The Android L Update For Nvidia Shield Portable Removes Features

An anonymous reader writes: For those of us who still remember the Hobson's choice with the 3.21 update of the PS3 firmware, the most recent update to the Nvidia Shield Portable is eerily similar. The update, which is necessary to run recent games and apps that require Android 5.0 APIs, removes some features from the device, and removes the games that were bundled with the device, Sonic 4 Episode II and The Expendables: ReArmed. Nvidia has stressed that it is an optional update, but how many users have been told for months that the update was coming, some of whom may have bought the device after the update was announced, only to find out now they won't receive all the functionality they paid for? How is it still legal for these companies to advertise and sell a whole product but only deliver part of it?

Comments

Right ...

[gstoddart]

How is it still legal for these companies to advertise and sell a whole product but only deliver part of it?

Because they have all the power, can simply change the fucking terms of service as they see fit, and have the fucking politicians in their pockets to ensure they can get away with it.

Honestly, are you expecting a fair situation in which the consumer actually gets input on this shit?

You might as well ask a Ferengi for favorable financing terms. If he gives them to you, they're not favorable.

Why do we keep acting like we're surprised by any of this crap? Unless people start changing laws to shift the balance away from corporations, this is all you'll ever get.

Re:Right ...

[Anonymous Coward]

People are idiots. They keep buying shit from companies and even laud them despite the shit they pull. Case in point for this site: Valve. They took away your rights in court, requiring almost always unfair to the consumer arbitration. Then they denied access to games for those who refused the new agreement.

Yet everyone here thinks they can do no wrong.

I don't know how to fix it, but I do know it sucks for us all. :(

Re:Right ...

[Dutch Gun]

Has anyone mentioned that these games were removed for compatibility reasons? Does that make a difference? I'd love to know how nvidia is supposed to fix 3rd party games if they simply don't work on the latest version of the OS? Do they not let people update? Or leave the games there, but just broken? I'm not sure there are any good answers here. Ideally, the developers would fix their own games, but there's probably very little financial incentive for them to do that at this point.

Why exactly is this a breaking update? That might be a good question to ask as well. This is sort of crappy for owners of those devices, but I'm not sure this is in quite the same league as what Sony did.

Re:How long should it work for?

[tompaulco]

Wake me up when your 30 year old computer can play GTA5. Until then, the comparison makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Modern pcs and consoles are orders and orders of magnitude more complex than a rustbucket from 30 years ago.

That's not the point. The point is that the PC bought 30 years ago can still do all the things that it could do when it was bought 30 years ago. Your modern PC won't be able to play GTA5 online in 30 years, and probably not in 5 years. In 30 years, you may not be able to play GTA5 at all if you bought it from one of these phone home license shops, because they will probably go out of business.
By buying temporary licenses for games, you don't get to play the game as long or as many times as you want, and yet you have to pay full price for the game. This is the same sort of thing phone manufacturers do when they release an update such as this one. They sold you a phone with feature X, then removed feature X without reimbursing you for the cost of that feature or consulting you or asking if you agreed to do so. Making it an "optional" upgrade that oh by the way fixes lots of issues and security vulnerabilities that leave your phone open to hacking, does not make it any better.