The game has finally launched. You’d think it would be a smooth release. Not so. The official Techland handle on Twitter had posted a few hype-filled lines daring players to “claim what’s rightfully theirs,” while transforming terrains and looking like a real post-apocalyptic survivor if they went ahead to pre-order. And the replies? Absolute chaos.
The players began flooding the comments with complaints from the beginning. Major Bryan Santiago put the first one very clearly: “Can’t download the hero of harran bundle for ps5”. And he certainly wasn’t alone; dozens of players were all chipping in on the same issue. To be exact, PlayStation users were unable to download Hero of Harran or Deluxe Edition bundles that they had paid for.
And right now, it’s becoming even more of a mess. It’s the doing-it-yourself-type problem now, following Xbox. “I can’t even install the game on XBOX and I preordered the deluxe edition. The fuck was the point if I can’t play?” StillDaLion said. It is just quite deflating: just imagine having paid for the deluxe edition, only to discover you can’t even install the game. That’s frustration at a whole new level: two hours to launch and yet nothing in their library.
What is more, speaking of these tests, Techland’s community team must be credited for being very responsive. They rapidly acknowledged this issue, stating while replying to several players that “We’re aware of the issues that on PlayStation you can’t download Hero of Harran or Deluxe Edition bundles and we’re investigating it.” They even inquired if a player had tried restarting their console, which… umm, classic support move.
The weird bit is, though, that it doesn’t seem to affect everybody equally. User 993Ronin said, “werid… mine downloaded absolutely fine on playstation.” So some go through, while others are completely locked out. At least when it works for some but not for you, it almost adds to the frustration.
There is some confusion as to what exactly people should be getting. The Dying Light 2 account had to clarify to a player: “Dying Light 2 Ultimate Edition owners are getting Dying Light: The Beast standard edition + pre-order bonus Hero of Harran bundle.” So just about at least trying to communicate what they should be expecting to receive.
The error messages that people are getting sound very generic as well. One user mentioned error CE-107880-4, which doesn’t mean a thing to anyone useful. A nasty another is just “it keeps saying something went wrong,” which is as helpful as a screen door on a submarine.
It’s interesting to see how the problem is escalating across platforms. The initial Techland response clearly specified PlayStation, but that was when Xbox players started chiming in about installation issues. So it’s not just extra content that’s having problems – people have trouble installing the base game they’ve paid for.
The reaction from the community was part frustration and part understanding. Some players are furious, and it makes sense when you put cash into something and then just don’t get to enjoy it. Then you’ve got people like The_Nogman saying, “Nice, glad you guys are on it. Thanks for the update!”… a little odd, really, given the context.
There is also this whole other story about Techland accounts. One player claims he was unable to log into his Techland account to claim his rewards, further complicating the matter. So if the system to claim your pre-order bonuses requires an account that’s not working, then that’s yet another problem in itself.
Good to know it’s not such an unexpected thing. Big launches are forever full of hiccups, especially those depending on digital distribution and account reward systems. Remember the late-Cyberpunk 2077 launch? It’s nowhere near that level of disaster, but it’s still very disappointing for people stoked to enter the game with all pre-order goodies.
What makes it complicated is the timing: most people pre-ordered to be able to get early access to these items in the first place. The whole point of pre-ordering is that everything should be ready to go on launch day, not that you’re sitting having to deal with download errors.
In the meantime, Techland seems to be actively working on it. They’ve been actively taking on people’s tweets and updating them on their investigations. At least better than many devs that’ll just go cold under launch issues.
If you are among those having difficulty claiming pre-order rewards for Dying Light 2, you are in good company. Keeping a vigilant watch on Techland’s social media sites might be the best bet at any time for latest updates, and maybe give your console a restart anyway (because sometimes it seems to work). Hopefully, Techland will soon fix these issues so we can all get back to parkouring about zombie-infested ruins looking like proper post-apocalyptic survivors.
Launch day issues are pretty common these days, and in the gaming world in fact, but they will never lessen the annoyance when you are the one experiencing them. Here’s hoping that Techland sorts it out fast so players can finally enjoy what they paid for.
