Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Vivendi Jilts WoW CE Pre-order Customers

Posted by Zonk on from the how-to-make-friends-and-influence-people dept.

Draconix writes "Having pre-ordered the World of Warcraft Collector's Edition over a month in advance, I eagerly checked my email on November 22nd, expecting confirmation of shipment. Instead, I received a notice from Inside Mac Games, explaining that their order for the WoW Collector's Edition would not be filled. It seems, at the last minute, Vivendi Universal decided to ship a limited number of copies, and only to major players, such as Amazon.com. Doubtless, IMG is one of many stores who have had to inform their unsuspecting customers of this development. Of course, it is now too late to obtain it from one of the distributors that did receive it, so thousands of expectant gamers will come up empty-handed--denied what many had ordered months in advance. With Vivendi Universal already at odds with one of their developers, is more trouble on the way?"

8 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. A little more info please? by Phosphor3k · · Score: 1, Insightful

    A copy of the notice sent to customers would be nice. As of right now all we have is this guy's word that VU is screwing retailers/gamers. Not that I don't beleive it's possible, but the substance in this story is sorely lacking.

  2. Or maybe ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This could well be IMG starting to sell pre-order versions without having any gurantee of delivery and now trying to paint Vivendi as the bad guy for their cock up.

  3. It begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    I'd been wondering when this would happen. It seems the backlash against Blizzard might finally be about to kick off. This won't be the first time that a MMORPG developer has had fantastic press right up to just before the launch, only to have things go awry at the last moment. Anybody remember SW Galaxies? Remember how it went from being the game which would revolutionise the genre and bring in hordes of new players to being a laughing stock overnight?

    The signs have been there for a while. We've been hearing reports from the beta for some time that the game isn't ready for release. After playing the stress-test and the open beta, this is also my own impression. It's not a disaster on the same scale as launch-day Galaxies, but it's severely lacking in content and has horrible issues with balance and the operation of PvP.

    This particular piece of news just makes it seem as though Blizzard has decided to get a head start on kicking their customers in the teeth. For months, we've been hearing the fanboys tell us how wonderful Blizzard are and how high the quality of the game would be when it came out. Thing is, while Blizzard have a fairly good (but not perfect) record of delivering decent singleplayer and small-scale multiplayer games, releasing a MMORPG is an undertaking on a totally different order of magnitude. MMORPGs are vast games, in terms of content, complexity and number of players. The potential for something serious to go wrong and not be picked up (or, more damningly, picked up but not corrected) is significant. Nothing I've seen has convinced me that Blizzard have had the capacity to do this.

    As of today, Blizzard are still, I suspect, gods in the eyes of most slashdotters and MMORPG-gamers. However, I seriously doubt that this reputation will still be intact this time next week. World of Warcraft will do well... it will shift a lot of boxes from shelves. However, I'd be surprised if it overtook Everquest. I'd be even more surprised if it overtook Final Fantasy XI, which is currently the largest of the non-Lineage MMORPGs.

    1. Re:It begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      After reading the Blizzard Forums for WoW I'd have to say that you're wrong.

      Everyone seems to be happy with the game. The post was talking about not being able to get a preordered collector's edition.

      That's a little different from all of the technical problems Star Wars Galaxies suffered, no?

    2. Re:It begins... by glowimperial · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If WoW isn't as polished at release as an MMO can get, then what is the ruler we are going to judge these things by?

      No game is perfect, or pleases everyone. Frankly, having played about a dozen MMOs, WoW comes off as the most ready for release candidate for the merket that I have seen thus far. I have Beta tested several MMOs in the past year, and the only happier Beta community I have seen was the ATITD2 community(which is, frankly, an niche market).

      Regarding WoW, both ingame and out of game, I have seen very little chatter disparaging the game, with the exception of some very legitimate criticism regarding the state of PvP at launch. In defense of WoW's PvP model, people on the Standard Ruleset servers seemed happy as clams, and were having a blast raiding each other.

    3. Re:It begins... by Achoi77 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The signs have been there for a while. We've been hearing reports from the beta for some time that the game isn't ready for release. After playing the stress-test and the open beta, this is also my own impression. It's not a disaster on the same scale as launch-day Galaxies, but it's severely lacking in content and has horrible issues with balance and the operation of PvP.

      Dude, you must be the only person in the world that doesn't think World of Warcraft is not ready. Of all the 3rd gen mmorpgs out there, majority concensus is that WoW is the MOST ready game, and could have been released months ago as is. Severely lacking in content? Now we know you are just trolling. There's so much content in the game that people were afraid it would be taking AWAY from the multiplayer aspect. And I've seen no issues with imbalance, or pvp.

      Thing is, while Blizzard have a fairly good (but not perfect) record of delivering decent singleplayer and small-scale multiplayer games, releasing a MMORPG is an undertaking on a totally different order of magnitude.

      For every single game they launched that uses battlenet, they've always run into launch problems. The first couple of days of the Diablo 2 launch was a total disaster, as was war3. But give them a couple of days, and things smooth out. Diablo 2 and War3 are still incredibly popular today, and nobody remembers what craziness was going on at the beginning of the launch.

      MMORPGs are vast games, in terms of content, complexity and number of players. The potential for something serious to go wrong and not be picked up (or, more damningly, picked up but not corrected) is significant. Nothing I've seen has convinced me that Blizzard have had the capacity to do this.

      I'm curious, what is it that you are looking for to convince you that Blizzard can handle this venture? Seriously? Do you honestly beleive that Blizzard hasn't done their research, especially since they are entering an extremely mature market? Do you honestly beleive that Blizzard hasn't looked at the successes and failures of other mmo's out there? Do you think that Blizzard is just chucking millions of dollars without any regard for quality and satisfaction of customers? So tell me again, what is it you are looking for in regards to a successful mmorpg launch? After you answered me that, also please tell us why it should be anybody else's business but Blizzard's to give us their strategy for launch?

  4. Developer != Publisher by skadus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What does Blizzard's developing of a MMO (the best I've played so far, BTW) have to do with Vivendi's screwing of their own customers? Blizzard didn't make the decision to limit the number of CEs, Vivendi did.

    It would be nice to find some way of creating a backlash against Vivendi without hurting Blizzard. Or without depriving myself of WoW. ;)

  5. Re:How does a consumer revolt against a publisher? by Bob+The+Cowboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Umm... Steam?