on my console i literaly hate it , everytime i see the logo or anything sinstar related im getting negative emtotions ,

not sure if this was the intention of sony to make us hate it but they nicely done it, the fact US didnt get this treatment makes me hate it even more, there is no way back now , singstar will be always a associated with spam to me like male-genital extensions and viagra pills

Well, seeing as its been a month with no updates or acknowledgement from Sony, I finally went ahead and created a US account. I’m not bothered about trophies, and I only have a couple of savegames that I care about which I can’t access for the moment – apart from that, everything is great – I can still use my downloaded content, Netflix, even iPlayer which I was pleasantly surprised about!

And MAN, is it worth it to boot up my console to a SINGSPAM FREE XMB!! I get a warm glow everytime I don’t see it

However, it’s a temporary fix, and I think it’s unbelievable I have to go to such extremes to avoid unsolicited, untargeted and – to my tastes – innappropriate adware. I don’t understand why Sony still refuse to provide us with an option.

i also have another account without singsrat, and the best thing its my main account, i use this acc. only to purchase stuff from the store because my country doesnt support psn store, finally it pays off not to have psn store here

So when will this spam be removed?

I have sent e-mail to some of the contacts on the playstation site. I hope we get the same choice as USA. But I doubt it.

I hate xbox, but it would seem like I have no other choice to switch over when the new xbox arrives.

Still silence……

In an ever evolving market where digital content, online services, and transparency with customers becomes increasingly important, I’m surprised by the apparent lack of effort to work for parity between different nations, with much of the EU still missing out on things like the video store, and having criticisms like the ones in this article acknowledged but not properly remedied.

It’s funny, there was a Sony exec that confessed one of their biggest mistakes when transitioning from the PS2 to the PS3 was too much arrogance. Now, with the next generation looming, and Europe being Sony’s most loyal market, we get the shaft, we get vague responses to problems, we get ripped off and all Sony does is pass the blame onto publishers without, again, showing us any kind of effort to persuade them otherwise. The customer must not always be right when Sony is in the driver’s seat.

As much as I love PlayStation and will stick by, I think Sony are going to be in for quite a shock when the opportunity to invest in a different system from a competitor arises in 2013/14. I think there are many people who will take it.

I can’t even be critiqued for my “lack of effort” comment either, because when you promise something, like the video store, for years, with nothing to show for it, and no solid reasoning for why it’s taking this long when Xbox doesn’t have the same issue, validates my opinions.

I think the biggest thing to be worked on is transparency. I know it’s against the company’s nature now but it’s something that will need to be adjusted to.

The next big thing is to show some care for European customers. We always get blatantly ripped off on the Store, or have some other nutty problem which leads to “it’s upto the publisher, not us”. I think there needs to be a stronger nudge, like “Hey, this game you’re selling on our marketplace is much more expensive than the American version. Could you perhaps adjust the price to match? This will make for more happy customers and potentially more digital purchases”.

Do you guys have those kind of conversations with publishers? Can we be transparent now, while we wait for the next firmware update that will come out in several months and do literally nothing but improve security, finally get rid of that icon, and add nothing of interest?

Fed up with the odd fob-off and being ignored.

So, have now highlighted this thread to the Technology News Desk at the BBC, emphasising that the issue is not SinStar (I don’t believe the game itself is the main issue any longer) but highlighting how SCEE have removed our freedom of choice, shown absolute distain to their customer-base and how European users are classed as second-class and do not deserve the same levels of respect as their American counter-parts.

It may come to nothing but contacting SCEE themselves is proving to be futile.

I got response from one of the persons I e-mailed. Sadly, this person has nothing with the playstation brand.

And he actually wrote an e-mail to me. Not copy and paste [DELETED] that I got from the others.

Not sure if I should post it, as the only thing he said that it is poor judgement from the playstation section of SCEE. He said that feedback from customers should always be respected. But since he had nothin to do with playstation side of the company, all he could do was to forward my feedback to the relevant team.

Funny. I’ve just read an article on BBC which addressed Sony’s T&C changes after the security breach.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14948701

On an almost unrelated note, I found this in the PS3 Privacy Policy:
9. [...]
“If you want to opt-out of receiving marketing information and advertising, you can also do so via your Sony Entertainment Network Account Management area or by switching off the relevant feature. We will aim to process your request as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event, within 28 days.”

This should include intrusive ads on the XMB as well.

Since that only concerns law suits, it has hardly anything with the issue at hand.

I don’t think that the privacy policy protects us from this spam. But it could be interresting to try that with SCEE and see how they respond.

Yet another fob-off.

So, if you have a genuine complaint then SCEE provide no procedure for taking it forward and just advise that you check a blog that is being ignored (i.e. this one!!):

Thanks for your further e-mail.

I regret that I’m unable to provide you with an alternative e-mail address for you to forward your complaint to. As advised in my previous e-mails, your comments have been taken on board and passed to the relevant teams however the position of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe remains that we’re unable to offer any further comment on this matter at this time. Therefore, I have nothing further to add at this time, please continue to check our EU Blog for any updates.

Best regards,

Peter Wardle
Sony Computer Entertainment UK Limited
http://eu.playstation.com

@maniac81
I know that my link is offtopic. I posted it because Iffy_2009 mentioned the BBC.

I’ve read the T&C’s and Privacy Policy over and over again just to find a reasonable explanation why Sony is allowed to behave like a bull in a china shop. Found item 9 and had the expression that I have some rights as customer. Yet another straw.