Today I went out and purchased the Hidden Springs retail box, and I was surprised that it actually came with a disc! Now you may think this means you have a hard copy, but don’t get too excited. To run my tests on the world, I deleted Origin, and all the store content from my game, to see what (if any) extras this disc included. Can you guess what it was?
The only piece of content included on the disc is….. Origin! Yes, good ‘ol Origin. It probably includes an update too, but I’m not taking the time to test that. Did you really think EA would finally give a disc that actually included content? Â Seriously EA, what was the point of the disc? The world is only 128MB, why would it jump to 2.5+ GB? Anyway, here is how it works.
First of all, there is no need to insert the disc, because the back of the manual includes a code you can redeem directly through the website. Either way, I went ahead and inserted the disc, only to be greeted with Origin’s installation. Sure, EA can fool first comers, but I know I did not need to install it. Moving along…
The disc acts as a game installation, when in reality, all you have to do is go to the Sims 3 Store and download it. You can continue through the installation steps, accept their TOS, and it will then conveniently open your launcher and provide a special “insert code” screen.
If you aren’t already, it will require you to log in, and then credit your account 2,450 Simpoints… or not. What it does, is give your purchase history an awesome $24.50 world, which costs only $20 on the website now! What do they mean, “Your account has been credited simpoints for use on Hidden Springs”?
Now here is where I just don’t understand EA’s logic. Why would they tell me the world costs 2,450 Simpoints, when on the Hidden Springs store page it reads 2,000? So technically, I should still have another 450 Simpoints in my account right? Wrong! 😛
Now I know marketing has to keep their jobs, but honestly, who is running marketing over at EA? Specifically with the Sims department. This is just a sad way to gain more Origin members to compete with Valve (Steam), and other digital distributors.
For anyone wondering if this version of Hidden Springs includes extras, it doesn’t. If you also wonder if the FOY and Spell Book issue is fixed…it isn’t. Unless you are a collector and want to grab the box for your collection, there is no reason to grab the disc version. In the end, you don’t even have the content you paid for, unless you download it from the Sims 3 Store.
