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Vivendi Jilts WoW CE Pre-order Customers
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?"
In this world of buy-anything from anywhere, any advantage such as semi-exclusivity on the sale is a bonus.
I am wondering how much Amazon paid for this... or if the publisher just screwed up?
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I guess I'll find out if the local EB I purchased it from got enough/any copies.
Amazon lists it as:
"Availability: This item is not stocked or has been discontinued."
I wanted to give Vivendi more of my money but they decided to leave it on the table.
I'll downgrade to standard edition instead of waiting a month for them to get their act together.
-==-
If I can't get the CE I preordered, I'll get a normal copy. If I can't get either, I'll be pissed...
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Severely lacking content? Horrible balance issues? What the hell are you talking about? World of Warcraft has shitloads of content and it's definitely isn't unbalanced. There might be some very small balance issues issues here and there, but please name me an MMORPG which launched without any. In my opinion, WoW in beta was far more balanced than most MMORPGs were months (or even years) after launch.
500,000 people signed up for the Open Beta. EverQuest, as far as I know, never had more than 450,000 subscribers. It's not a direct comparison, but I won't be surprised if World of Warcraft will beat EQ's number of subscribers by the end of the week.
MMORPGs are larger and more complex than single-player games, no argument there, but Blizzard had more than enough past experience to create an MMORPG - more than any other MMORPG developer did when they started! They already knew how to balance gameplay issues and create fun RPG systems (Diablo 1/2, Warcraft III) and they knew about networking technology (Battle.net). Diablo and Warcraft might be "small-scale" multiplayer games, but the servers running them are actually all but small-scale! Dude, Blizzard had much more relevant experience than Verant did when they created EverQuest.
Showed up about 11:00pm last night, figured that the line might be half way around the building, Turns out the line went around the building twice, took up most of the parking lot, and then for good measure it went down the street a couple hundred yards.
Talking to the Fry's Employee, he said that they had 2 or 3 truck loads of games on the way, but doubted thier would be enough for everyone.
The poor guy seemed rather alarmed and stressed seeing several thousand gamers surrounding the store.
According to him, the line started forming around 1pm.
Although everyone seemed to be in a good mood, I didn't stick around.
I'm curious, how would I, as a consumer, revolt against a publisher without simultaneously revolting against the developers? Vivendi is making some very anti-consumer moves here, which ought not be tolerated.
...preordered my CE through GameStop. I know some of the guys who work at the local one (that happens when you're their best customer...) and they say they've already received all their copies, but that they were only give exactly enough CEs to cover the preorders; they'll have none to put on the shelves. I hear the regional manager is livid about it, too, so Vivendi isn't making friends anywhere!
Unless, of course, scissors can't cut rock...
BTW, I tried to pre-order the CE at my preferred Gamestop back in late September yet was denied as they sold out already. Huh? I never heard of a CE game actually being limited in production, at least upon the initial release. I mean I can STILL buy Quake 3 in the tin from some stores!
Just during lunch I went to go pick up my reversed copy. I over-heard and was later told some interesting things. The manager was talking to someone about WoW, I could just tell. Sure enough after he hangs up he tells me to tell all my friends to buy the game today if they wanted to play. He claimed this initial shipment is it, VU/Blizzard (or whoever) is not allowing a second batch of games to be sold until Feb. 2005. After they sell the small amount of un-reversed copies that is it. Normally I would discount this immediately, yet one of my friends from 500 miles away said he heard the same thing from his store.
So any truth to this statement? I already picked up my copy but I'm curious.