The 100% Discount
by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer & filmmaker
January 8th, 2014, was definitely one of the strangest days in PlayStation Home’s history. What happened was something that I’ve never seen before — at least, on the scale of which it happened.
It was supposed to be a half-off Lockwood sales event on selected personal spaces, clubhouses and its associated bundles to kick off 2014. I really was looking forward to the discounted abodes to add to my collection.
Instead, every single proposed item to be discounted at 50% was discounted 100%.
Free.
Many saw this like children, with their eyes wide open in a candy store, jaws dropped as they gazed over every single lollipop and gummi morsel, just waiting to dive in and devour every last piece until their stomachs couldn’t take it anymore.
Unfortunately, this was a brutal way to start off a good year for Lockwood. And the worst part is that it isn’t even Lockwood’s fault; pricing changes are controlled by the regional platform provider (either SCEA or SCEE), which places the burden for the screw-up on their shoulders. But it’s ultimately the developer that pays.
While nDreams was caught in the line of fire with the Inferno Apartment space, without a doubt Lockwood was far more affected. I don’t think anyone can ever imagine just how much this company lost in revenue. But here’s the real problem: how to best clean this mess up?
Most consumers probably won’t know any better; they see the price posted as “free” and gobble up the virtual goods. Of course, you do have a subset of users — such as some (not all, but some) of the people on the SCEA forum — who actively do know better and chose to take advantage of the situation anyway, justifying and rationalizing their behavior however they could.
But still: how to clean up the mess?
Because here’s the problem — pull the items from the store, yes, but what to do about the users who already acquired them? How do you separate out the rat finks who took advantage of the situation versus the users who genuinely thought it was a free giveaway? Does Lockwood just eat the loss? Does Sony reach into everyone’s accounts and yank those virtual goods out, causing confusion and ill will? The cleanest solution is for Sony to let the users keep the goods, tally up the value, and cut a check to Lockwood for the value lost. But even that leaves a bitter taste, because it means that there are people in the Home community who knowingly “got away with one” — and that’s just not fair. Particularly in a community with as big of an entitlement attitude as the Home user base.
This isn’t the first time a pricing error has caused an uproar. Remember when the Iron Fusion Mechjets were introduced with a $2.99 price tag by mistake? And how some users ate up the series before it was reset at the accurate price of $9.99? That change sent the forums into an outrage. Interestingly enough, the debate wasn’t so much centered on the higher price tag as it was the rage over someone else getting a better deal because they were in the right place at the right time to take advantage of it.
For consumers, it’s easy to point the finger at Lockwood (which would be stupid) or at Sony (which they deserve) for this error. It’s created a situation in which someone has to be shafted. Either Lockwood eats the loss, Sony eats the loss, or the consumers get the items pulled — which potentially leads to future revenue losses due to lowered consumer sentiment.
It’s easy to stand by the aphorism that the customer is always right (even when they ain’t), particularly given the caveat emptor economy we live in. But let’s look beyond the here and now to a larger issue: every pricing error in Home lowers consumer confidence. Every broken game lowers confidence. Every developer falling silent lowers confidence. Every blatant hack and exploit lowers confidence. There is an overwhelming sense, growing daily, that Home is on a kind of life support from Sony, only worth enough benevolent neglect to keep the lights turned on, and that Sony would really, really love to have those resources diverted to newer and more profitable ventures.
I could be wrong, of course. I’m not trying to write a blanket indictment of all the good personnel at SCEA and SCEE who are tasked with trying to keep this lumbering hodgepodge Frankenstein monster moving forward. But for God’s sake, these kinds of mistakes really cannot be allowed to happen. All they do is drive consumers – and developers – away.
To an extent, I’m neutral about this whole mess. It’s a situation where, frankly, everyone loses. And that’s sad.
But I just can’t stop thinking about the greed of users who knew better and effectively stole, especially when it comes to supporting the company that we all say we love so much. The only upside to this whole insanity is that it’s created a lot of product churn and visibility for Lockwood, which hopefully might translate into some revenue gains.
The ball’s in Sony’s court now. Let’s see which direction they run with it.
January 11th, 2014 by Jin Lovelace | 20 comments
Jin Lovelace is a machinimist and team writer for HomeStation Magazine, as well as the founder of Twilight Touch Inc. -- http://twilighttouchinc.com and http://youtube.com/twilighttouchinc. When not found in PlayStation Home, Jin studies graphic design and illustration (character design and fashion), gaming, and the culinary arts.
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I have heard a lot of the chatter about this from people who took advantage and there is a lot of different views about this. Since Sony screwed up I firmly feel it is they who should take the hit for this. They need to look at the sales and give Lockwood what is owed them irregardless of whether they themselves earn a penny, they can certainly afford it better than Lockwood can.
It would cost Sony more in the long run if they tried to track down every user who obtained a free item, it must be thousands of accounts before this was curtailed. I have heard people say if the items were taken away they would understand and not be too upset about it, but those are people who aren’t whiny children.
When the rubber meets the road, Sony needs to figure out how this happened and then give Lockwood a check for what is owed them. It is the right thing for them to do.
I was one of those persons who on Tuesday night collected the free items from Lockwood. I was shopping that night and saw they wee listed as free. I thought that it was something we as a plus owner would be getting and they were out early-just like some unreleased public spaces.The next day I found out it was an oops and when I saw there was more free stuff in X7 and from nDreams and Lockwood I did not grab those but notified the Community managers instead-but of course they were already on top of it. I agree there needs to be some type of financial compensation to the companies who lost revenue and I would gladly give up what I received and not because I am a whiny child..
I only grabbed them because they were free and I don’t want to to own them if I have to pay for them..If I did I would have had them in the first place. It was funny to me though on Wednesday morning to see so many people hanging out in the spaces that were listed as free. I didn’t see the hiccup in the E/U.
I admit it. I gobbled up those free spaces when I had the chance. In the spur of the moment, it seemed crazy not to do so. In retrospect, I’m sure that I could have passed on them, if for no other reason than the fact that I probably won’t even use them all. If I had wanted them badly enough, I would have paid full price long ago.
The whole episode is a pretty ambiguous situation. From a consumer’s perspective, everybody who “bought” those spaces was well within their rights to do so. From a moral perspective, most people (myself included) knew better and can do nothing but rationalise our decision at this point.
I hope that Sony does the right thing and pays off Lockwood for the debacle. They shouldn’t be on the hook for the full sale price of every item because there is no way that people would have paid for all those spaces. Still, it should turn out to be a bumper payoff for Lockwood. In fact, I can’t see how Lockwood is not contractually entitled to a hefty sum given that it’s completely the fault of SCEA.
With all that said, I’ll repeat what I posted on the Forum earlier this week. I would happily return all of those spaces if it saves some people from getting into serious trouble for the error, potentially losing their jobs.
This situation makes me think about the PSN and the freemium model. I know people enjoy being able to download and play games for free and I wouldn’t want to take from that in any way. However I have an enormous collection of PS3 games. All of which I bought.
With most games being made available free for a time to Plus users, I don’t find it easy to just buy the game outright. I would prefer to do this. I like turning on my PS3 and seeing all those games at my fingertips.
It would be nice to see the option to buy them just as easy as it is to download them for free.
I heard about all the free spaces the other day and knew something wasn’t right. I figured I have the spaces I wanted from Lockwood and whatever was going on would be straightened out. I did not take advantage of the problem.
This situation looks like a confusion in the freemium model and hopefully Sony will be honorable with Lockwood about this.
Demo me and give me the option to buy the game right then. Too much freemium leaves a lot of people stuck in a grey area. I would rather just buy the games I demo that I like. Just one persons opinion.
When I saw the notice on the forum about this issue, Tuesday night just before maintenance, I knew it was in error because I knew Lockwood was putting these items on half off sale the next day. (I hadn’t considered the idea that Plus customers might think they were free for them, Sue.) So, maybe there are other people who picked them up thinking this was a legitimate price, also. But I think most people knew better and were taking advantage of a pricing error. Most people took all of the spaces whether they wanted them previously or not.
The word must have spread fast because I received a text and several XMB messages about it, myself. (And this was at 11:30 Pacific time in the middle of the week.) Later, other people were saying that they picked up these spaces for their main account and “alternate” accounts. To me, this means the sales were much higher than they would have been at the 50% off point. If Sony reimburses Lockwood for all of the “purchases” they’ll be taking a hit for more than they should. I don’t see a good solution here, either.
Ultimately it’s Sony decision and we’ll probably never know what they decide (unless they take the spaces away from those people and then watch the forum erupt!) We are left wondering how an error like this could be made, of course.
P.S. If you’re wondering, no I didn’t take advantage of this error as I believed it was a mistake as soon as I heard about it. For another thing I already owned the ones I really wanted.
I was told about the “free” items and acquired them. It wasn’t until the next day that I learned of the mistake. I have no problem if the “free” goods are removed from my inventory of spaces and items.
But I do think that Sony should in some way compensate Lockwood for this blunder.
:^/ Mid-December last year, the developers’ version of Home was made available to anyone who wanted to install it. Sony later addressed the issue by increasing the version number on the correct download and forcing everyone to upgrade again. That got most of them corrected.
However, the more crafy villains aren’t stymied so easily. They’ve doubtlessly copied the developers’ version and decompiled it, learning the commands and protocols that developers use.
I called the turn back then that we haven’t heard the last of this. Could the wrong prices be more than just a clerical error on some technician’s part? And would Sony tell us, if so?
Rest easy on that front; the HDK doesn’t include any tools for price alteration.
I would guess that the pricing is done through the PS Store module and not by developers? All the more reason why this mess is Sony’s fault and not Lockwood’s.
Let them take care of the people actually hacking into home and doing ISE, and let them repair home’s other broken things. I didn’t know this was a mistake, and it was not the first. I hope they will double check things from now on before they release them. I thought they might be clearing out old inventory before they stop having it.
When they didn’t pull the items out the store I thought they had decided to just leave it like that, it was past 5pm EST and the items were still in the store and they were aware of the problem before 9:04 am -- the statement below by Melissa -- The next statement is from their LKWD FB Page @ 1 am on Tues people were posting there were free apartments in the store.
Lockwood DeveloperLKWD_Melissa
Re: LKWD Feeling Generous?
01-08-2014 09:04 AM
Many people, actually, reported the issue, although we were already looking into it.
As Joe said, we’re waiting to hear back from SCEA as to what the outcome will be.
[Facebook comment]
Greetings (: phats hopes that you are aware that about 6 or 7 apartment bundles are currently FREE on Home . if so , THANK YOU ! if not … oops! Like · · January 8 at 1:03am
This makes me question when exactly did Sony know about the Free apartments? Why were they not taken out of the store before the update or even right after the update? It would have definitely been less of a loss (if any) if they had done so, am I right? In the end of the day Sony will decide and there’s nothing we can to about it. It has been very interesting seeing everyone’s views on this topic and there’s really no need to jump on each other especially over a mistake made by Sony.
I imagine time zones played a part in this, as there is an eight hour time difference between Lockwood in the UK and SCEA offices in San Fransisco.
When Lockwood became aware of the issue, it was approaching midday in the UK, which on the west coast, was still some ungodly hour for anyone to be awake, let alone be in the office. Couple that with the fact that CES was going on in Vegas -- where Sony had a strong presence at, likely leaving just a skeleton crew in SF -- and you had the makings of a perfect storm.
Que Sera Sera…
I’ll be the first to admit, I knew about the free apartments and associated bundle packs that were marked as FREE. I knew it was a pricing error, because I had seen the 50% OFF advertisement from LKWD, before the error was made. I didnt have to check the forums to confirm it, although I did anyway. And ya know what….I downloaded them anyway.
Yeah, I said it. I downloaded them anyway. LOL. And I wont lose a single wink of sleep over it, either. I wont shed a single tear and I wont have it on my ever so troubled conscience.
You know how much money LKWD has made off of me in the last 5 years? HUNDREDS. Some of it was justified and priced appropriately and some of it was highway robbery, borderline scam. Buyers remorse. So, when something like this comes around…which doesnt happen too often in MY favor, mind you…I take advantage of it, when I can. They can afford to give some back.
Now, if my confession here makes me look like the only bad guy…fine, I’ll be your bad guy. I still couldnt care less…and not a single person out there can make me feel guilty for something, that wasnt even my mistake. Dont question my morals or integrity on the matter. I have none. LOL.
Okay.
The news also flooded the Playstaion Home facebook fanpage. Most of us received numerous messages through the XMB. It’s human nature. When you find a good deal you use the most effective tool to tell others. In that case the forum is the most effective tool. No need to bash part of the community here.
While some people consider LKWD to be the biggest loser in it due the value involved. I’m not so sure. LKWD items were a sales of older items already bought by most “whale” and a lot of people. Place that already had time to be moneytize. nDream Inferno was a brand new space and most well informed vet had plenty of time to acquire it.
Terra gave us a very good excuse why it took so long to correct the issue. I’ll say the same thing I tell the kids at the shop. It’s not excuses I want. It’s results…
As pointed by Kass here. A thread was posted on the forum tuesday night. The thread was promptly deleted. As it’s the case whenever there is a comment about a real issue. ( I myself had 2 threads deleted in the first hour of the F13 mayhem) Why was it still available and free when Home came back online after maintenance? Around 20 hrs between the time Sony had the info in hands and the time they took it out. … Yeah I know, they have a good excuse.
Other questions puzzle me. Why is the nDream place was remove a long time before LKWD sale? Why while they removed it from the LKWD and nDream store they remained available in the estate store? I know… they have a good excuse.
In aviation there is a “fail safe/safe fail” policy. Basically it mean you take appropriate measure to make sure it doesn’t fail and if it does fail, it won’t lead to a catastrophic failure. Maybe Sony could learn a thing or two from it.
Yes I did help myself to some treats. Not much as I already own enough things/places I don’t use. Not something I’m totally comfortable with or proud of but I won’t loose sleep over it.
I can’t say I had a good time on home over the holydays vacation. Filled with giant avatars, fake mods/guides, cloner… As a matter of fact. I’ve spent christmas eve, christmas day and the following week on various forum support section helping and informing people after the account management crashed and the PSN was experiencing “latent issue”, but I’m sure Sony have a good excuse for that… Sales division did not told the network department how many PS4/PS3 units where sold over the last two months… Someone was on the wrong time zone to tell them christmas was on the 25th this year…
Yeah. Maybe taking advantange of an error is a naughty thing… but I have a good excuse.
Sony choosed to go to the lowest possible cost instead of ensuring a qulity service. Something I have to deal with myself everyday and is now the standard everywhere. Well, there is consequences to that. Deal with it.
I sinceraly hope Sony will accept it’s responsabilty and write a check to the devs involved. Instead of removing the items and fueling a backlash toward nDream and LKWD .
Thank you Sony. Apologies accepted…… *THUMP*
I understand your opinion. Thank you for your patronage.
I just fully disagree with it. No one bashed anyone. If that’s how you felt, however, that’s a burden one can surmise and ride with.
I don’t, personally, find making any mistakes a choice. If you make it, there is a cause and an affect. Such as one would make a mistake in a Basketball game where one would pump fake a shot. Though it can come out of reaction, the defense has the option to jump or stand ground. If one player jumps, that’s a huge opening for the ball defender to net free points. A cause that had a beneficial affect for the team.
This isn’t about morality, but about the cause and effect of actions that transpired. Whether you took advantage of the situation is up to you on how you scored, but be advised that the effect is that regardless of what “good” excuse there is upon choice or who’s offended, the biggest moment of it all is that Sony made a grave mistake and Lockwood took the blunt work of their mistake.
Cause and effect.
Let me rephrase a sentence because I just woke up…
Mistakes can be made, especially if they are from certain choices. If one choices the wrong option, well that’s a lesson learned from them.
One who acknowledges a mistake that has been made and takes advantage of the situation--whether it’s right or wrong through situational venues--will clearly have a cause and effect.
It’s an interesting read, Jin. And you’re definitely right. 1/8/14 is clearly one of the strangest days ever on Home. I think Sony needs to make amends to Lockwood over what transpired, even more so because a lot of people these days have been disappointed with how they’ve run Home. Lack of communication (especially most recently as to whether or not Home is going to be on the PS4), the recent snafu that shut Home down a few days, mods haven’t patrolled Home in ages, an ineffective reporting system, many other issues, and now this have really upset a lot of Home users. This recent event as you’d said is just another example of everyone’s confidence in Sony about Home getting lower and lower.
The day this incident happened I recieved a pm from a friend saying there were some free spaces in Home in the estate store. So I went and checked it out for myself. I saw the free ndreams inferno apt, and figured this was another limited time free personal space give away like the one a few years ago. I wouldn’t have bought this space otherwise but I took it because it was free. Then I saw all the LKWD personal spaces for free and I was confused. I didn’t know if this was a promotion or an error. I was also kicking myself because I already bought most of them. The ones I didn’t have was the Venue apt and Drop Science Subway space. I decided to take the subway space bundle. But I admit this did seem fishey to me, but I still took it. Then I got the full story about this error when I later visited the Home forums. But I admit now especially after reading this article that I feel bad about it. I didn’t take into account of how much damage this would cause. For that I am truely sorry.
Whoever ends up paying for it we all lose. Sony runs home if its not making enough money development slows or stops. if Lockwood loses money Lockwood developement slows or stops. If they remove the freebies there will be a percentage of users that will maintain its they right to keep them, if they stay away the visiting numbers drop. We already know Sony couldnt create enough profit in Asia or Japan and what happened there. The signs arent good with every developer trying to generate business with sales etc with a lot of stuff being not that old, free gold in the wild west. Developers developing else where now and to be honest its getting to the point its not worth buying stuff on release day as it will be in a sale not long after. Unfortunately it really has to be lockwood that loses out as ultimately home needs to beg and plead with its users to stay and buy other stuff so I cant see them removing freebies or taking any action. Sony cant lose as it could make Home development unviable. But gaming developers change all the time.