Kinda worrying that it's the 1st of March now, but almost half of the games are still not 64-bit compatible. Is this 'major update' going to be a massive downsizing? After the transition, are you still going to be updating the 'lost' games to 64bit?

Just what licenses HAVE you lost, and what publishers games are going to evaporate?

It's just what it is: the 1st of March. SO, we will still be transitioning, and as you probably haven't seen, we've been phasing games 10-13 a piece every week, so you'll still have loads of games to play. Don't panic, keep calm and carry on gaming

We will let you know what exactly won't be available anymore in due time.

Hi, when will the new player be available, I have not played or downloaded a single game yet and 2 subscription payments taken.

Hi there scally, other than asking you to contact support for matters of payment/billing, I can tell you that there will not be a new player per se, but that we will keep the Yummy player. You should be able to play with that one without any problems though.

hello

Do you have a more specific date for the new player?

Thanks

Yes, well, not THAT specific, but it should be at the end of the month that the entire change will be finished.

I just signed up to Metaboli and I'm not happy to find that XP / 32-bit support is being retired so soon. I am just getting back into gaming, and I like Metaboli because it has a great back catalogue of classic games that are a few years old and may never go 64-bit compatible.

Many gamers skipped Vista for good reason, and XP in 32-bit mode is used by over 40% of all gamers on Steam (who are a similar market to Metaboli's in that they use digital downloads - http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ has details). So, only 6 months after Windows 7 is released, you are already phasing out the platform used by 40% of the gaming community, at least on Steam.


So.... you are telling me that I will have to stop my subscription, or do a very rapid upgrade to Windows 7. As it happens I have enough CPU/RAM to handle Windows 7, but I don't appreciate being forced to upgrade on your timescales, not mine.

I will upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit in 2010, but will also keep an XP 32-bit partition around for older games that probably won't work on 64-bit Windows 7.

It's worth noting that Steam is not making the shift to 64-bit so quickly, probably because they don't want to cut off a big chunk of their customers. Metaboli is a lot more susceptible to losing monthly subscriptions than Steam, so I can't work out why it is dropping 32-bit faster than Steam...

Two final points:

- what is the exact date that you are retiring the 32-bit games? I would like to know when to cancel my subscription (assuming I don't get time to go Windows 7 by then).

- you should be highlighting this major platform change in BOLD LETTERS on the signup page, and detecting that the customer is on a 32-bit platform if possible (certainly in the player) - otherwise you are just annoying new customers (like me) who won't have read the forums in such detail before signing up.

snowy2,

The old player (which is only 32bit compatible) is being retired, not 32bit capability (Yummy, the current player, is 64bit compatible, meaning it will work on both 32bit and 64bit OS's).

Secondly, backwards compatibility is not being withdrawn, except where games are not compatible with the new player. Most of the games you will currently be playing are on the new player, so nothing further needs to be done. Those few that are not on the new player (noticeable by not having the "64 bit" tag) will be phased out by the end of the month, where they are not upgraded to the new player (many games that were on the old Exent player have already been upgraded to the new Yummy player).

Thanks for clarifying. So I can still play 32-bit games using the "64-bit player" on XP 32-bit, as long as these 32-bit games are marked as '64-bit compatible' on Metaboli? In which case the 64-bit tag really means '64-bit player compatible'?

This is a bit confusing to say the least - maybe a sticky post that covers this and similar questions would be a good idea. It should explicitly address a few cases:

- I have XP 32-bit with 32-bit player, which games can I no longer play? Do I need to re-download or lose savegames?

- I have XP 32-bit with the 64-bit player, which games can I no longer play? Do I need to re-download or lose savegames?

- I have Windows 7 64-bit with 32-bit player, ...

- How do I tell which player version I'm on?

- etc.

Clear definitions of exactly what you can run with the "64-bit player" on XP 32-bit would be helpful. In fact, a better name than "64-bit player" would remove some confusion, maybe 'next-gen player', making it clear this can still be used to run 32-bit games on a 32-bit OS.

snowy2 wrote: Thanks for clarifying. So I can still play 32-bit games using the "64-bit player" on XP 32-bit, as long as these 32-bit games are marked as '64-bit compatible' on Metaboli? In which case the 64-bit tag really means '64-bit player compatible'? This is a bit confusing to say the least - maybe a sticky post that covers this and similar questions would be a good idea. It should explicitly address a few cases: - I have XP 32-bit with 32-bit player, which games can I no longer play? Do I need to re-download or lose savegames? - I have XP 32-bit with the 64-bit player, which games can I no longer play? Do I need to re-download or lose savegames? - I have Windows 7 64-bit with 32-bit player, ... - How do I tell which player version I'm on? - etc. Clear definitions of exactly what you can run with the "64-bit player" on XP 32-bit would be helpful. In fact, a better name than "64-bit player" would remove some confusion, maybe 'next-gen player', making it clear this can still be used to run 32-bit games on a 32-bit OS.

ok i'll try and make it a bit more clearer for you..

At the moment there is two players exent and Yummy.. extent is the old player and has been with the service for a long time.. the problem with it is it will only work on a 32bit OS and such any 64bit Os users were not able to play any games.

So the Yummy player was made which can work on both 32 and 64 bit OS's and every new game that was released was made to run for the Yummy player and given a green 64 bit tag so users of 64bit operating systems knew which games they could now play, but that still left a huge catalogue of games that were already on the service that 64bit users couldn't play.

Now metaboli is going through a big update process a lot of changes is happing all of which is aiming to be done come end of March early April if all goes well.. this includes transferring the remaining catalogue over to the yummy player and the exent player will be scrapped as it has no use any more.

there will be however some games that can't be transfered over either because they are to old to be able to run on the newer tech or because Metaboli no longer has the license to have them any more.. we wont know what games that will be until Metashane says.

basically once the update is done there will be no 32 or 64 bit it will be just the one player that runs games on XP, vista and Windows 7, so there really isn't a need to have a sticky saying what will work with what because that wont be a factor anymore.

i hope that has made things a bit more clearer for you..