Personal Rant: Frustrations With PSN
For my birthday a couple weeks ago, my boyfriend surprised me with a brand new PlayStation 3. I'm not really much for consoles, but I have wanted to check out LittleBigPlanet for a while, so both of them together was a nice gift, even if I suspect it won't see a whole lot of use. Whilst browsing things on it, I recalled another title I heard about months ago which seemed interesting: Flower, an ambient/atmospheric game available for purchase on the PlayStation Store that has you taking control of the wind, ushering seeds and flower petals around in a beautifully rendered landscape. Having seen videos of the game on YouTube and hearing rave reviews from friends, the game seemed intriguing and I eagerly added cash to my account to buy it. At twelve AUD it wasn't a big bank-buster, so I bought the game and set about downloading it. This was on the 27th, which I can verify by the confirmation email I received when I added funds to my PlayStation account to finance the purchase.
What has happened next has really annoyed the hell out of me. In conjunction with Flower I bought Fat Princess for my boyfriend; the latter downloaded and installed first, being a smaller file, and then the console began downloading Flower. As soon as it started to install, once the progress indicator hit 14% the installation would end with an error code #80029564. Perplexing, I went to Google to figure out what this meant, getting a wide range of possible causes from a busy server to a corrupted machine. The latter I didn't think likely, since the console wasn't even more than a week old, but busy server could be possible. Thus, I tried to redownload it again at a less-prime time (for both the US and Australia, just to be safe), but had no further luck. I followed various suggestions online from downloading it in the background, not downloading it in the background, resetting the machine first, deleting various files then attempting the download again, burning sage over the machine while it installed, even doing the hardcore factory reformat of the console that took four hours to complete; no matter what I tried, the game never installed past the 14% mark.
Obviously I tried other files; every other demo installed correctly (I didn't want to risk paying for another game that I couldn't install). I briefly wondered if file size might have something to do with it, since Flower clocked in at almost 700 megs while Fat Princess and the other demos came in much less than that; eventually I found a free demo that was similar in file size to Flower and that, too, downloaded and installed with no problems. By this point it was apparent to me that there was an issue with Flower itself, a deduction strengthened by my discovery that the identical problem was afflicting others as well.
Out of ideas and against my better judgment I called Sony support. I suspected that they wouldn't be able to help much-- the issue wasn't affecting everyone, as I had friends who were able to install it fine, and friends who had the same problem as I did. I've also dealt with tech support people enough to know that the suggestions they were going to level at me were along the lines of making sure I had plugged the PS3 into a power outlet before I attempted to install anything. Nevertheless I called, explained the situation and the exhaustive list of fixes I'd attempted on my own, and waited for the inevitable lack of help. This was on Monday.
The first person I spoke with immediately blamed it on the machine. When a problem is reproducible with the same game, and all other games work fine, that's not a problem with the console. That's a software issue. If I had been unable to download or install anything, I might find the console suggestion to be plausible. That was not the case, but he refused to see any other possibilities. I thanked him, hung up, then called back a bit later initially intending to just ask for a refund. I got someone else who was significantly more helpful (and eerily sounded identical to the voice actor who plays Alistair on Dragon Age) and after going through a checklist of stuff he said he would be escalating the issue to a supervisor to look at. While I finally received an email earlier telling me that they were unable to reproduce the issue, the game still fails to install for me so I'm back at square one.
I think my frustration is justified. I don't want my money back, I want to play the game. I don't think it's unreasonable to be miffed that a week after I've purchased something I still can't play it because of errors outside of my control. I don't understand why it's not working and nobody who I would expect to be qualified to figure that out does either. While I can understand that it's tricky to deduce since this issue doesn't seem to affect everyone across the board, it's irritating to speak with two customer service reps who downplay the prevalence of the problem; I offered to email the first person a link to the forum thread discussing this, which he declined. He wouldn't even take me up on my invitation to search online for other widespread similar problems: the 14% issue seems to affect other games as well other than Flower, with nobody figuring out a way to fix it other than it clearing up on its own-- or the customer gave up trying. Adding to my annoyance is the fact that this is a pretty big file that won't install and we have limited bandwidth caps here in Australia. Each time I go to see if it's working finally, I have to download the file entirely from scratch. This has been eating through our allotment to an annoying degree.
This technical calamity is one of the downsides of the fact that consoles are mostly just computers themselves these days, connected to the internet just like desktop machines and running complicated operating systems (hell, the original Xbox ran a customized variation of Windows in the first place) to manage all the extraneous parts of the system. Consoles are much more than popping a disc in and pressing on, and as a result there are many more points of failure. Still, if this was a problem over a free demo I wouldn't really care; but this is a game I purchased, which I would like to play, and as a good chunk of the titles on PSN are from smaller indie developers (like the similar offerings on Xbox Live's marketplace), these sort of outages ultimately will affect them directly.
So, dear readers, is this sort of thing commonplace or just a fluke? I've not owned my PS3 for even a month yet so I could be doing something wrong, but in my investigations it looked like this sort of issue affected a lot more people than the two service reps I spoke with seemed to want to admit.
mixvio
Posted to Miscellany on 4 December 2009
· Comments (23)
Other stuff like this: 80029564, bugs, can't download, errors, failure, flower, playstation 3, psn
Are you using a wireless router? Try running an ethernet cable to your console.
Some common wireless routers don't work well with a PS3. Mine was like that until I flashed the firmware on the router. Now it's fine.
I have had one piece of media refuse to finish downloading. But only the once, and it was so long ago I can't remember what it was.
I suspect that the PS3 makes compartments for the download that will be used every time you re-attempt the download. If you have corruption in that compartment, you may be stuck with it for quite a while. If you have not already, I suggest changing your hard drive to a larger one. This is helpful for many reasons, but if corruption of a disk cluster is evading the PS3 OS disk correction measures, then it could conceivably fix that problem.
Yeah I attempted to redownload it connected via ethernet cable, dragging a huge 20m cord along our apartment and into the living room. Only improvement was that the download finished faster.
I really doubt it's anything physically wrong with the console, but to test that would require me returning it and I'm not even sure if it's within the refund-period now. I'd have to find the receipt and check, but I just really think it's not likely. Especially when other people are having the same problem.
Sorry to hear about this problem, only grievance I've ever had with PSN is that downloads seem to be slow slow slow
I've probably spent $300+ on the PSN (PSP and PS3), and have never had an issue... I feel yr situation is a one off, the psn is one of my favourite features... if your console is only a couple weeks old, can't you go exchange it at the retailer?
It does seem to be something that doesn't affect everyone, which makes diagnosing harder to accomplish. I don't know if it's a network problem or something else-- it's obviously not a corrupted file on Sony's end, or everyone would download it incorrectly, but that the issue happens with enough people from the google-forum searching I did demonstrates that it's not completely unheard of.
There's a long thread on the GayGamer forums complaining about people with a similar problem being unable to sync Trophies with PSN. I can't say I've had any trouble downloading/installing anything on Xbox Live, but as I'm still unable to install Flower (and it appears that there's no other method of obtaining it) it's scared me off of trying to buy any other games on PSN.
Sorry to hear about your troubles. I had a similar experience trying to download a recent update to PAIN. I kept trying sporadically over a few days, and it was getting pretty dang frustrating, but it eventually downloaded.
Best advice I can give is to just keep trying and hope for the best.
This may be a pain, but have you taken it somewhere else (friends) and tried downloading there? Just to remove your modem/router from the setup? My gut is telling me it's your router or something in the path to your PS3. Have you connected your cable modem(?) directly to the PS3, bypassing the router? Unplug both first, then power up modem, then PS3.
Good luck!
Alternatively you can try to 'Restore File System' from the emergency startup menu, and attempt to re-download Flower afterwards. If the problem really is due to corrupted data, that should solve it.
I've used a neighbor's wifi signal, bypassing my own connection completely. It didn't fix anything.
To clarify, the game downloads with no issue. It's only once it begins installing that it consistently fails at 14%. That the installation always stops in that one particular place no matter what I do means something is wrong, but I just don't know what.
Hi. I had this same problem with some downloads, (including flower), and it was so frustrating. It would stop downloading at 15%, at 60% and I didn't understand. I googled the error. What did the trick was this:
Under the system menu, find "Media Server" and disable it. Crazy I know. But for some reason, with some routers or ps3's when you have this Media Server enabled, it causes huge problems when you're downloading games you bought or downloading updates for a game you're trying to play.
I hope this works for you.
I don't know if it will work for your problem, mixvio, but I'll second Justin's solution of disabling the "scan for media server" option if other people are having network problems. I was having a lot of disconnections (super not-fun during Demon's Souls, let me tell you), and was completely unable to get past 10-20% on an Uncharted 2 patch until I turned off the media server. I haven't played a ton of PS3 since then so I'm not sure if it was a cure-all or not, but it definitely solved my problem that day.
Yeah that was one of the first suggestions I tried from a discussion thread online. The issue isn't with downloading anything, because the game downloads completely. It's only once it starts installing that the installation fails every time at 14%. It does this whether I download actively or in the background and whether the media scan thing is on or off. I've tried everything online, even formatting the machine entirely back to factory default, and short of returning the machine (which I don't think is possible since it was purchased three weeks ago now) I'm at a loss.
Wow, that's terrible. I've never had any problems downloading or installing games on my PS3, but if I ever did I would throw a massive hissy fit.
I just generally hate how the PSN store is run though. The weekly updates come at an arbitrary time of day, with few if any announcements prior to Thursday as to what the update will include. Compare that with Microsoft's announcing every Monday what will be in their Wednesday update, typically with marketing and hype building leading up to that week, and it just seems like Sony doesn't really care if people download the games or not (to be fair, the same complaint can be said against Nintendo too). They just need to put more resources toward marketing the PSN store and giving the impression that they actually care about the service.
Mixvio, have you tried contacting the creators of the game, or gone to their website? Perhaps this is a reocurring problem for them. The developers might have a solution.
I however have never had a problem with PSN. I love it. *fingers crossed* Flower is a wonderful game, I hope you can get it.
Just don't let this experience taint the game when you finally do play it.
That's an idea; I hadn't thought to contact anyone who developed Flower, since I felt that this was probably specifically a Sony/PSN issue. But perhaps they would have more metrics on whether or not this is a problem for lots of other users.
You know, in theory the power of the console design is that each console in a given generation is guaranteed to meet the requirements of any application. This is the precise reason why I switched from PC to console gaming: I'm guaranteed that as long as I have storage available, the console has the basic horsepower (RAM, GPU capabilities, CPU, OS versions, Drivers) to play the game.
It's really too bad that we (as designers) have exposed the complexities of the underlying software to the user once again.
Kellee Santiago, the President of thatgamecompany, wrote me back saying that unfortunately they have heard about this from other customers and she would see about looking into it. Hopefully they're able to make more progress with Sony than I managed. :P
Yikes. I got a PS3 for my birthday in July and it was almost the death of me. My Xbox runs wirelessly like a dream, but the PS3 was another story altogether. Almost every game had to be updated first or I would be signed out of the PSN. Well, my PS3 wouldn't download ANYTHING without getting an error message. I almost think it's the same one you're getting. I couldn't play a single game with friends, download FF7 (which was practically the only thing I wanted a PS3 for). Well, to be clear, it connected fine to the internet, it just wouldn't download or install anything. Sony customer support wanted me to call me router company, my router company wanted me to call Sony. No one could give me anything resembling an answer. Seriously, if no one knows how any of this stuff works or is made, then who makes them? I finally had Geek Squad come out, against my better judgment, at $150 just for the visit. After about two hours of trying everything in the book, he finally just gave up. He did have me disable the Plug and Play feature on the PS3 setup which is like DnP or UnUP or something, I can't remember. That seemed to help a bit, but I kept hitting the same wall. I finally did reconnect with an ethernet cable and made sure to power off my modem and then power it back on again so it would start a new cycle, a tip I was oblivious to beforehand. That actually fixed it. So now I can download and install stuff, I just have to completely unhook my PS3 from the living room, carry it through the house and reconnect it in my office every time I want to download something or update a game. Err, so in conclusion, I'm not sure if that helped you out even a little bit, but yeah, you're definitely not the only one who wants to pull your hair out over a PS3. Oh, I forgot to mention, originally Sony customer service told me that my PS3 was defective and I should get a new one. Which I did, only to have the identical situation occur. So don't return yours, it's not the hardware.
Out of other ideas, even though I suspected it wouldn't fix anything, I returned the console and exchanged it for another.
Same error; there wasn't anything else on the PS3 aside from the 3.x firmware update which I had to install in order to access the PlayStation store.
So, yeah.
Mixvio, what exactly is the error? I'm curious to know now. haha.
I included it in the post; #80029564, which was something like "error during installation."
Completely unhelpful.
A lot of people have had errors caused by their routers firmware or firewall settings, including myself. Since those were fixed ive never had a problem. You're having a problem installing the game which is an internal hardware or software issue and in all likelyhood not related to your network connection. My guess would be that there is some bizarre selective problem with the firmware on your (and a few others, apparantly) system...there are always bugs. I'm not quite sure what you can do, but contacting thatgamecompany and reading others experiences online is the best approach. Did anyone online ever resolve the issue?