I carefully formatted portions of my previous message (#26) for easy readability, but it was all for naught. Who would’ve guessed that such minor things as a few extra spaces get chucked out… *SIGH*

Let’s just say I certainly didn’t start out my comment by typing:
“For K u m i Y u a s a”

It was more along the lines of the following (without the periods), which looked really nice inside that header block:
“For…..K U M I….Y U A S A”

Oh well.

KINDLY READ AND RESPOND…

Dear Ms. Yuasa…

Thank you for your work on ECHOCHROME, and for taking the time to provide us with your written update reports here on the blog. Your contributions here are very much appreciated!

As I’m sure you are aware, there has been some controversy surrouding the PS3 edition of ECHOCHROME with regard to the weekly extra-level “Puzzle Pack” downloads.

Consumers have been posing the same questions here on the PlayStation Blog (as well as in other web forums) — how are these additional puzzle levels saved/retained on our PS3 systems?

Previous blog entries have unfortunately been rather vague in addressing the method in which ECHOCHROME downloads AND saves/retains these weekly level updates. Therefore, we would very much appreciate any direct clarification your can provide us on this issue.

Would you kindly confirm for us which of the following statement are correct:

1) Whenever we download a new weekly extra-level “Puzzle Pack”, all
levels downloaded the previous week are OVERWRITTEN (or otherwise
erased/deleted. In other words, by downloading the 05.29 puzzle
update, we now only have the 10 new puzzles released this week
— all puzzles previous downloaded on 05.15 (20 levels) and/or
05.22 (10 levels) no longer exist on our PS3 systems, and
essentially “disappear” forever.

2) Each weekly extra-level “Puzzle Pack” download is CUMULATIVE, and
is saved alongside any previously-released puzzles on our PS3
systems. In other words, after downloadinhg tye 05.29 update, we
should have 40 user-created levels available to play.
20 (05.15) + 10 (05.22) + 10 (05.29) = 40 extra puzzles total

Many of us suspect that #1 above is the method in which ECHOCHROME downloads and retains the extra user-created levels.

However, if this is the case, I as that you please consider patching and/or updating ECHOCHROME to address these deficiencies. The ability to download and save/retain multiple level packs (either via PSN or an in-game download server/area) would be greatly appreciated by us, your end users. Also helpful would be a way of viewing, selecting and playing individual puzzles from these downloadable level packs — possibly similar to the setup of the “Atelier” puzzles — rather than trying to randomly “find” them in Freeform Mode.

If I may, I’d like to offer one suggestion regarding the weekly puzzle packs (if #1 above was true and previously-downloasded puzzles are overwritten each week). The data size for individual user-created puzzles is obviously quite small, since it took only a second or two to downlood the 20 puzzles available in the first weekly Puzzle Pack (05.15). Since the size and time-contraints are minor, why not simply create and release a “cumulative” Puzzle Pack each week? First combinine all the currently-released puzzles (40 as of May 29th) into a single download, then add new levels to this same file for release each week.

Even with several hundred puzzles, such a file would still be quickly downloaded, and it would satisfy all your end users for the time being (until an update or patch could be developed). This way, all users would always have access to ALL the downloadable extra level puzzles — whether they purchased ECHOCHROME on release date or six months from now. In addition, we’d also have all the time in the world to play (and replay) these levels whenever we choose, rather than being forcibly locked into a one-week timeframe before they disappear “forever.”

Lastly, are their ANY plans whatsoever to release a PSP retail UMD edition of ECHOCHROME domestically (preferably equivalent or superior to the fully-packed European version with its 228 levels and extra modes)?

Thank you once again for releasing ECHOCHROME here in the North American region, and for your informative blog articles.

I look forward to reading your response regarding the saving/retention of weekly levels, and sincerely hope you’ll consider implementing my suggestion(s) regarding same.

Best wishes to your and your team on ECHOCHROME and all future endeavors!

Regards,
Jeff Krispow

The user-created levels will be dowloaded and playable always? or they will be streamed and only playable on the given dates?

…aren’t you going to ask me how I’m doing?
Oh yeah, how could I forget that you’ve ignored me for a while now? Silly me.