Catacombs release

Post by **Lairiodd** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 8:28 pm

Banana wrote:personally if goa would give us the CD codes online then we can cancel the orders

The reason they don't do that is that it is a condition of in-store distribution channels that you don't. They probably split up shipping by country monopolies.

Post by **Lieva** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 8:40 pm

ahh but the stores have broke the instore distribution channels already by not sending us cata on the release date

Rami · Post by **Rami** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:03 pm

Briannon wrote:Basically GOA have f****d up the release in the UK. We've heard that it was pressure from a major retailer, then it was distrbution problems, now its legal reasons. All three may be true but this still means its a complete f up.

Well done GOA and your partners.

Very unfair tbh. The fact that GOA is working on a solution just shows how much they care too.

Briannon · Post by **Briannon** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:11 pm

Rami wrote:Very unfair tbh. The fact that GOA is working on a solution just shows how much they care too.

Well, I may be being unfair but let's just see what the solution is before we give them credit. Let's also see how many people in the UK actually get upgraded and on catacombs tomorrow.

Please remember that I witnessed first hand how smoothly the US release of catacombs went and even living here in the UK my expansions were being shipped to me on the day of release - that meant I was running my vampiir only a few days after release.

Why can't games be released in the UK on the same day as in the rest of Europe?

Why is it that Blizzard did not have the same problems and was able to release WoW across all europe on the same day and had people on line within hours of release?

Yes I may be being unfair but having seen how well the release of US catacombs went and how smoothly WoW release went I still hold the view that this is messy and doesn't look good.

Rami · Post by **Rami** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:17 pm

Briannon wrote:Well, I may be being unfair but let's just see what the solution is before we give them credit. Let's also see how many people in the UK actually get upgraded and on catacombs tomorrow.

Please remember that I witnessed first hand how smoothly the US release of catacombs went and even living here in the UK my expansions were being shipped to me on the day of release - that meant I was running my vampiir only a few days after release.

Why can't games be released in the UK on the same day as in the rest of Europe?

Why is it that Blizzard did not have the same problems and was able to release WoW across all europe on the same day and had people on line within hours of release?

Yes I may be being unfair but having seen how well the release of US catacombs went and how smoothly WoW release went I still hold the view that this is messy and doesn't look good.

It's not only the UK, same in Sweden. That's why I say you're unfair, because it's not GOA's fault, read Requiels post...

Briannon · Post by **Briannon** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:31 pm

I have read Requiel's post - I read it BEFORE I posted.

Post by **Lairiodd** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:34 pm

Lairiodd wrote:The reason they don't do that is that it is a condition of in-store distribution channels that you don't. They probably split up shipping by country monopolies.

Btw, meant I assume the above

Requiel · Post by **Requiel** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:19 pm

The basic story is as follows.
We announced release dates back in january to the trade. Our distributors tried to talk us out of it as March is a busy month. We explained that for various reasons, the expansion had to be available this week. Our distributors got on it and started preparations with all the usual buyers. Everything was going smoothly until a few weeks ago when a very large UK retailer turned around and said they couldn't handle the release in March and insisted it went back to April. Our distributors moved it back to April. We contacted the distributors and told them it had to be March. The distributors told us that if it went ahead in March, then the very large UK retailer and all it's subsidiary companies would refuse to touch the release including the full pack at all. It would also cause difficulties for our distributors and their other clients which they were naturally reluctant to get into.
We worked out a compromise where the 'official' release date was going to be 1st April but UK stores would get stock prior to this date and could therefore begin to stock it and sell it from the 24th/25th. A kind of 'under the table' deal. We recieved a strongly worded warning from the legal team of the aforementioned very large retailer reminding us that if we released it unofficially on a different date, we would be in breach of our contracts and would be sued. This all happened over the last week or so, certainly the legal threats were new as of yesterday.
The reason for the sudden decision by the very large retailer would appear to be due to a major release this weekend and the publisher of this major release paying them a very large amount of money to clear their release schedules.

Post by **Lieva** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:44 pm

sux they have so much power ;(
guess the customers dont actually count..

Monk · Post by **Monk** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:54 pm

since im 99% sure this big retailer is GAME

(btw if u live in london DO NOT go brent x Game, they didnt even have the game on their upcoming releases folder, so i doubt they will have it any time soon)

i think we should just burn down all the GAME shops in our area, so if i was you id stay well clear of any London Based GAME shops tommorow

tbh that really out of order either way, i need this expansion asap, as i dont wanna be pveing when im at uni, since im only very occasionally online, as it costs money to connect, and im sure im not the only one