Hi all.
Well, what an interesting 12 hours we've had!
You've seen threads and word is spreading that there is something going on with the patch. So, here's the official word.
We've been testing the life out of this patch for days and days and at the eleventh hour some bugs have come up that we simply cannot fix in the time allowed.
After extensive testing of the patch, the Sega QA department discovered late last night that there may still be some unresolved issues in the final build of the patch. Specifically we are focussing on the Battle AI causing us concern under certain conditions. They are also investigating a potential crash bug that may have crept into the code, that is as yet, unverified. QA have requested extra time to verify this with the CA team in Australia; so we can fully regress the bugs in tandem with their QA department and rectify any issues with the code.
Given the level of chat and comments that you guys are good enough to send us, we are aware of the anticipation you guys have but we would consider it unforgiveable if we were to release a patch knowing that there are a number of potential issues with it.. Therefore, given the choice of two evils, we've taken the one that we hope will at least indicate some sensitivity to you guys and your expectations.
In conjunction with this we've also seen that a version of the patch is doing the rounds. This is a good old fashioned leak - we've tried to plug all gaps but owing to a less than secure url being held by one of our file mirrors, some of you guys have been clever enough to find a backdoor and grab the patch.
Kudos to you for your ingenuity, but be aware that this is not the release patch and CA and SEGA are not supporting this. This is not an official release and it is the very same patch that has the bugs mentioned above.
We're wise enough to know that this file is being distributed and how futile it would be to try and stop it. Canute couldn't stop the sea and we can't stop the internet, so we're not silly enough to think that we can stop it's spread.
So, well done to those who found it but please recognise that we think there are problems and we cannot support it.
If you feel inclined to grab this file, it's up to you and if you have feedback we'd be silly not to listen - but keep in mind that we think it's flawed so make your own decision.
We want to apologise - we've been wiping egg off our faces all morning and so we throw ourselves at the mercy of you guys in the hope that you'll understand. We understand your disappointment - we're disappointed too - so stay with us while we try and fix things.