April 10 was supposed to be an exciting day for fans of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Activision stated in March that they would be releasing downloadable content via Xbox Live for the action RPG in the form of 8 new playable characters. A free video showing the four heroes and four villains released late last month ended with "AVAILABLE 4.10.07" emblazoned on the screen. Apparently, Activision has forgotten this video, as the update has still not appeared on Xbox Live. On April 9, a free patch was released that was intended to prepare players and their hard drives for the new content. Sadly, the patch did more harm than good, damaging players' existing save files and making online play unstable and slow. At this point, the developer has not offered any fixes for the patch, so anyone who downloaded it now has unusable game save files.

I sent an email to Activision in hopes of getting some sort of update as to the actual release date of this content pack. This was the response I received:

"Thanks for contacting us. Activision has never announced a specific date for the release of any content regarding this game. We have no control over what may have been posted on third party websites, or on Xbox Live."

Frustrating, to say the least. Apparently, this:

does not constitute a release date announcement.

The fact that Activision has yet to issue an apology or even an official statement on this issue is really the most disappointing part of the story. Their refusal to admit culpability has angered and presumably alienated many fans. It also makes Activision look entirely classless.

We are still in the very early days of downloadable content, and missteps like this can only serve to dissuade potential downloaders and engender distrust in the entire Xbox Live system.

Plus, I really want to play as The Hulk