Another day and another fiscal quarter comes to pass, and with that comes rushed product releases. As Q3 shuffled into Q4 we saw Ubisoft release the anticipated Heroes of Might and Magic 7. Sadly, this release seems to be matching what was seen with another lampooned title from an acclaimed series of theirs. Assassin’s Creed: Unity launched late 2014 to a plethora of bugs and issues — especially in regards to the performance of the PC version of the game. Assassin’s Creed: Unity was so bad that Ubisoft ended up apologizing with free product. An apology that happened to include a “You can’t sue us for issues with AC:Unity” clause one had to accept to receive their “apology” gift.
It’s looking like this style of rush released might start to become a standard, as Heroes of Might and Magic 7 was released with a number of critical bugs. Performance wasn’t the only issue being cited by users, as a number of game breaking bugs had made it to release. A number of issues including save game corruption, script errors and hard crashes have been present since release, despite running a couple of public betas — and having an absolutely thorough QA process (end sarcasm).
Developers were slow to respond to issues; dev Limbic_Oak was heard to say on Steam, “There was a delay in beginning interaction with the community due to assessment how to actually proceed in the first place.” Limbic_Oak goes on to say they reassure the community that they will be more open and talkative, as well asserting they were indeed working on the game still. Users remain skeptical.
Meanwhile, another controversy arose with the ill-fated seventh installment of this beloved series. Imgur user melchior1090 graciously documented what looks to be either blatant false advertising, or supply issues coupled with back peddling, or both depending on how one looks at the matter.
The issue stems with the Collector’s Edition version of Heroes of Might and Magic 7. Those who pre-ordered the CE edition of HoMM7 thought they would be getting a physical copy of the game as well as a physical copy of the game’s OST. This was not just an assumption made by users; this was something advertised and promoted by Ubisoft themselves.
Since changed, Ubisoft initially advertised the CE edition as being “PC DVD,” and had pictured the physical copies of the OST and game disc box. These physical copies still remain in their promo picture for the CE edition, despite changing the lower bit to read “PC UPlay.”
Not to mention that Ubisoft themselves unboxed the CE edition on stream where you see them pulling out the physical copies of the game that was advertised.
To top it off, the packaging itself suggests there was a planned space for the now missing physical copies.
Needless to say, users are not pleased. When melchior1090 contacted support about the issue, he received this response above.
It’s of significant note that this looks to be only affecting US Collector’s Edition purchases, as EU pre-orders of the game do, in fact, include the physical copies that were initially promised. Customers affected note that their packaging seems to be opened, and a number of them did not even have a digital key to activate. Game copies had to be activated on Uplay via support for these customers.
We have reached out to Ubisoft for comment on this matter, and have yet to receive a response. We keep this article updated and post any comment they have to the start of this article.
In the meantime, we have illustrated here another clear reason to avoid pre-orders on incomplete products and with companies that are building a track record of releasing game breakingly buggy games.
Day one purchasers should not be a company’s QA department. It also helps when a company delivers what people are expecting for their dollar. Yes, physical copies matter very much to folks who spend $100 and upwards for a SKU that literally was advertised to include a PC DVD of the game.
Heroes of Might and Magic 7 currently sits on Mostly Negative reviews, with many Steam users indexing their issues with the game in their reviews. Buyer Beware indeed.
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