I never like giving you bad news everyone. Especially so close to launch. The reason this news is coming now is because we always try our VERY best to remove issues before you see it. This time we simply weren’t able to overcome them. I am not going into a lot of specifics about what is causing the delay but as our customers I owe you as much transparency as we can.
With the Hollywood Studio expansion we had quite a few content inclusions. The Hoff was one of them but we actually had more to announce. We believed that we would have the clearance to release this content and proceeded with our final QA clearances. We were through format and ready to deploy when legal issues about this content came up.
We were trying to get all the content/ legal issues squared away so that we could release and we held out even until yesterday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t clear all our issues in time to deploy worldwide on Thursday.
So what are we doing?
We are removing the content (that you haven’t seen yet since it hasn’t been announced) and developing a patch for this content so that when/if we are allowed to go forward we will be able to do this seamlessly.
We will then submit the PAIN Hollywood Studio back to QA and Format and out to you all as soon as possible. Coke, Jeff and I are making every effort to make this process as rapid as possible.
In our efforts to move with more agility in PAIN it comes at a price. We seem to always be at the mercy of our dates and it honestly really REALLY pains us (no pun intended) to delay our launches. So much was done right with the Hollywood Studio that you have no idea how much it disappoints us to delay our launch. There is nothing technically wrong with what we have developed, but we are a business so content and legal issues are very real and must be respected.
Let me see if I can field some of the questions I know you will ask:
Q: How long of a delay is this?
A: As short as possible. I am trying to make it less than 2 weeks. I will have a better idea 3-4 days from now.
Q: What is this content?
A: Now if we could say what it was we could release it.
Q: Does this affect online play?
A: We are still testing online play and the new pay modes. This shouldn’t delay online.
Q: Does this delay Hoff’s release?
A: Yes, Hoff is part of the Hollywood Studio content release package plan and will come out the same time.
Q: Is there a PAINLab release this week?
A: PAINLabs uses content from all areas. We were set to make a new Lab using Hollywood Studio “parts” so we will not release a new Lab this week. HOWEVER. We will re-release all 8 PAINLabs this week. ENJOY.
Q: Can we get something FREE because you are LATE AGAIN Travis?
A: Okay I PROMISE to give you something FREE for Christmas. I have some ideas.
Q: Are you ready for the WRATH of your customers?
A: * Deep Sigh * Where did I put that asbestos?