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Danger Removing Games From Sidekick

Posted by simoniker on from the nothing-playable-will-robinson dept.

gad_zuki! writes "Danger, the maker of the slightly-revolutionary Hiptop/Sidekick 'all-in-one' phone/browser/camera/etc., is now remotely removing the built-in games with the newest Color Sidekick software update, allegedly because of licensing concerns. This is why vendor lock-in and a thin-client system can be a very risky gamble." Another reader points out that Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing has some heated comments on the very same subject.

2 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Not to whinge, but this sucks. by KILNA · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I purchased a B&W sidekick in November of last year, and all of the puzzle games were marginally playable due to the underpowered processor of the SK (or the inefficiency of the game depending on your perspective). But I loved the SK, having all of your stuff synced to the network was great and it was a handy gadget. On wednesday of this week my local T-Mobile store finally had the Color SK in. Wow. It looks great and the web and the camera functions are both much more usable now.

    Last night, I was playing Rat Maze at the very time they performed the update. I hated the game up until that point, and I actually discovered I liked it with the new speed. Likewise, the Shuffle game was mediocre on the B&W but the Color was much snappier. 4 games on it, and now I had only one... well, one and a quarter. The 'Snobored' easter egg game they consoled me with in the notification email was essentially the same thing as one I'd programmed in AppleSoft Basic on my Franklin Ace 1200 back in the day. Grrrr.

    Inexplicably, my old B&W SK still has the games.

    I sent them a couple of emails chewing them out for removing them.

    --
    Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
  2. T-Mobile did it, not Danger by britrock · · Score: 5, Informative

    Danger did not remove the games. T-Mobile did. The games where licensed from a third part to T-Mobile to be included with the b&w sidekick. T-Mobile never paid to have them included on the colour units. They realized their slipup and are fixing it. I have a feeling that the reason they opted to remove them rather than to pay for them is that they where not worth the money. Really loosing these games is nothing to cry about.