Well, its just a little slip up.
They fixed it rather quickly so I don't really see that there is any problem.
@marco1k1 It's not fixed. A lot of us who paid for the game still can't redownload it without paying for it again.
Fable II returns to Xbox Live
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Microsoft apologizes for disappearance of Lionhead's RPG from online story, says "isolated issue" has been resolved.
Fable II has returned to availability on Xbox Live following its unexplained disappearance earlier this week. A Microsoft representative told GameSpot that an "isolated issue" affected the availability of Lionhead Studios' role-playing game on Games on Demand.
"We have resolved the issue and the game is once again available. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused," the statement reads.
A GameSpot reader initially tipped the news yesterday, saying Fable II had mysteriously vanished. This person also said those who had previously purchased the game but deleted it, were not able to re-download it. This is no longer the case.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
51 comments
2 Like I kind of wish Microsoft would cut ties with these folks, or perform some type of restructuring of the company, because I haven't played a single Fable game that was worthy of a 9/10 in my book. You'd think a company would only keep a first party contributor on the same track if they're producing industry adored games (like Halo, Uncharted, Zelda, etc.).
I remember being extremely excited about Fable when the first was being released, it was a decent game, which was far too short for what it provided. I'm sure those long gone developers of Kingdoms of Amular would have loved the financial backing of Microsoft for their title. I may not have bought Reckoning, but that game at least had more substance than what I've been getting in the Fables games.
I know I sound harsh, but these games have never lived up to their potential to me. I never play their games and have to pause to think "what could they do to make this better?" because I can think of 10 things almost instantly. That isn't so with games like Mario Galaxy or Red Dead Redemption.
11 Like It's odd to me that people are criticizing Gamespot for following up on this story. Isn't this exactly what gamers should want from the gaming media? After all, they're looking after our interests with these types of stories. Even if you don't like Fable 2, digital distribution continues to grow and some day a game you DO like could be removed without warning, even if you bought it.
Obviously Gamespot isn't exactly saving lives here, but they are providing consumer awareness, and to some extend, consumer protection. My initial contact with MS didn't have an effect, but hearing from someone in the media obviously got the attention of someone who could make things right. Though again, as of this post, I still can't access the game...
More then anything I liked this for that retrospective. Somehow I never saw that. Well now I have.
He didn't apologize for the ending so I don't forgive him for that even if it was forever ago haha
Back on topic, uh ya that's weird.... *whistles and wanders off*
@KaptenHaddock With mod support, that would make these Fable games about 100 times better, I'm guessing.
Indeed! It is already one of my favourite games denied for me (I once had an XBOX360). With mods... So much fun could be had!
Fixed News ..., I suggest U add both new and old news .., don't just stick with the old one
I like to know about Old news well ., GS team are not covering all the recent news enough
they have to
Eddie you've been with gamespot for some time now. Don't you think the time has come to write something useful for once in your life?
3 Like Eddie you got to relax with these news updates, as informative and useful as they are, does this short piece become news worthy? If anything Id consider this the equivalent to a tweet or something.
Maybe its just me but GS has become your blog now, just to be clear im not saying its bad but most articles are written by you. Where are the other staff members? We should rename this site EddieSpot :)
5 Like @omenjamlord I think it's a big deal when a major digital distributor pulls a game from its service and makes it unavailable to people who previously paid money for it. And that's what happened here. They did not bring the game back until the media sites started calling. The MS reps initially reported that the game was not going to be coming back. I'm glad they reported it. To me, it's a bigger deal than a lot of other stories posted on various sites.
@SlimeSwayze @omenjamlord It might be a big deal to you, but there is no news here. The only bit of new info is, "IT'S FIXED."
Unfortunately Omen is right in saying Eddie tends to write a great deal of articles lately and half of the content in each article is recapping or plugging.
Maybe GS needs to do a CNN and have a headlines bar or tweet feed or something. Even adding an update to the old article would of been enough.
@SlimeSwayze @hartattk @omenjamlord I was waiting for a big news story on this, so I was certainly glad to see this article.
@SlimeSwayze @omenjamlord The original article was news, this is just one tidbit of info stretched into 3 paragraphs.
All that needed to be said was, "Fable II returns to Xbox Live, MS sorry. No cause explained." Everything else is bloat.
@SlimeSwayze I've everything on my USB key, my profile and downloads, so if the infamous red ring comes my way all I have to do is plug it out and not worry. Just as a precaution its handy to do so.
1 Like @SlimeSwayze Could be because of sales. If you have the older xbox format a usb key to it and transfer all your downloads to it. Makes it easier to put everything onto the new console and for the newer xbox whenever that comes out.
@omenjamlord We'll see. I actually just bought a new 360 after not having one for about a year. I only noticed this happened because I was redownloading all my old Games on Demand and saw that Fable 2 was gone. None of the other titles had a problem. So it's hard to say exactly when it was pulled. I just know what the rep told me, which was that it was "pulled", as she put it, and that it wasn't coming back. It's just a weird situation.
Perhaps it has something to do with the last update xbox received a few weeks back. You should be entitled to a full refund if you purchased it and are unable to play.
@omenjamlord @hartattk I never did see the first article, just this one. I was actually surprised to see that they follow up on the e-mail I sent them. Maybe I just see it more as important news as I did speak directly with the folks at MS, who told me with some certainty that the game would not be coming back, which was why the offered me a refund. I have no idea if I will still get the refund at this point. I was supposed to hear back from them sometime this week.
@SlimeSwayze @hartattk DId it perhaps be a simple matter of MS pulling it for some other matter rather than permanent removal ?
Im sure MS have pulled games before and nothing has been said. This happens all the time. If anything we should have someone monitor MS's DD so and report this on a daily basis?
As I said, im not saying these articles are poorly put together but a consistant paragraph every hour tends to get a bit tedious.
4 Like @hartattk @omenjamlord How is it not news? Again, a major digital distributor and arguably the biggest player in the business right now removed a game from one of its flagship franchises from its DD service and made it unavailable to those who bought it. That's news, whether it is reporting the original removal, or following up on the "correction". This may just be a videogame website, but it is very much the media's role to report on these types of things.
5 Like Once the media got involved, this was bound to happen. I said yesterday that once the headlines made a big stink, they would fix this game removal by today, and behold it's fixed!
Media Power!
That's just another reason I like to buy Physical copies over DD copies. The fear of removing your game content lingers...
There was an issue with the Japanese marketplace where Fable 2 was being offered for free just this past week. They likely took the listing down in panic until they could get the problem resolved; I doubt they needed media intervention to put it back up.
I was still able to download the full 7gb game from my download history on the 3rd (from the US market), so it isn't as if the game was actually removed. Many some other people are having technical issues with it though.
@SolidTy And it still lingers, indeed. I still can't access the game, even though it's back on the marketplace. And I actually paid $20 for it about 2 years ago. I'm not sure if this is because they offered me a refund for the game and are simply denying my access, or if this is happening to others as well.
Likely story: It was an unintentional error, sorry!
Silly Conspiracy Theory: MICROSOFT WAS TESTING USER REACTION TO OUTRIGHT REMOVING AN OLDER GAME THEY HAD PURCHASED! OMG!
@TwilightPhoenix Actually, the likely story is probably somewhere in between. There's no way it was an accident. They were aware the game was gone, and it very much appears that they didn't plan on doing anything about it until major publications started calling.
1 Like @SlimeSwayze Probably, but if I act serious in posting a conspiracy theory, my inbox is going to be spammed up with flames and counter-flames while I'm at work and I'd rather not have that happen again.
I'm actually still not able to redownoad the game, even though I bought it. It's asking that I purchase it again. I wonder what the problem is...
@Darnasian Not yet. They were supposed to contact me sometime this week. I honestly don't care at this point whether I get the refund or am able to get the game back. I just hope that at least one of those things happens.
3 Like Hey, I'm the "Gamespot reader" that tipped them. Glad to see it's back. The MS rep I talked to explicitly said that they contacted their superiors and were told it would not be coming back. Something tells me it really may not have if they weren't contacted by a major publication, who could potentially cause a big stink. Anyway, thanks Gamespot! Though to be honest, I never really liked the game much...
3 Like Cool. Now people can bare witness to one of the worst sequels in gaming history. As well as watch the Final Boss die without you doing anything.
6 Like @JustArtificialThis game was great, way better than Fable 3 was....dont be hating.
Fable 2 was fun with it's many features, a fun world to mess around in. But the story sucked absolute balls. And while that may be more opinion than fact. One undeniable fact was the game had zero penalty system (you died and literally just got back up, only losing wathever Xp you hadn't collected yet from the current battle).
No penalty -> no difficulty -> no satisfaction -> not a GREAT game.
Still leagues better then fable 3 yes, but nowhere near fable 1...
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Fable II pulled from Xbox Live
Lionhead's role-playing game vanishes from online marketplace with players unable to re-download previous purchases.
- Dec 3, 2012
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Fable II
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- Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios
- Developer(s): Lionhead Studios
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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