Dear subscriber,

Metaboli has been enhancing the quality of its offer and the service for several months already.

Every week we release:

• more news;

• more recent games;

• more classics;

• more 64-bit and Windows 7even compatible games.

We have also been increasing the number of weekly releases, as well as updating our catalogue to make it compatible with the most recent OS’es.

In 2010, we will redouble our efforts. From March onwards, our catalogue will be 100% compatible with 64-bit operating systems and we will be deploying a new Player, compatible with Windows 7 and much more user-friendly.

Our catalogue being quite extensive, (we’ve been releasing games since October 2002), this is not going to be a quick and easy task. In order to speed this process up we will phase out the older and less played games which have been rendered obsolete by the evolution of Windows’ operating systems.

You will find a Q&A here, which we hope can bring answers to most of the questions you might have regarding the coming migration.

Thanks for your loyalty and trust,

The Metaboli Team.


- Why is the number of games in Metaboli’s catalogue changing?

Metaboli’s catalogue was first built in 2002, and it has been growing since. Some games have grown old and are not compatible with the most recent operating systems.
Hence, in order to improve the quality of the offer, we decided to make the whole catalogue compatible with 64-bit operating systems and Windows 7even. Keeping in mind the size of the catalogue, this is a challenging task. In order to quicken this process, we will be withdrawing some of the oldest games which are too buggy and which have been made obsolete by the advent of the newest operating systems. Along with them, games for which the publishers have lost the publishing rights will be removed too.

- Will the games you have withdrawn reappear on the catalogue any time soon?

Only a part. We will keep following our replacement policy to make all the games 64-bit compatible. You will gradually find some older games replaced with their updated versions, and newer games too.

- When will the conversion to 64-bit and Windows 7even compatibility for ALL of your games take place?

We started the transition in May 2009 and plan to complete it on the 1st of March 2010 (date subject to change without notice) to ultimately benefit from a 100% new OS compatible catalogue. This migration will go hand in hand with the release of a new Player.

- Will the new Player be compatible with Windows 7even ?

Yes. The Player which allows for 64-bit compatibility is also compatible with Windows 7even, unlike the old Player. That is why we will be able to offer Windows 7even compatible games.

- In addition to the 64-bit compatibility, what additional improvements can we expect from this update?

The new version of the Player will allow us to manage the totality of the games, not only a part, as it was in the past. In a nutshell, the development of new features will be easier to deploy and embed in the website. Your account interface will be evolving more quickly, and you will finally be able to choose the drive unit you want to download and install all the games to. This was only possible for some games so far.

- When a game is replaced with its 64-bit compatible counterpart, will I have to download it again even though I already downloaded the 32-bit version?

Yes, because it is a completely new version, totally re-packaged.

- Can I use the savegames of my 32-bit games for the new 64-bit versions?

Even though this might be possible for some, the answer is generally ‘no’. You are likely to have to start the game from the beginning. Unfortunately this is unavoidable if we want to carry out this migration and improve the quality of the service for the future.

- I have some questions that are not answered in this Q&A, who should I get in touch with?

Do not hesitate to contact our customer support for any questions about the migration. We have a special email address for this topic: migration@metaboli.co.uk

Awesome news.. really looking forward to all of this and March isn't that far away, will be nice to be able to play some games that i haven't been able to play since switching to 64bit that's if they aren't ones that are removed of course.

The new player and website enhancements sound like great improvements also.

huge thumbs up metaboli

Brilliant!! Just what I was hoping for (even better than so!)

Good work!

Sounds great - Looking forward to the Win7 support.

Sorry but i'm not sure if I share your enthusiasm. Yes, it'll be great to have Windows 7 and 64-bit compatibility but removing games because they aren't compatible is ridiculous. Why not let those of us with older OS's continue playing?

I haven't been subscribed for a while and have been thinking about returning. The large catalog of games I missed 1st time round was a big selling point but if they are likely to go I may not bother.

I also wouldn't appreciate having to start a game again after getting half way through but hey that my just be me.

rewsan wrote: Sorry but i'm not sure if I share your enthusiasm. Yes, it'll be great to have Windows 7 and 64-bit compatibility but removing games because they aren't compatible is ridiculous. Why not let those of us with older OS's continue playing? I haven't been subscribed for a while and have been thinking about returning. The large catalog of games I missed 1st time round was a big selling point but if they are likely to go I may not bother. I also wouldn't appreciate having to start a game again after getting half way through but hey that my just be me.

To be frank, there are lot of old quite poor games that I can imagine very few does play, im sure classics like Age of Empires 2 will still be there but overall this is the right move for Metaboli. Computers does progress and they need to follow the technical development. It is sound both from a commercial and customer point of view.

Great that you're making a move to update the whole service to a more modern standard. Still, the big question for me is what licenses have you lost, and what games do you think you're going to lose due to incompatibilities?

As some have mentioned, pulling things due to W7 incompatibility is probably the wrong way to go. Put a notification that it only works on older OS's and just leave it up - it's not exactly costing money to keep on a file server.

Dominic White wrote: Great that you're making a move to update the whole service to a more modern standard. Still, the big question for me is what licenses have you lost, and what games do you think you're going to lose due to incompatibilities? As some have mentioned, pulling things due to W7 incompatibility is probably the wrong way to go. Put a notification that it only works on older OS's and just leave it up - it's not exactly costing money to keep on a file server.

what might be costing money is the player the old games use.

nice to see the service is progressing.hopefully this will help attract a few more games developers to the service

Hi guys,

a few answers for you:

@Dominic white: it does cost money to keep on a server and serve all the time. We can't say right now what games will or won't be on the service anymore, as we're doing our best to keep most of them. Once the dust settles, I'll be able to give you more information.

@rewsan. Don't worry, we will not be taking down games solely based on the fact that they are only compatible with XP or even Vista for that matter.Having to redownload and start a game over is unfortunately a corollary of the way the game will be repackaged, as mentioned in the post... Nothing we can do about that unfortunately, sorry. This is the price of change.