That assumes the issue is just likeness/brand. As @Olipro pointed out, there can be a lot of variables in the contract.
It could anything as simple was IO Interactive can decide independently on things like availability, price, etc but cannot alter the content from the agreed designs without McGregor’s approval.
Contacts like this are often incredibly complicated as both sides are concerned with their branding - so it’s perfectly possible that McGregor’s agent insisted they can’t change anything without McGregor’s approval (so nothing looks “wrong” by his estimation or essentially breaches the initial agreement) and now creates a scenario where he’s either never going to approve changes, or going to demand a ton of cash up front to approve.
And that’s before going into that even if a recast is possible it would still demand: redesign meetings, voice recording session(s) to be slotted and done, implementation of it, QA, and redoing the entire main briefing visuals.
Then you need to find the right time to announced and release it. It could have good potential, but not unthinkingly rushed.
For comparison, the next roadmap has some signs that it will implement some of the community whishes from IOI’s august call for them. Things just takes some time.
I personally think it will be route taken. Earnings potential and all. It’s at least considered.
At worst, for contractual reason, it could be a “legally distinct” affair.
The mission design and scripting themselves I don’t think will be issues to be reused. The suits and items though…
I guess IO won’t be fixing the bug in The Disruptor that they introduced in the last patch now and it’ll be there forever.
They somehow removed Diana’s dialogue that plays when the target starts evacuating (which wasn’t unique dialogue, it was lifted out of Freelancer). At least there is a mod for PC that fixes it.
I barely follow anything about this guy, just that I’m annoyed that there’s a whole DLC that’s just “gone”. Not even “gone”, that’d be fine, but literally unobtainable, it’s still technically in the game and an entry on the data on Steam and such- they didn’t delete it and refund/make apology content.
Innocent or not, this is infuriating, especially since almost all of this was known at time of production and the name “Disruptor” and general theme of the DLC implies they KNEW he was problematic.
It feels more like we are being punished for what he did- and considering the liquid loss ($1m) vs his net worth ($600m), practically more than he is for it.
I wasn’t paying much attention to really have an opinion from the start, but I’m angry that they made this at all and doubly that they’ve made it a problem for players.
It doesn’t make any sense. He’s been catching these cases since 2019 at least, one literally a year ahead of this DLC. It’s also not as if this verdict’s case occurred in the span of a few weeks.
This case has been ongoing since 2021. It’s also not as if the entirety of the money went to Conor, IOI still profited from this venture.
It’s also not really giving “we stand against this” to keep the content in the game. I feel like if I bought it in time for $5 and they deleted it I’d be significantly less annoyed than I am never being able to have the complete swath of DLC content for any price.
I hope whatever IOI is doing about this is not over.
Was out for six months, was five measly dollars, had every opportunity to get it in all that time. For new players coming in who missed it, I can understand, but I’m tired of hearing long-time players whine about missing out on this. You have no one to blame but yourselves for not ponying up five bucks for half a year. Those of us who didn’t care about it anyway because of McGregor’s crimes and those of us who did care about it and got it right away are not going to sympathize with you for missing out on this. We get it, you’re mad that your progress in the game is incomplete now, but it’s on you. IOI is likely going to provide some other means of obtaining them, so just wait a while.
There was no reason to not get it in that time. I mean, what are you waiting for? This is a live service game; you never know when something isn’t going to be available anymore. The thing with live service games is that the developer basically reserves the right to remove content at any time for any reason. I don’t believe that should be a thing, but for right now, it’s the thing. Regardless of how or why they removed this particular content, that’s a separate issue. The fact is, all that time went by and you didn’t get it when you had the opportunity. If you want to be mad at IOI for how they went about it, that’s one thing, but being mad just over the fact that now you’ll never have it, that’s entirely on you.
But there was no real reason for anyone to get it specifically at that time either. There were no prior warnings, It was not discounted once, I don’t think criticizing people just because they simply waited for whatever reasons is fair. Most licensing deals last for at least a year or longer. And remember, the Disruptor ET was scheduled to last till December 8. If that’s not a sign of confirmation that the content will at least present to that date, I don’t know what that is. I for one only make 4 purchases on Steam each year, planning what to buy based on their sale prices around a week ago. For that reason I had planned to buy it on Autumn Sale, but oh well.
But one can make an educated guess based on their previous releases; and there were no imminent signs. Like what I wrote above when they did they announced a deadline before. If anything they were relisting games, not delisting like in the case of Freedom Fighters. This is the first time they pulled this move, this fast.
And the people who’s playing their games have every right to be mad about the changes, especially when that change constantly will remind them about the content they will never get.
Irrelevant. It was there. It was cheap. There was no reason to not get it as soon as it came out, or anywhere in that time, if having it at all was something you wanted. If you didn’t have internet access in those six months to get it, ok, I can see why you’d be upset, but you also clearly had bigger problems to deal with anyway. If the five dollars for the dlc pack was too much, I question how you afforded to have the game in the first place. If you didn’t get it because of your principles in relation to the allegations against McGregor, then why would it suddenly be an issue to not have access to it now?
I simply see no reason why anyone who had access to the game during the time of the Season of The Disruptor beginning up until, let’s say, a month before they took it down, didn’t purchase it somewhere in that whole stretch of time. If you didn’t get it then, and are now upset that you can’t, unless there was some very specific reason why you couldn’t that lasted that entire time, you really have no reason to be mad at IOI about it. You could have got it then, and you didn’t. If you were just waiting, for whatever reason, and had the means to get it, but you just didn’t, it’s on you.
I don’t blindly throw away my money on a whim regardless of how small that amount is, like I just said I make planned purchases for games. There were no real reason to buy the pack during that time for the reasons I stated. Which all still stands. If they randomly delisted the Street Arts pack after almost 2 years this instant, this same argument of mine would still be valid, apart from maybe parts about the discount. And this very moment IOI is discounting their previous celeb packs now, 30% off. Almost like they are actually rewarding the people who inhabit this kind of behavior, for whatever reason. Maybe it is actually beneficial for the consumer to just wait for once for the content packs that has no expiration labels attached to. Just saying.
So you chose to not purchase the content, not because you couldn’t, but because you didn’t want to, and thought you’d have all the time in the world to just get it later for free. That’s what we call a gamble, and whenever you gamble, eventually you lose. As I said, it is on you for not obtaining it when you had the opportunity. At the very least, as soon as word came down that McGregor was found liable, making it official, you had the opportunity to get it then, considering what some of us predicted was coming after that.
Not necessarily free. And were there any certain, forthcoming signs about how I’d not have all the time in the world in any of the roadmaps, blogposts, store pages? No? Okay.
Guess it is now official. Making preplanned purchases and waiting for better deals are now made as gambling.
Expecting players to be aware of every drama happening in the world real time not to miss content is crazy, especially when this funny thing called timezone exists.
It doesn’t matter. There didn’t need to be any signs. By not taking action when you had the chance, you assume the risk that the opportunity would be lost. Just because you didn’t envision that something would happen that would cause you to lose the opportunity doesn’t make it any less your responsibility to take said opportunity when it is laid before you.
Right now, all I’m hearing from people upset at IOI for rightfully removing the content because it means they can no longer have it as part of their game completion is that they waited too long for something they had plenty of time to do and are mad that the chance has passed them by. I see this same thing every day from people who wait until the day their drivers license expires to try to renew it and find out then that they can’t get an appointment for it until weeks later and are mad that they’ve been deprived of it, even though they could have renewed at anytime up to two years before the expiration. It’s that same kind of thinking taking place here. It doesn’t matter if you knew it was coming or not, you had ample opportunity all along that the rest of us took advantage of, and now you missed it. It’s on you.
True, they didn’t need to notify us about the removal of The Disruptor Pack, in fact they can shut the servers down at this very moment permanently, revoke all the license and they will still walk free because of the agreement we are all forced to agree at the very first moment you boot the game. But expecting people to not mad about it is delusional.
That’s crazy. They should really put expiration dates on the license so people can be aware about the consequences they’ll face if they procrastinate. Wait, they do? Then it’s not a fair comparison. I find it funny you’re calling us gamblers when the real gamble was made when IOI decide to sign the contract with the McGregor man.
