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[Sinatar]

Doesn't the PC version having custom radio stations render this song removal moot? I mean just put them back in yourself if you really need to hear them.

 

[Chris R]

Well shit, I didn't have the game installed since I formatted a few months back

What the fuck Rockstar

 

[Green Yoshi]

I never liked the PC-version and only paid 3$ for the Steam-version. At least it doesn't affect retail copies.

 

[Htown]

Doesn't the PC version having custom radio stations render this song removal moot? I mean just put them back in yourself if you really need to hear them.

I could see it being a problem if the songs played during certain scenes in the game automatically or something.

There's really two problems here.

1. Rockstar is being cheap as fuck. You just re-released the game, just license the music again you rich bastards!

2. Valve changing the way updates work is some bullshit. Why can't I just never update a game if that's the way I want to go? Why is that option gone?

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

That's kind of irrelevant as you can put your own musicin the game. Now the resolution thing is stupid.

Yeah, im trying to sympathise but the fact is, its a pc game. You can listen to what you want while playing.

 

[Dr Dogg]

Errgghhh I should have seen this coming when it was brought up a beta branch was being worked on. Think I've got the audio files backed up somewhere if not thanks to good old retail discs shouldn't be an issue. I'd like to see Rockstar come round my house and take them off me!

Spoiler

That's not a challenge Mr Rockstar, please don't take my SA soundtrack off me.

Edit: Also, Steam doesn't support update rollbacks unless the publisher makes the earlier builds available as separate public branches, which is almost never the case. The only example that comes to mind off the top of my head is Thi4f:

[URL="https://steamdb.info/app/239160/depots/"][B]Name[/B]            [B]Build ID[/B]   [B]Password?[/B]
version_1.0     196230     No
version_1.1     200817     No
version_1.2     207894     No
version_1.3     215035     No
version_1.4     225732     No
version_1.5     276618     No
version_1.6     352324     No[/URL]

I think that's a Nixxes thing they like to do before pushing updates. I seem to recall Tomb Raider being the same. Fake edit (and too lazy to cut and pastes) yep they have all their old builds there too. I love those guys.

 

[FyreWulff]

Sometimes it's not a matter of money. The label simply doesn't want to re-up, or in the interim another company secured exclusivity to the song for similar games.

Probably the most obvious and straightforward case (since the games are entirely music) was Rock Band / Guitar Hero.


Rock Band 1 had many songs. One of them was Dani California by RHCP, the other Enter Sandman by Metallica on disc. 3 Metallica songs were also released as DLC soon after the game came out.

In the interim between Rock Band 1 being released and Rock Band 2 being released, Activision signed Metallica exclusively for Guitar Hero games and for a Metallica game in it's entirety.

Rock Band 2 comes out, and you cannot export Enter Sandman from Rock Band 1 due to the Activision exclusivity. Harmonix, seemingly having a good relationship with RHCP, does let you export Dani California to play in Rock Band 2.

In between Rock Band 2 and Rock Band 3 coming out, Activision signs an exclusive deal for a RHCP Guitar Hero game. Harmonix has to secure the licensing rights for RB1's exports to Rock Band 3, and now RHCP is no longer available to be signed, so two things happen:

- Rock Band 3 blacklists Dani California from being loaded, even if it was on the hard drive.
- RHCP's "Give It Away" is excluded from being exported from Rock Band 2 (which you do via RB3 by buying the RB2 export pack).


So Harmonix got the rights to sell a song included on a disc, lost the option to re-up them, so any re-releases or newer games excluded the song.

(Epilogue: After GH went under, the exclusivity expired and Harmonix patched RB3 for free so that it'd load Dani California)

Music rights are a pain in the ass. Movies have an easier time of it due to being an older and more entrenched industry. It also helps when the same parent company owns both the movie labels and the music labels. Only Sony and Warner are in that position in the gaming world.

 

[Guile]

WTF is this shit. I want a refund if I can't reverse back to my original Steam copy. Fuck this shit. Where is Gabe Newell when you need him?

 

[Jb]

Well that's fucking garbage.
Guess I'll have to hold on to that physical copy I bought when it originally came out on PC.

I'm trying to think of a movie that had songs removed/changed in subsequent video releases and can't come up with one. I imagine it's a different kind of licensing than for games?

 

[Eyothrie]

So controller support? Sweet!

 

[Seik]

So controller support? Sweet!

Have you seen what's the trade for this?

Seriously, Rockstar, that's shameless. With all the money they're making with the damn franchise they could at least just buy the rights to continue to put these songs in the game instead of just cutting everything,

 

[Eyothrie]

Have you seen what's the trade for this?

Seriously, Rockstar, that's shameless. With all the money they're making with the damn franchise they could at least just buy the rights to continue to put these songs in the game instead of just cutting everything,

meh... do not care about those old ass songs I've heard 1000x, so this is A OK with me

 

[abracadaver]

Is it a port of the mobile game now?

Can someone post screenshots?

 

[Persona7]

Doesn't the PC version having custom radio stations render this song removal moot? I mean just put them back in yourself if you really need to hear them.

When I bought this game part of the money went to pay the licenses for the music. Now they removed them and I would have to buy the songs again to play them on the custom radio station.

 

[Xiraiya]

That is a bit ridiculous, especially on PC since someone will just have to do a mod that adds anything the game removed back in and keep the new controller support too.

Also the custom radio argument is a bit silly since this is straight up removal of content that was in the game to begin with. I want the most content I can get in my games, that includes songs being where they belong.

 

[MrCunningham]

Donnie Darko and the DC

National Lampoons Vacation: "I'm So Excited" during the Christie Brinkley scenes were changed to something else for the later DVD releases.

Is it a port of the mobile game now?

Can someone post screenshots?

Unlike the 360 port which is most definitely the mobile game, I don't think this version is. I've looked through the game files and I don't see any evidence of it. Though I could be proven wrong. I guess I could load up the game and take a few more screen grabs.

 

[Jb]

Donnie Darko and the DC

Was it for licensing reasons? I thought it was just the director being able to secure the song he originally wanted to use (Never tear us apart iirc) for the DC.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

I'm under the impression that the Vice City thing was accomplished by making a new store entry for Vice City.

Whereas San Andreas is re-using the same store entry, and since they're also adding functionality, they would have to branch San Andreas into two separate versions, and they'd have to somehow limit being able to roll back to older San Andreas to existing users, which Steam doesn't support. If they allowed new purchasers to roll back, they'd be in violation of contract.

So it appears it's a combination of the Steam tools available, Valve's indifference, and Rockstar's internal legacy sustain budget.

Makes sense to me. The one thing I took out from this is Steam removing the rollback function and forcing updates onto people.

 

[d00d3n]

How can it be ok to remove songs that were in the game that we paid for? It would be one thing if this affected new purchases of the game, but affecting those who already own the game, wtf? Is this covered in one of those ridiculous "license agreements"?

 

[openrob]

Removing the songs is one issue, doesn't seem that big of one though, but forcing a patch that negatively affects the game (I.e crashes, removing the 1080p option, etc) is much worse imo

 

[Eyothrie]

How can it be ok to remove songs that were in the game that we paid for? It would be one thing if this affected new purchases of the game, but affecting those who already own the game, wtf? Is this covered in one of those ridiculous "license agreements"?

yes

 

[Htown]

I'm trying to think of a movie that had songs removed/changed in subsequent video releases and can't come up with one. I imagine it's a different kind of licensing than for games?

Married with Children used Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage" for its theme song. This disappeared from the DVD releases. It went from this

to this

WKRP in Cincinnati had similar problems with songs played during the show.

 

[Piggus]

If you haven't updated yet, you should be able to backup the following files and then restore them after the update in order to keep the songs.

/audio

/CONFIG
TrakLkup.DAT

/streams
BEATS
CH
CR
CUTSCENE
DS
MH
MR
RE
RG

http://www.gtagaming.com/news/comments.php?i=2344

Some of the songs they removed are some of the best in the game. Glad I have to retail release. :/

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Removing the songs is one issue, doesn't seem that big of one though, but forcing a patch that negatively affects the game (I.e crashes, removing the 1080p option, etc) is much worse imo

Yeah, I don't get this at all. I forget which game it was (maybe Starbound) about one of the patches messing up the game big time and to set the automatic update off.

 

[d00d3n]

yes

Well, that really sucks if true. License agreements are BS. Should be legally challenged in the US as soon as possible, but never have been as far as I know. This kind of example, where content is obviously removed from the product that people paid money for, is good to have if software "license agreements" ever reach a court room.

 

[Saintguine]

Not keen on an all digital future.

Hell, it's sad that pirates have the full proper version whilst paying customers have to put up with DRM and stripped out content.

 

[fokkusu]

If you haven't updated yet, you should be able to backup the following files and then restore them after the update in order to keep the songs.

http://www.gtagaming.com/news/comments.php?i=2344

Some of the songs they removed are some of the best in the game. Glad I have to retail release. :/

I assume these can be also restored from the retail disc?

 

[ArmsOfSorrow]

Damn shit.

I had a modded 1.0 so I could play with Full HD resolution and proper HUD scaling. Didn't know there would ever be an update coming and now the game is crashing when doing random stuff like entering cars, rendering itself unplayable.

But hey, that's what an update is supposed to do, right?

 

[Piggus]

I assume these can be also restored from the retail disc?

Not sure, but I would assume so. Can't test it myself since I don't have the Steam version of SA but perhaps GTA Forums has answers.

 

[Ermac]

Wait's you can't set a game to never update in Steam anymore? This is news to me.

 

[The Real Abed]

No it doesn't.. They could have just removed them for new purchases and let old buyers keep tracks. It's exactly what they did with Vice City.

Fuck. Removing the '80s music, even just a few tracks, would make Vice City pointless. The game IS the music. The atmosphere. The settings. I thought San Andreas being set in the '90s with the music that was in it would be the same thing. When you make a game and its whole thing is based on a time period, it makes no sense to remove things that make it easy to identify its period. Why wasn't the contract with the labels set up ahead of time to be much longer? It's as bad as removing awesome music from old TV shows on DVD because they never thought ahead far enough back then to get licenses for future media. Thankfully these days shows are planned out ahead of time to make sure the music is properly licensed for future home video releases. Why wasn't the same done for the game?

But...

Doesn't the PC version having custom radio stations render this song removal moot? I mean just put them back in yourself if you really need to hear them.

This makes it slightly fine. Providing you already own all the songs. Though it sucks they have to be MP3 so you can't just take the M4A files you purchased from iTunes and plop them in without converting them first. (Last I checked. I know the three GTA games predated DRM-free iTunes purchases so MP3 was the only thing they supported.)

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

I'm sure a mod will fix it, Reinstalling now for the controller support.

 

[Htown]

Wait's you can't set a game to never update in Steam anymore? This is news to me.

yeah it's bullshit

they changed it from "never update" to "only update when I launch the game"

there's no "don't update this" setting anymore

your only hope is to stay in offline mode

 

[BIGWORM]

2. Valve changing the way updates work is some bullshit. Why can't I just never update a game if that's the way I want to go? Why is that option gone?

I just noticed that as well. We might as well not have ANY update options with what "options" are left...

I guess Valve thinks that devs can't essentially break their games, though this update is a prime example of just that.

 

[Ermac]

yeah it's bullshit

they changed it from "never update" to "only update when I launch the game"

there's no "don't update this" setting anymore

your only hope is to stay in offline mode

What the hell. I hate software that updates automatically. I've had so many games or applications in the past that update without me knowing and end up breaking themselves. I'm not trying to be the beta tester for your god damn patch.

 

[whoszed]

So this is what you get for buying San Andreas 3 times over the years. Thanks Rockstar.

 

[phxxBullet]

Master Sounds 98.3
"Express Yourself"

Yeah, no.
Not a good idea.

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

That's terrible and it's taking away content from a game I fully paid for and own.

This raises a good point; is there a precedent for a developer selling a "complete" game, and then patching OUT content? Doesn't that put them in a position where they obligated to issue refunds if requested? Who knows; maybe somebody out there bought the game purely because of a specific resolution, and "Express Yourself" was in it.

 

[injurai]

Is this bullshit unprecedented in gaming? How many sample cleared albums will decay into legal limbo...

 

[MrCunningham]

Is it a port of the mobile game now?

Can someone post screenshots?

Here:

And this is using the default setting with no mods or forced video settings. The games highest resolution setting for me is 1680X1050. The game is also using maximum graphics setting option (whatever that means) and the highest AA setting (which is 3) .There's some weird artifacts on the trees in the third screenshot and when moving I see some odd artifacts as well.

 

[thepotatoman]

Is this bullshit unprecedented in gaming? How many sample cleared albums will decay into legal limbo...

As far as I know it is. Plenty of songs get removed for new sales of games, but not of games already sold.

I'm guessing new sales of the game just can't have those songs, but because steam has no way to differentiate when the game was bought when pushing out updates, everyone is getting screwed over.

Seems like this is a problem valve absolutely needs to address.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

So for arguments sake...

We originally bought this game when it was our understanding it was a port of the PS2 GTA:SA.

It's now been updated and turned into a port of the iOS/Android version.

Is that right?

 

[Blablurn]

It has real controller support now ? Kinda makes me wanna play it now.

 

[GenericUser]

I wonder why this doesn't cause more outrage. They removed ICONIC songs of the game as well other important, gameplay affecting options.

This is embarassing. I shifted my focus away form digital towards physical since microsoft tried the bullcrap early 2013 with they new console. I now feel this was the right decision.

People always should keep these examples in mind when they decide to buy digitial.

 

[MormaPope]

So for arguments sake...

We originally bought this game when it was our understanding it was a port of the PS2 GTA:SA.

It's now been updated and turned into a port of the iOS/Android version.

Is that right?

Its hard to tell from MrCunningham's pictures if the assets are new or changed, from my perspective it looks like the PS2 port, the original Steam version of San Andreas, is still exactly that, but with content removed and existing functionality altered.

The recent "Remastered" 360 version is entirely different than the original Xbox port of San Andreas, when it comes to assets and music removal.

 

[Shengar]

Master Sounds 98.3
"Express Yourself"
"Rock Creek Park"
"Grunt"
"Soul Power '74"
"The Payback"

What
The
Fuck
They dare to touch my Master Sounds 98.3? This is an OUTRAGE

 

[d00d3n]

I recommend anybody with a Steam copy to write a review addressing the issue of the patch, and how it's taken away from the full experience of the game.

I've already done my part
*snip*

I did my part as well. Also spent some time finding similar negative reviews helpful.

 

[Into]

Radio Los Santos
"I Don't Give A f*ck"

The best song in the entire game, the one that perfectly sums up the whole tone, the one that was used in many trailers to promote the said game?

Yeah, no.

 

[StayDead]

Well I guess since I don't have it installed on this computer since I recently formatted... that I'm completely SOL. What a bunch of bs.

Same, I don't have it installed at the minute since I got my new PC, I guess I'll never be able to play the full version again :/

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Its hard to tell from MrCunningham's pictures if the assets are new or changed, from my perspective it looks like the PS2 port, the original Steam version of San Andreas, is still exactly that, but with content removed and existing functionality altered.

The recent "Remastered" 360 version is entirely different than the original Xbox port of San Andreas, when it comes to assets and music removal.

OK thanks for that!

I would have been more concerned about them switching the game entirely rather than a few songs missing. Good to know we essentially still have the same 'base game', I guess.