Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp (21st April 2023)

[darksnowman]

Pre-loaders are freeloaders.

[Jonnas]

This is some Advanced piracy.

[MindFreak]

Assuming it's not piracy, could this happen if you preloaded the game when it was available and then never reconnected to the internet? 

[Ike]

8 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

Assuming it's not piracy, could this happen if you preloaded the game when it was available and then never reconnected to the internet? 

No, it checks the server. Otherwise you could just change the date on your Switch and play it early.

Also there’d be more cases of it happening if Nintendo forgot to change the server unlock date. And it would have been reported on Friday.

[MindFreak]

21 minutes ago, Ike said:

No, it checks the server. Otherwise you could just change the date on your Switch and play it early.

Also there’d be more cases of it happening if Nintendo forgot to change the server unlock date. And it would have been reported on Friday.

Ah, yes. Of course. 

And yes, I agree, if this were a thing, more would be experiencing it. Idiot to brag about it on Twitter, police should knock on his door any moment. 

[Jonnas]

Just now, MindFreak said:

Ah, yes. Of course. 

And yes, I agree, if this were a thing, more would be experiencing it. Idiot to brag about it on Twitter, police should knock on his door any moment. 

I made the "piracy" comment as a joke, as this likely happened by chance.

The twitter user says it only works on her Switch Lite, so it's likely that the specific settings she had with her account(s), plus the circumstances with the pre-load and the last-minute delay, meaning this was likely a highly specific/obscure download option that was not adequately locked by Nintendo when they delayed the game. Sounds far more likely that this is an overlooked exploit that a handful of players would be able to accidentally discover.

Finally, she claims that 50 quid were taken from her account to pay for the game. That's something we shouldn't overlook.

To be honest, if this was the result of piracy, I would assume we'd hear about it from other venues, and with more anonymous folk sharing screenshots. The fact that it's a single Twitter user leads credence to the notion that it's a weird exploit discovered accidentally.

[Ike]

1 minute ago, Jonnas said:

I made the "piracy" comment as a joke, as this likely happened by chance.

The twitter user says it only works on her Switch Lite, so it's likely that the specific settings she had with her account(s), plus the circumstances with the pre-load and the last-minute delay, meaning this was likely a highly specific/obscure download option that was not adequately locked by Nintendo when they delayed the game. Sounds far more likely that this is an overlooked exploit that a handful of players would be able to accidentally discover.

Finally, she claims that 50 quid were taken from her account to pay for the game. That's something we shouldn't overlook.

To be honest, if this was the result of piracy, I would assume we'd hear about it from other venues, and with more anonymous folk sharing screenshots. The fact that it's a single Twitter user leads credence to the notion that it's a weird exploit discovered accidentally.

Was the preload available before it was delayed?

[Jonnas]

Just now, Ike said:

Was the preload available before it was delayed?

I never pre-load games, so I never noticed anything. I did notice the option for pre-orders was available very early on, even before the first delay. Maybe an option for pre-load was made briefly available at some point as well.

Reading more comments about the situation, it seems the version she got is a very early build as well, as it lacks some features seen in more recent trailers (like animated CO portraits during battle, or distinct models for each faction).

[Dcubed]

6 hours ago, MindFreak said:

Assuming it's not piracy, could this happen if you preloaded the game when it was available and then never reconnected to the internet? 

Absolutely impossible.

It is 100% piracy.

And just to confirm, I had the game preordered myself from the very first moment it got put on the eShop; I got no such pre-load.  Pre-loads aren’t made available until 1 week prior to release anyway; so this story is verifiably horseshit.

Expect to see a ton of YouTube/Twitch/Twitter streams of this game with everyone parroting this same, convenient excuse.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Dcubed

[Julius]

5 hours ago, Jonnas said:

I made the "piracy" comment as a joke, as this likely happened by chance.

The twitter user says it only works on her Switch Lite, so it's likely that the specific settings she had with her account(s), plus the circumstances with the pre-load and the last-minute delay, meaning this was likely a highly specific/obscure download option that was not adequately locked by Nintendo when they delayed the game. Sounds far more likely that this is an overlooked exploit that a handful of players would be able to accidentally discover.

Finally, she claims that 50 quid were taken from her account to pay for the game. That's something we shouldn't overlook.

To be honest, if this was the result of piracy, I would assume we'd hear about it from other venues, and with more anonymous folk sharing screenshots. The fact that it's a single Twitter user leads credence to the notion that it's a weird exploit discovered accidentally.

Yeah, I agree. I really don't think it's as deep as some here are making it and I reckon this was just a freak accident on Nintendo's backend which has since been resolved: she's had her order of the game cancelled and refunded, and hasn't gone the route of staying offline so that they can't take it back off her, as she was scared of legal repercussions of some sort.

Which I think is hilarious, because I'm sure Nintendo's T&C's don't go deep enough for pre-orders for something like this to be covered and land squarely on her. 

She actually mentioned receiving a download code which implies to me that she bought the game digitally through the Nintendo Store rather than through the eShop, which, if true, I imagine puts her in a very small minority of digital purchases. 

This was already on her profile before a lot of people (here and elsewhere) started throwing about accusations of piracy and name-calling (seriously?) by the way, which is a shame. It took me a minute of looking through her replies today to find that. 

Some of you are just salty that it wasn't you who got this opportunity after the delay 

42 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Absolutely impossible.

It is 100% piracy.

And just to confirm, I had the game preordered myself from the very first moment it got put on the eShop; I got no such pre-load.  Pre-loads aren’t made available until 1 week prior to release anyway; so this story is verifiably horseshit.

Expect to see a ton of YouTube/Twitch/Twitter streams of this game with everyone parroting this same, convenient excuse.

I mean, firstly: above. She even straight up says in the second tweet connected to your original post about this that she thought other people already had access to it. 

Secondly: I don't think the tactic of openly sharing about getting the game early on a massive social media platform in a way which will get people accusing you of committing piracy on a *personal* Twitter account is one that - so far - the only person who has accessed this game through "piracy" - and therefore, by implication, would be smart enough to do what no-one else so far has replicated - would be silly enough to do.

It seems far more likely to me that this was a backend error on Nintendo's end somehow than someone pirating the game from under their noses completely undetected and then posting about it online. 

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

She actually mentioned receiving a download code which implies to me that she bought the game digitally through the Nintendo Store rather than through the eShop, which, if true, I imagine puts her in a very small minority of digital purchases. 

Ah, there's the highly specific circumstances behind her purchase/pre-load. Very nice catch.

If nothing else, we got some buzz about the game, as well as a snippet of Nell's and Olaf's themes. The latter sounds great, but can't say I much like the guitars for Nell's.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Jonnas

[Sheikah]

Absolutely impossible.

It is 100% piracy.

And just to confirm, I had the game preordered myself from the very first moment it got put on the eShop; I got no such pre-load.  Pre-loads aren’t made available until 1 week prior to release anyway; so this story is verifiably horseshit.

Expect to see a ton of YouTube/Twitch/Twitter streams of this game with everyone parroting this same, convenient excuse.

I see. So if you couldn't do it, it must be 100% impossible.

[Dcubed]

I’m not gullible enough to believe her new excuse; you’ll probably also change your tune when the game ends up on piracy sites very soon…

[Dcubed]

12 hours ago, Julius said:

Secondly: I don't think the tactic of openly sharing about getting the game early on a massive social media platform in a way which will get people accusing you of committing piracy on a *personal* Twitter account is one that - so far - the only person who has accessed this game through "piracy" - and therefore, by implication, would be smart enough to do what no-one else so far has replicated - would be silly enough to do.

People will do very strange things for internet clout and Twitter attention; this is far from the dumbest move I’ve ever seen.  And this is even a high profile unreleased Nintendo game! Of course people would want to show off!

Still, at least we’ll now have a means of seeing/playing (the latter via illegitimate means) this game if Nintendo do indeed decide to never actually release it.  This will be the Switch’s very own Star Fox 2 or “Earthbound Zero”/Earthbound Beginnings.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Dcubed

[darksnowman]

Think I've only pre-loaded a couple of Switch games from S-E and Nintendo. SaGa, Game Builder Garage, possibly Fire Emblem NES. You can imagine. However, I honestly cannot for the life of me remember how preloading works re: the download itself? I think at the time of pre-purchasing, it basically puts a small filesize icon on your Switch then downloads the fuller game closer to release when the Switch is in sleep mode...?

So with that in mind, I think it's a strange one that a playable version of Advance Wars was pushed out onto consoles so far before the planned release. They postponed it far enough in advance (har har) that this shouldn't have happened... but then it is a unique situation so perhaps there was an oversight on Nintendo's part that allowed this one to slip through.

I did a cursory Internet search and got some hits for Advance Wars 1+2 download so it could well be out there. Dunno. I won't be trying as it doesn't bother me too much either way, tbh.

[bob]

I’m not gullible enough to believe her new excuse; you’ll probably also change your tune when the game ends up on piracy sites very soon…

Yeah but that's forming an opinion based on new evidence, rather than boldly stating a fact based on none.

I don't know this person's copy is legit or pirated, but I don't have enough information to claim either one is 100% fact.

[Jonnas]

10 hours ago, Dcubed said:

I’m not gullible enough to believe her new excuse; you’ll probably also change your tune when the game ends up on piracy sites very soon…

...As a reminder, her "excuse" is that Nintendo basically corroborated her story by offering a refund. Unless you mean the Nintendo Store code thing, in which case that's just Julius being a sharp sleuth, as the lady did not confirm it.

But honestly, nevermind piracy websites. If this as-of-yet-officially-unreleased game is truly circulating freely online, we'll be seeing spoilers all over the place. As leaks are wont to do. Like when the plot for Last of Us Part 2 and Three Houses got leaked. If multiple copies of any kind are circulating, we'll see Twitter flooded with pictures very soon. If it's just the occasional person to whom this happened, then I imagine those pics will be quite scarcer.

I will admit that, if a potential pirate also happened to buy the game this way, then we'll definitely see those pirated copies. But to me, nothing really points towards this girl being one.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Jonnas

[Ike]

I don't think parts* of her story add up, but I am willing to believe it was as a My Nintendo store mess up on their end and/or special set of circumstances.

*

• Her order wasn't cancelled somehow and a code got sent out 
• Don't codes get sent out day of release, or have they changed that?
• The code was active and it downloaded the preload which usually doesn't become available until a week before?
• It downloaded an early build or was missing a day 1 update
• CS apparently asked if she wanted to keep the code or get a refund, shouldn't it have been refund only?
• She's the only person it happened too, or other people have kept quiet

[Sheikah]

12 hours ago, Dcubed said:

I’m not gullible enough to believe her new excuse; you’ll probably also change your tune when the game ends up on piracy sites very soon…

Maybe you will read this back in future and see how silly/judgemental it sounds.

I don't know anything about this person but it sounds entirely plausible. The idea that Nintendo's online e-shop infrastructure is fallible is, well...100% believable.

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, Ike said:

• The code was active and it downloaded the preload which usually doesn't become available until a week before?
• It downloaded an early build or was missing a day 1 update

Dunno how the codes work exactly as I can only speak for how it is when you pre-purchase on the eShop, but the timing doesn't line up for me either. Afaik, old, pre-release versions of digital software isn't just left lying on your Switch (!!) for weeks waiting to be updated and ultimately unlocked at midnight on release day. You get a placeholder icon and then the full download follows closer to release.

People would have cracked pre-loads sooner if that's how they work.

But with the delay and everything, it's hard to definitively claim the stars didn't line up for this user.  

1 hour ago, Ike said:

• CS apparently asked if she wanted to keep the code or get a refund, shouldn't it have been refund only?

Whoever was covering the weekend was just giving an option (any option!) in the hopes of dragging it out so they could leave it for the Monday morning staff to deal with.  

[MindFreak]

The game still lives. In the release schedule Nintendo just made available, the game is listed with a TBA. 

https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-release-schedule-august-2022/

 

[Ashley]

Nintendo hasn't forgotten about the game... Kind of

 

 

[Ashley]

Some no news news

 

 

[Dcubed]

It's almost here! At long last! And here's 10 minutes of gameplay to prove it!

 

The new music arrangements are SO SICK!!!!!!

I LOVE all the new interactive music changes as well, like how there's a different version of the themes during battle scenes, or when you're building units!

Andy and Nell's theme sound SO FUCKING GOOD!! 

Jake Kaufman DOES NOT MISS!

Edit:

 

Seems that you have to actually unlock the AW2 campaign... That's the choice I personally would've made (Since AW2 is really built on top of AW1 and kind of expects the player to already be familiar with AW1), so I'm happy about this, but I can imagine this choice pissing some people off... Brave decision.

Edit 2:

Looks like you CAN actually play AW2 first, but the game gives you a "YOU'RE DUMB FOR DOING THIS!" warning before you do...

Edited April 5, 2023 by Dcubed

[Helmsly]

New Overview trailer just came up: