A couple of posts on PlanetBlackAndWhite (thanks Tod Bouris) offer information on possible problems that you may encounter when trying to run Black & White, Lionhead's just-released game of dominance and submission, deity style. One post points out that EA's tech support pages are pretty useless, so they've started their own B&W Tech support page with actual workarounds they've devised or have been sent for various problems folks have encountered. In a less easily addressed situation, they also have a news post up with word that some retail B&W packages accidentally (or they speculate, possibly deliberately), ended up with some beta code for the game, rather than the final gold version. Here's what they say about that:

Apparently, a huge number of beta versions of Black and White were shipped to stores around the world. EA, it seems, messed up some files and replaced some of the Gold-Version BW files with the betas. I've heard it rumoured that EA intentionally made beta copies in order to get BW out by the 27th. Whatever.

Well, when I heard this news I quickly called EA and emailed Lionhead simultaneously. EA told me that it was an honest mistake. Also, they gave me some interesting news that everyone should know. That bug with the Athlons and the Dial-Up Networking is actually a RESULT of this beta mix-up. How bout that? Anyway, EA plans to announce a recall (if you will) of all the beta copies out there. If you have a copy (and you know you do if you get the DUN error) EA would like you to call them. The promise to either refund or replace your game.

Sorry about all this confusion. At least we can still hope that the final version has no bugs, (heh).

Phone Number: 1-888-842-6388 This is the Account Services Department (the only phone number I could find). EA's not up there with the people friendly tech support.

Lionhead hasn't replied yet, but when they do I'm sure they will be able to shed some light on this serious matter.

Update: As has been noted on our messageboards (thanks Do_Or_Die), Lionhead's official Black & White site has a blurb up that directly refutes this:

There seems to have been a rumour spread about that EA shipped a beta version of the game instead of the final GOLD version. This is not the case. The versions on sale are the final GOLD version.

If you are experiencing any problems with installation or the running of Black & White, then please contact the support department at Electronic Arts. Their email is : support@ea.com or uksupport@ea.com

If you have sent an email to bwgame.com or lionhead.com, then you are advised to resend your mail to EA's support team who can deal with your problem much more effectively than we will be able to.