Karen wrote in to let us know that she stumbled across this information on Pogo’s help site after noticing that Diner Dash: Family Style was missing from her favorites list. Check this out (spelling error and all):
Dinner Dash: Family Style is no longer available as a download through the Pogo website.
The game’s Play Now page is missing and so are all of its pages in the badge books in Badge Central. Oddly enough you can still view its download page on Pogo’s Downloads site even though it’s been removed from the indexes. Not exactly “no longer available as a download” but much harder to find, at least.
I also checked PlayFirst’s web site and forums (PlayFirst is the company that owns the Diner Dash franchise) and couldn’t find a mention of Family Style at all. I also checked some other casual gaming web sites and forums and couldn’t find out why it may have been yanked from both Pogo and PlayFirst.
Even so, Diner Dash: Family Style appears to still be functional and properly awarding badges if you previously purchased it or find a way to obtain a copy from somewhere else.
I was able to download the trial, do a fresh install, and start playing using a Club Pogo account that had not previously played the game before. It did give me an error upon connecting (“Download Failed. Errors occurred when downloading the assets. Please try again later.”) but that didn’t seem to affect online gameplay at all. I was able to join a room with some other players in it and start playing. I was awarded the first badge in the game (see all ranks here), so it seems that at least we can still earn badges despite the fact it’s been “removed” from Pogo’s web site. The badges you have earned in this game will show up in your Special Edition badge album.
Update 10/20/09: Diner Dash: Family Style has been added back to our badge albums and can be once again found in the Favorites list.
Filed under: diner dash family style
{ 26 comments }
kiki 10.06.09 at 7:25 pm
and much the way of buckaroo blackjack, the badges are now in your Special Edition albums.
this makes me sad–i loved that game!
Lura 10.06.09 at 7:37 pm
Ah, good find kiki, thanks! I’ll update my original post to reflect where the badges can be found.
HomelessDog 10.06.09 at 9:58 pm
That’s pretty sad. It doesn’t instill much faith in purchasing future Premium games knowing that there is such a strong possibility that they’ll not be supported in the near future.
Something must be going on with them also backing away from the Godmother game too.
jtreegirl 10.06.09 at 10:02 pm
Ugh! I was working on ranking out in this game :P I might have to get my butt in gear!
Lura 10.06.09 at 10:04 pm
jtreegirl: you’ll probably still be able to earn all of the badges for an indefinite period of time, but don’t lose your serial number because you probably won’t be getting it back and you certainly won’t be able to get a new one!
jan 10.06.09 at 11:59 pm
I guess Wacky Wednesday for premium games should be a wake up call to anyone considering these games. I had trouble with Operation Mania and couldn’t finish it, swore I’d never purchase another game, then bought and finished the Word Whomp Underground which made me think Operation Mania was a glitch. Now I guess I know that Diner Dash Family Style is probably gone and I should learn my lesson about premium games.
I guess I’ll just be glad that I bought the last 2 on sale.
The bigger question is, what do all the changes in the premium downloadable games mean for the direction of Pogo?
jtreegirl 10.07.09 at 12:22 am
good tip! Thanks, Lura :)
Wolfe 10.07.09 at 3:59 am
That’s a shame. It was the first Pogo game I’ve ever downloaded. Guess there wasn’t enough traffic for it.
Still, I have all my badges for it. :)
Better get crackin’, Jtreegirl!
Wolfe
Wolfe 10.07.09 at 4:05 am
Update: Yes, all the Diner Dash badges are in my Special Edition book. It might’ve been smart for Pogo to announce Diner Dash’s retirement. Bet people would’ve swooped to get the game then, much like other badges.
Wolfe
goofygoober519 10.07.09 at 8:25 am
That’s a real shame that they “removed” the game. I paid for the game so surely hope I can still play the game when I want to. The ranks are slow going in there, I know i’ve won well over 200 games and i’m rank 17 or 18 out of 50. Oddly enough, the room I was playing in had 10 people in it and I don’t think that game had more than 10 people in it the whole time it was really on pogo LOL. It’s a fun little game and I don’t understand why Pogo couldn’t keep it up. Makes me wonder about the other deluxe games because OPERATION has just as many people not playing it. and can’t call any other deluxe game a “winner” with the top game being Mahjong Deluxe with 114 players.
Mel 10.07.09 at 8:30 am
they didn’t even warn that it was not going to be available anymore, just took it off the shelf? I have it, just find it a bit hard (barely played it though, so I haven’t really given it a chance).
kiki 10.07.09 at 8:58 am
my best guess is that it all came down to some licensing issue; otherwise, i would have expected the warning we got when they retired buckaroo.
i too have been wondering about the state of their download division. all these sales–it’s been foolish to buy any game at full price. and the last 2 times i purchased a download game, i had trouble with the transaction. both times, customer support gave me a free game for my trouble.
none of the deluxe games are experiencing the foot traffic that pogo probably wants. they need to come up with some inspiration (MMs in these games? a mini item that is only available for a certain week?) if they want the numbers to increase–sales won’t do it.
Lura 10.07.09 at 9:09 am
What’s interesting to me is that the casual games market is experiencing a total boom right now — the economy’s “bad”, people are staying home to play cheap games instead of going out and spending money other ways. Pogo just didn’t get the memo, I guess. There are other sites offering games for $6.99, in many cases the same exact games Pogo has in their downloads section for $19.95. Even on “Wacky Wednesday”, getting half-price on a Pogo download doesn’t really appeal to anyone who knows that the same games are distributed all over the web on various sites and they are all more inexpensive elsewhere.
Chelle 10.07.09 at 11:17 am
I remember being surprised to see Diner Dash on Pogo because I had played DD games before and knew they were not made by Pogo. I know nothing about this type of stuff, but my guess would be that the game was taken down because Pogo had a falling out with PlayFirst, licensing issues…something like that. I’m not really worried about other downloadable games and I don’t feel like it’s a sign that Pogo is struggling like crazy. If they were worried about losing in the price war, it seems to me they’d lower their prices instead of taking the games down completely. I feel like it’s an isolated incident, but please, no one say “I told you so” if they wipe out all the downloadables lol.
Anyway, there might be a letter to the editor about it. It seems like every time Pogo makes a change without announcing it, there’s an Ed letter about it soon afterward.
Tara 10.07.09 at 2:58 pm
I was able to download it and obtain a serial # by going to [removed].
Lura 10.07.09 at 3:02 pm
Tara: I’m not going to allow that outside link just to be on the safe side — not only does it look completely illegal, I have no idea whether or not it’d give someone a virus. I don’t recommend purchasing or downloading games from anything other than a trusted casual game site (imo Pogo, Big Fish Games, etc) Pogo’s made it clear the game is no longer available. Feel free to use those sites at your own risk, though.
Tara 10.07.09 at 3:09 pm
Link brought me back to Pogo’s download page.
Lura 10.07.09 at 3:16 pm
Tara: then my visitors can safely use the link above in my original post to get to Pogo’s download page (while it still lasts). I don’t recommend buying from it, however, because Pogo’s removed all other traces of it from their web site and their support is not famous for helping people in situations like this. I mention this because a while back people bought a game from a download page that was posted early, before the game was linked publicly from other pages on Pogo’s site. Those people didn’t receive their serials and they had a hell of a time getting it all sorted out.
Just use your noggins, folks. :)
Paul 10.07.09 at 7:15 pm
Hey all,
I guess you could say i’m either lucky or unlucky, as i have bought all of the pogo downloadables, including DD, and i have to admit to enjoying them all. I have to admit that they are more difficult to play and that gaining ranks can be really tedious, but i always thought they was worth the money. I’m slightly dismayed that pogo have removed this without warning, ad having spent all this money i was hoping they were going to support them for a long time to come, like the addition of ranks to the Poppit Show, and with the launch of pictureka which they spent alot advertising, i thought these games would continue and get better. I’m not convinced that pogo have stopped these all together, i just think that with the way things are at the moment with the recession and stuff, i think pogo are holding back a little as i’m sure the downloadables cost more to make than their online counterparts. I hope that pogo will continue to make them, and possibly make things clearer as to why DD has gone, it would after all be good to understand where we stand with regards to earning badges and mini items from the games.
Thanks for letting me make my points, great site great work, thanks again.
Lura 10.07.09 at 7:22 pm
Like Chelle, I expected (well, was hoping for) a Letters to the Editor mention of Diner Dash this week, but nothing on either US or UK.
I’ll admit I don’t know how long the game has been removed from their site exactly — I know I referenced it in Badge Central while I was creating the ranks pages in August and September, but it wasn’t a game that was really on my radar to begin with.
k_mac8 10.07.09 at 11:19 pm
Hi all I have purchased Diner Dash when it first came out and had no problem playing it. I believe the reason they took it off our US site is because they are promoting it on the UK site as a multi player game and maybe they had to do it to keep things straight. So those of you like me that havent quite finished it not to worry you can still get your badges and minis. I have noticed many time some games I have purchased I can get to from my favorites and others I have to go to my desktop and play them so there should be no need for use of backdoors leaving yourself wide open when you go in through those. Not a good idea and a great way to get a virus. Take care all and good luck and happy playing. Thanks Badge Hungry for all you do its a great place.
K_Mac8
shorty 10.08.09 at 4:26 am
i had trouble with my comp and had to get it re-done and i havent finished with this game. is there anywhere i can go to download it?
Lura 10.08.09 at 8:19 am
shorty: you can download it from the link to its download page above in my original post, for as long as Pogo keeps the page up. If the page ever gets removed from their servers, you’ll have to contact Oberon media as outlined in Pogo’s help section (also linked above).
Lura 10.16.09 at 3:41 pm
I just got word that Oberon’s customer service is responding to inquiries about Diner Dash Family Style with this information:
“We apologize for the inconvenience. Pogo is aware that players who purchased “Diner Dash Family Style” are having problems using the game with the Pogo website since they decided to stop selling the game. They are working on a fix for this problem; the estimated date for implementation of the fix is October 20, 2009. Your badges have been saved and will reappear on the website when the fix is completed.”
I don’t really know what that means exactly (your badges are on the web site, in the Special Edition album) but I guess we’ll maybe find out on the 20th.
Wolfe 10.22.09 at 5:07 pm
Yes, they moved the badges back to the main badge album yesterday. Two days late as far as I can tell, but it happened. :)
Wolfe
Lura 10.22.09 at 5:08 pm
Wolfe: thanks for verifying! It was on time on my end. :)
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