Well, not much, really. It’s just that both were subjected to some seriously (and hilariously) lax QC when it comes to their disc printing methods.
It was first reported that some buyers of the PC DVD version of the new Black Ops II game had an interesting installation glitch: Disc 2 of the game was Disc 2 of another game. The video of a user who found the error went viral (link here, NSFW language). Of course, not everyone who bought the game in DVD had Mass Effect 2 in Disc 2 – and the fact that those affected can actually use Steam to download the missing files – but it really makes you wonder how one installation disc of a blockbuster game can have the installation files of another game, from a competing company, no less.
In a riposte to Activision’s gaffe, EA (the company behind Mass Effect 2) were quick to take action, with a blog post on Bioware (the studio behind the Mass Effect series) offering free copies of the Mass Effect Trilogy to the first fifty who submits a photo of them having the “special” discs, which according to Bioware isn’t a mistake, but an “omen” that they should be playing Mass Effect. Classy.
In the same 24 hours, Kotaku also reported that another big-budget game had a similar issue. Warner Brothers is recalling “a small number” of the XBOX 360 version of LEGO Lord of the Rings in the US due to a disc labelling error. While the disc contains the correct, full version of the game, the print on the disc labelled it as a demo version. Not as big an issue as Black Ops II, but it does make you wonder what goes on behind the scenes at the disc burning/printing factories.
