SEGA released Super Monkey Ball 2 only a few days ago to the excitement of many iPhone and iPod touch gamers.  This long-awaited sequel is an improvement over the original game in almost every way, every way except for compatibility with jailbroken devices.

During Super Monkey Ball 2’s very first day of availability, many gamers became very irritated when the game constantly crashed on launch, which is understandable since the game does cost $9.99.  But as it turns out, the common factor among all of those who experienced the crashing was that they were using jailbroken devices.  A fix was quickly discovered and reported by many, including our own Robin Rhys, that simply required users to download and install an app called SwapMode, or even better, SBsettings, which places the jailbroken device in a safe mode.  Problem solved, right?  Well, not necessarily since many jailbreakers may not know of this simple fix and the negative reviews from those who don’t are obviously affecting a pretty great game.

We decided to find out if SEGA was aware of the problem and if so, what they intended to do about it.  We recently received a response to our questions, and apparently not only is SEGA completely aware of the problem, but they also have no intentions of fixing it.

“SEGA is aware of the recent issues with Super Monkey Ball 2 and would like to assure users that there is no issue with iPhone or iPod Touch standard systems and the game. The issue only occurs when an iPhone has been modified (for what we assume is development purposes). Due to the many different configurations that can be used for a modified phone we are unable to test those systems and accurately gauge any issues that a modified configuration may cause the game. We will continue to test Super Monkey Ball 2 on our end to ensure that it offers the standard iPhone and iPod Touch systems only the best gaming experience possible.

If you are having difficulty playing Super Monkey Ball 2 on your iPhone or iPod Touch, please contact Sega Support at help.sega.com for personal support.”

If you are wondering why SEGA used the term modified instead of jailbroken, apparently it is merely an industry term that means the same thing.

The difficulty with this answer is that the many, many jailbreak users obviously want to play the game without a hassle, and that, at least according to SEGA, will probably never be the case.  But how can you blame SEGA for not wanting to test against jailbroken devices?  It would not only be time consuming, but also fairly frivolous since there are, as SEGA stated, many different configurations that can be used.  We can’t blame jailbreak users either for wanting to do something to their device to make it more efficient and usable for them.  What can be taken from this, however, is that jailbreaking does have its downsides, and by making the decision to jailbreak your device, you must accept the consequences.

Jailbreakers can take pride in the fact that they are a savvy bunch.  Being able to fix your own problems is a pretty empowering thing, so keep doing what you’re doing, just don’t complain when things go wrong.  Instead, fix them like you always do.