Electronic Arts patches online console service in light of Burnout 3 problems

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 September, 2004

"Scheduled server maintenance" also includes "lobbyserver deployment" as EA attempts to cope with massive worldwide demand for Burnout 3's online functions.

Electronic Arts has announced that its PS2 Online and Xbox Live titles - including the now-officially chart-topping Burnout 3: Takedown - will suffer a degree of downtime today as the publisher performs "scheduled server maintenance," including "lobbyserver deployment," for Burnout 3. Fans of the game will be hoping that this may go some way to alleviating the strain on EA's hardware that seems to have caused so much trouble for Criterion's game since its official release on Friday.

Tales of being booted off the service, Friends lists not appearing, being unable to log in at all, or onto particular lobbies, the game crashing as it tries to locate other players, and all manner of other quirks have led to something of a backlash against the game's online functionality, and publisher EA in particular, on many forums.

This reaction has been further exacerbated by several unfortunate omissions-by-design, like the absence of options to upload single-player high scores in the manner Project Gotham Racing 2 allowed, and the inability to record and relay your best crashes to other users. Other EA-specific elements of the service, like splitting the globe into lobby servers and forcing the gamer to opt out of various mailing lists before playing, have also come under fire from users angry at what they perceive to be an ill-conceived deviation from the streamlined and reliable Xbox Live model they have come to trust.

However, judging by a service announcement from EA's UK and Ireland support centre, EA is making a concerted effort to do something about the game's technical problems at least, which have so far been attributed to the game's unexpectedly meteoric success at retail: "On Tuesday, September 14, beginning at 1:00 AM PDT, the EA and Pogo.Com sites, PS2 and Xbox-Live games will experience a scheduled interruption of service for a software upgrade. Duration is expected to be 45 minutes for PS2 and Xbox games, and 50 minutes for Pogo.com," reps wrote to users.

"Customers will be unable to login to the PS2 games, Xbox Live games, and EA websites or message boards during the full duration of this downtime. Burnout (Xbox) will be down an additional 15 minutes while they undergo a lobbyserver deployment."

Whether that fixes the problems remains to be seen, and questions about EA's handling of online Xbox and PS2 titles will inevitably remain in any event. But, whatever the outcome, we should have a full review of the (otherwise excellent) Burnout 3: Takedown in the very near future.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 8 years ago

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  • mentat #1 8 years ago

    That's good news, assuming it fixes the issues.

    EA listening to its market for a change? Yoinks!
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 10:56

  • Sniffer #2 8 years ago

    Cross yer fingers...

  • Eighthours #3 8 years ago

    Good....very good.

    Lucky for them, as a few forums were about to blitz EA with a tidal wave of complaint mail and calls........

    Anyway.....a cautiously optimistic "Well Done" to them, but they've got a LOT to fix.

  • gamingdave #4 8 years ago

    the game's unexpectedly meteoric success at retail

    Are they saying the servers are failing because theres more people playing than they expected? Surely they new this was going to sell like hot cakes

  • Flabio #5 8 years ago

    They knew it was going to sell, but it's tricky to guess the amount of people who buy it who will choose to play it online. After all, there are no figures I'm aware of to tell a developer how many ps2's are online capable...

  • Dizzy #6 8 years ago

    I find incredibly stupid of EA to bitch about Live and then, when they finally get their cake, they totally mess up and give Live users a worse experience. They should let the professionals (MS) handle the servers... bunch of f*cking amateurs.

    Well it was my first EA game this console cycle and it will probably be my only one. Fool me once... err... never fool me again?

  • [maven] #7 8 years ago

    Yeah. And then they start selling the copies in germany this week and it all happens again.

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #8 8 years ago

    "Would you stop with all the hidden Shaun of the Dead references!!?!"

    Contrary to popular opinion, the word "exacerbated" was around prior to Shaun of the Dead.

    And I doubt you've seen that many references given I only saw the movie for the first time last week. Skip to the end, please.

  • mentat #9 8 years ago

    I wonder how MS feel about this?
    It seems that a majority of people know that it's the EA side of things causing a problem, but MS must be concerned that it's having an effect on their reputation.

  • Eighthours #10 8 years ago

    I wonder how MS feel about this?
    It seems that a majority of people know that it's the EA side of things causing a problem, but MS must be concerned that it's having an effect on their reputation.

    Well we'll never know the full story behind what has caused EA to react so quickly (customer relations? Genuine concern?), but Microsoft must surely have had a choice word or two to say to the top brass.

  • dr_zoidthrob #11 8 years ago

    Fingers crossed that the review mentions the unskippable 'movie' sequences, the irritation of getting a new car (or five at once...) and the total absense of replays (why?? if one game needed replays, it's this one).

    Other than those, it rocks...

    Apart from the online side, but that sounds like EA might be trying to sort it out. Maybe.

  • Tiger_Walts #12 8 years ago

    Criterion managed to get the game finished for release (bar a few lock-up bugs), why couldn't EA get their servers in line? They've probably had as much (maybe more) experience than Microsoft and Sony in this area yet manage to fubar it.

  • hp_on_toast #13 8 years ago

    "bar a few lock-up bugs"?

    I havent had the chance to pick up B3 yet, so whats the story? :(

  • Evil Twin #14 8 years ago

    EA have a shitload to answer for.
    The online problems are just the tip of the iceberg.

    The Burnout 3 demo available a month ago was of code that was completeed just before EA bought out Criterion, and started to add things...

    -The Americanised Disc/Nob Jockey.
    -The awful soundtrack.
    -The unskippable training videos.
    -The OTT unlocking procedure (5 mins play? Heres 10 new cars!!!).
    -The huge trackside billboard adverts for other EA games:

    "Fifa 2005".
    "Battlefield Modern Combat".
    "Need for speed Underground 2".
    "Tiger Woods 2005" (Accompanied with 25ft tall grinning Tiger Woods).

    Its a travesty, and the online problems only add to the dissapointment.

    I will not be buying any future EA game, because I don't believe in supporting this kind of exploitation.

    And, yes, that includes Black, which will probably now include a rap-metal soundtrack, neon lights and decals for your weapons, and Tiger Wooods as an unlockable player.

    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 12:21

  • onyxbox #15 8 years ago

    I nearly threw the game out of the window last night.

    Trying to get a game sorted with 4 friends turned out to be a nightmare, and lots of phone calls, this is not what we have come to expect from Xbox live. EA have made a shambles of the service, MS should sue them for the potentially damaging implications this impression will set.

    Very disappointed EA!

  • MBar #16 8 years ago

    was playing it a lot yesterday. kicked me and various people out of rooms quite a bit.

    but i like the lobby select thing. if you want to play against uk gamers, you go to the uk lobby. optimatch sucks though, rarely finds any game let alone the one you want.

    edit : oh, and some sort of bar or map to show you and your opponents progress throught the lap would be nice.

    and an icon to show who is currently speaking, mid race.
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 12:28

  • groovychainsaw #17 8 years ago

    Hey evil twin, i agree with you on some bits, but i think you are being a bit harsh. Admittedly, the american dj is DAMN annoying, and there should definitely be an option to turn him off, and the soundtrack is 95
    % bad (there's one or two tunes there that are ok) but you can use your own soundtrack on the xbox. The videos should be skippable, but they are only present in your first three events, which isnt too bad. And , although you unlock a lot initially, your rate of unlocking goes down seriously beyond the first couple of classes, so the best cars take more effort to get (which kinda makes sense). The advertsw don't bother me too much - im going too fast to see most of them anyway (thanks god for motion blur!), and no matter how many there are in there, im not gonna buy tiger woods just because of that or anything. Im not saying i totally disagree with you, just i think some of your criticisms are a bit harsh. Glad they're fixing the servers though, i kept dropping every half an hour on sunday....

  • Twisted #18 8 years ago

    Groovychainsaw: there is an option to turn the DJ off a t least there is my copy; pause it during a race, go on to audio, toggle the DJ off, then finish the race and save.

  • groovychainsaw #19 8 years ago

    Fantastic - does it turn the DJ off in everything - menus and all?

  • Twisted #20 8 years ago

    yep, you need never hear the DJ again

  • groovychainsaw #21 8 years ago

    ok, well then, the game is pretty much perfect then, imho, just need them to sort out their online stuff (and patch in world rankings for each course.... like in project gotham - are you listening, ea?)

  • mcmonkeyplc #22 8 years ago

    Foolish EA, they had no idea how many of us xbox owners have live and play live frequently.

    Hopefully they learn!

  • C13 #23 8 years ago

    Yeah, i was happy to find out that you can shut the DJ up... It's fun for the first hour... but after that, you wanna bar him.

    I play on xbox so i can listen to my custom soundtracks aswell, though i'm not sure if i can make my own soundtrack (mixing up several albums). But it's good to listen to your own music anyway.

    I've been watching for EA advertising, but haven't seen any. Must be because i'm racing that hard...

    The training video's, they only appeared when i started a world tour, just before the first race and first crash junction. Ok, maybe anyoing at the time, but after the they are gone.

    I think it's rather cool to have different statistics being kept up to date, so u win something every time ur reach a new 'barrier'. And what's wrong with being given a few cars at the time, even after a short race. Makes things a bit less frustrating for a change... I think that system suites a game like Burnout 3 quite well.

    But instead of complaining about the bad things, let's focus on the (loads) of good things in Burnout 3 and marvel about them! :)

  • mingster #24 8 years ago

    You can make a custom soundtrack so you dont have to listen to the awful music.

    Please doesn't anyone realise that crap skate rock or whatever it is is an American phenomenon only! Never met anyone English that actually listens to that rubbish.

    The unskippable videos only occur at start of game so no biggie.

    The only thing that lets Burnout down is EA's dosgy online service.

  • smelliot #25 8 years ago

    Brilliant news. I love this game so much...

  • Wobbler #26 8 years ago

    Someone has to say it:

    "Better than Halo, then?"

    /hides

  • #27 8 years ago

    It's WORKING!!!!

  • inpHilltr8r #28 8 years ago

    Patch Patch Revolution!

  • Beano #29 8 years ago

    I tried it one hour ago and was kicked out of the lobby twice... :(

  • Kengro #30 8 years ago

    First game on live. First fuckup.... Sounds like EA.... Leave live to microsoft you bastards...

  • MBar #31 8 years ago

    well, i got kicked every other game last night. improvements? where?

  • mingster #32 8 years ago

    ITS WORSE!! Managed to start 3 games online. Joined about 20+ all got lost connection. Stats still didnt update after winning a race!!! Was annoyed. If it is patched then god knows what they've done.

  • onyxbox #33 8 years ago

    it's still not acceptable

    sort it out EA, people have only got so much free time and they don't want to spend it trying to setup a game (again, and again, and again...)