Vivendi's Answers About the Patch Cancellation

Posted by:  at 12:11 PM 

A month after the patch cancellation, Vivendi has decided to release an interview between three Vivendi marketing heads and two Vivendi forums moderators. The moderators were told that they could ask any question and Vivendi would pick and choose which ones they would answer, and to the surprise of everyone, not a single question was left unanswered. Here's a taste of what was asked:

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Q. When did the patch go into QA at VUG? How close was the QA process to being complete?

A. The patch was in QA testing in February. The addition of PunkBuster support required a complete QA cycle for testing, basically equivalent to the testing done on an entirely new game. This testing is described as "very expensive". The QA process was not near completion when the patch was cancelled.

Q. Would Irrational Games be allowed to release an unofficial/unsupported patch if they wanted to? Could or would VUG release the source code or any other further tools to the game to allow the community to effectively take over its support/development?

A. No. Tribes: Vengeance is built on several licensed technologies and Irrational Games has also invested its own proprietary work into the code. VUG would not be able to legally clear the way for unofficial patching or source code release due to the split ownership of the game's technology and design elements.

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• Vivendi's Answers on the Patch Cancellation