Game Pass Refund

[Mike the Brit]

It grates to say something nice about the NFL.

I was furious with the way that I couldn't log in for the beginning of the Sunday games and with the way that the service blacked out during the Carolina game (I watched TB the next morning and there were no problems) but it reflects some kind of recognition on the NFL's part that its Game Pass customers are hardcore fans paying a lot of money.

I still think it's pretty incompetent to switch services in the off-season without making sure that everything is working and easy to navigate (the on-screen controls are the sort of thing you could imagine being designed by a set of 15-year-old interns).

But credit where it's due. I can't imagine the Premier League or Sky Sports doing anything similar.

 

[luuked]

It grates to say something nice about the NFL.

I was furious with the way that I couldn't log in for the beginning of the Sunday games and with the way that the service blacked out during the Carolina game (I watched TB the next morning and there were no problems) but it reflects some kind of recognition on the NFL's part that its Game Pass customers are hardcore fans paying a lot of money.

I still think it's pretty incompetent to switch services in the off-season without making sure that everything is working and easy to navigate (the on-screen controls are the sort of thing you could imagine being designed by a set of 15-year-old interns).

But credit where it's due. I can't imagine the Premier League or Sky Sports doing anything similar.

View attachment 18215

What did you write them Mike ?

I will do the same thing because I keep having issues for every game since they for no reason at all had to change their tech over summer.

EDIT: Nevermind just got the same automated email. Ignore my question.

 

[resdubwhite]

Gave up gamepass originally because of the sky blackout deal.
How much is it these days in Europe?

 

[luuked]

Gave up gamepass originally because of the sky blackout deal.
How much is it these days in Europe?

Expensive (200$+) but it was totally worth it the last 4-5 years. This year they changed the entire backend + frontend tech (hello html5) but the launch was a ****show of bugs, streams stopping to work.. sometimes showing the wrong feed and missing features. I am still not sure how I can get more than 2 streams to show simultaneously (in previous years you could watch 4 in one window).

What I miss most for now is a way to manually adjust the quality of the stream because sometimes I am forced to watch it on slower internet and the stream backend just keeps trying to make me digest their stupid HD stream which stutters every few seconds instead of just defaulting to the lower quality one.

 

[APN]

What was the rationale for the change? It's been a disaster this year.

 

[luuked]

What was the rationale for the change? It's been a disaster this year.

I guess the old backend must have been too expensive to maintain, limited new features they wanted to add and with Flash slowly dying they had to make the jump to HMTL5 at some point for compatabilities sake. What pisses me off is that they should have gone with both versions for this transition season and give you a way to opt out of the new version.

The way they just completely switched over from a stable system into something new was bound to make people angry.

 

[Mike the Brit]

What luuked said.

 

[varjao]

I've been signing up the game pass since 2010, this year I decided not to, I'm not interested in watching all possible games like I used to and most of the Patriots games I get on my cable so I'm good, I guess I lucked out, the previous platform was excellent in all of my devices, cellphone, tablet, PC.

 

[borg]

On another front....a few weeks ago, I called up Comcast to inquire if I could cancel ESPN without canceling the basic sport package that ESPN is bundled with. Surprisingly, Comcast said yes though my savings would amount to a whopping $3 per month.
I haven't pulled the plug yet...but the option exists ...so they say.

 

[Username]

Yeah, I got the email too. It's been really ****ty this year, all the games have blacked out on me for prolonged periods this year, as if they weren't stressful enough...

 

[oldrover]

What I miss most for now is a way to manually adjust the quality of the stream because sometimes I am forced to watch it on slower internet and the stream backend just keeps trying to make me digest their stupid HD stream which stutters every few seconds instead of just defaulting to the lower quality one.

I find SD streams way more reliable... IMHO because they're not trying to stuff the pig through the snake, and because SD is less crowded... it's persona non grata with the video purists.

But my standards are a teensy bit lower...

...after all, I grew up watching this.

 

[denverpatsfan]

On another front....a few weeks ago, I called up Comcast to inquire if I could cancel ESPN without canceling the basic sport package that ESPN is bundled with. Surprisingly, Comcast said yes though my savings would amount to a whopping $3 per month.
I haven't pulled the plug yet...but the option exists ...so they say.

Do it!

 

[fnordcircle]

First year I've ever had problems with Gamepass. This type of rollout is the sort of **** that infuriates me because it's tech decisions being made by bean counters with tech staff having to eat **** when the inevitable problems come along.

"No we won't run the old and new service concurrently, just make the new service run perfect and switch to that." -some ****ing *******.

 

[irishfanatic]

It grates to say something nice about the NFL.



But credit where it's due. I can't imagine the Premier League or Sky Sports doing anything similar.

View attachment 18215

Agree that they are acknowledging the shortcomings and doing a partial refund.

I sent a mail saying so, but also stated that if the problems continue they will lose a long time customer. Maybe all Game Pass subscribers should follow suit and they might pay attention.

 

[fnordcircle]

I wouldn't give the entire NFL too much credit for one division being not being wholly devoid of humanity.

 

[dafoe2016]

After what Fraudger did to the Pats and the way Kraft laid down for him I will never give the NFL another dime. I stream everything for free.

 

[Adam Seward]

First year I've ever had problems with Gamepass. This type of rollout is the sort of **** that infuriates me because it's tech decisions being made by bean counters with tech staff having to eat **** when the inevitable problems come along.

"No we won't run the old and new service concurrently, just make the new service run perfect and switch to that." -some ****ing *******.

"Streaming has always been a one service operation. I seen no need for us to start with two, we have always handled this with one in the past."

 

[GodBrady]

I guess the old backend must have been too expensive to maintain, limited new features they wanted to add and with Flash slowly dying they had to make the jump to HMTL5 at some point for incompatibilities sake. What pisses me off is that they should have gone with both versions for this transition season and give you a way to opt out of the new version.

The way they just completely switched over from a stable system into something new was bound to make people angry.

I'm a little confused by this. What do you mean the "HTML5" version? HTML5 is such a buzzword that it really doesn't mean anything in particular.

When you say HTML5, are you saying the video player is HTML5-based? I definitely see the rebranded layout this year (responsive design, etc), but the streaming aspect of the video itself is still Flash-based.

For example, I just pulled up an archived games and right-clicked and I get this:

So now I'm really confused, especially because you said they "don't support both". Are they rolling out HTML5-based video access for some users but not others?

After researching a little bit more, this tweet from NFL Europe, where they appear to imply that both HTML5 and Flash players are supported, confuses me even more:



Do they have it set up so that desktop-based browsers still use Flash, and mobile-based browsers use HTML5? e.g. Chrome on Windows would use Flash, accessing the page via Chrome on Android would use HTML5?

I wonder if there is a way to toggle back and forth between which player to use. Time to explore...

 

[luuked]

I'm a little confused by this. What do you mean the "HTML5" version? HTML5 is such a buzzword that it really doesn't mean anything in particular.

When you say HTML5, are you saying the video player is HTML5-based? I definitely see the rebranded layout this year (responsive design, etc), but the streaming aspect of the video itself is still Flash-based.

For example, I just pulled up an archived games and right-clicked and I get this:

So now I'm really confused, especially because you said they "don't support both". Are they rolling out HTML5-based video access for some users but not others?

After researching a little bit more, this tweet from NFL Europe, where they appear to imply that both HTML5 and Flash players are supported, confuses me even more:



Do they have it set up so that desktop-based browsers still use Flash, and mobile-based browsers use HTML5? e.g. Chrome on Windows would use Flash, accessing the page via Chrome on Android would use HTML5?

I wonder if there is a way to toggle back and forth between which player to use. Time to explore...

I guess Safari/Chrome just defaults to HTML5 on MacOS. I have not gotten around to actually use gamepass on any of my Windows PCs yet.

I suppose to ensure that they are compatible with some older machines/browsers they have Flash as a fallback ? I am sure that at least on Chrome there must be a way to force HTML5.

 

[GodBrady]

I guess Safari/Chrome just defaults to HTML5 on MacOS. I have not gotten around to actually use gamepass on any of my Windows PCs yet.

I suppose to ensure that they are compatible with some older machines/browsers they have Flash as a fallback ? I am sure that at least on Chrome there must be a way to force HTML5.

Okay, thanks.

I am also annoyed by them removing the ability to select stream quality. I get a lot of stuttering too as it switches between the varying quality streams.