Where and When to Get World At War

[Scott_WAR]

Anyway back to the topic at hand. Any luck on confirming that you indeed have a distribution problem Paul? You said if anyone got the game early you wanted to know, since that would mean there were distibution problems. Well, they claim to have received them in today. Any info for us?

[Paul Vebber]

Now, there is some useful feedback! Thank you!

Those sorts of ideas ahve been floated around in the past, and indeed may come up again. The point I've been trying to make is that its not always possible to "have things our way" or even to always know in a given situation "what our way should be".

prettymuch no matter what decsion we make, somebody gets upset. Either someone that wants direct download can't get the game when they want,. or someone whose only outlet is retail can't get the game when they want (or at all).

When these sort of discussion get beyond the hate, loathing, and acrimony stage and return to try to deal withthe realities everyone has to deal with, that's when you can constructively problem solve.

We have rewarded "loyal customers" in the past with announcements of patch downloads before the general press release, and there may be opportunities to do things like that with digital downloads in the future.

We've got this game in some pretty "heavy hitter" locales, so please forgive some conservatism on our part. We think we are really "onto something" with this game, so bear with us...

For now I think those who have stuck it out have gotten perks in the past, and that will continue to be so in the future.

This effort is a "shot down range" at this point. We understand some aren't happy. Like I said no matter what we do, somebody will feel unhappy. We do appreciate good ideas and will give them a fair discussion.

[Paul Vebber]

Well, they claim to have received them in today. Any info for us?

I was talking about customers. Distributors (which I think military hobby's technically may be?) get them first. They have to ship tehm to retailers. Then customers get them.

The plan is the plan. It is going pretty much along the lines we expected. As in showing up in general for retail sale next week.

DD on the 28th. I would not want to be Digital River if they have a problem

[Adam Parker]

Can ya buy the coffee mug yet?

[:D]

[Scott_WAR]

ORIGINAL: Paul Vebber

Well, they claim to have received them in today. Any info for us?

I was talking about customers. Distributors (which I think military hobby's technically may be?) get them first. They have to ship tehm to retailers. Then customers get them.

The plan is the plan. It is going pretty much along the lines we expected. As in showing up in general for retail sale next week.

DD on the 28th. I would not want to be Digital River if they have a problem

Ahh, that explains it. Its right on time then isnt it?

As for Digital River, ROFL, no kidding. They better do some doublechecking the day before just to be SURE. Or else they could be facing a mob, comlete with torches.

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker

Can ya buy the coffee mug yet?

[:D]

There's a "used" one for sale on ebay if you need it now[:D].

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

ORIGINAL: Paul Vebber

DD on the 28th. I would not want to be Digital River if they have a problem

As for Digital River, ROFL, no kidding. They better do some doublechecking the day before just to be SURE. Or else they could be facing a mob, comlete with torches.

[8|] @Paul: That's not funny![:D]
@Scott:they have state of the art security protocols implemented due to the high worker to peasant-with-torch ratio and lots of "on the job"(giggle) training[8|][;)].

[Paul Vebber]

Can ya buy the coffee mug yet?

I just checked teh store and looks like Cafe Press has teh logos - they are a "print on demand" outfit - so it looks like you can order your hats and mugs ...Then you will be all set to spill your World at War mug contents all over the manual you waited 2 hours and half a print cartridge to print out (or the one that comes in the game box...)

[Rik81]

FWIW--I can give you one vote for "retail" (and it's not me, though, in this case, I will be buying retail). I have a friend that "refused" to buy WITP -- BECAUSE, it didn't have a hard bound/printed manual! (Of course the price of $70 without said manual was another big deterent, [:D]) However, he will be getting WaW BECAUSE he can get it with a hard bound/printed manual! Well, one more sale won't make or break the company, but I suggest this might be magnified a lot.

[ratprince]

Mr War;

"Most" people in this forum feel you are being too cynical. Just be patient and wait.

Adieu.

Mike

[Scott_WAR]

LOL, oh no, not again.


Can you please define the word "is"?

[thepugilist]

Just wanted to say that my local EB Games says that they will get it on saturday and my nearest Gamestop says tomorrow (friday). I know that nothing is for certain, but it might be worth calling your local stores and seeing what they say. Oh, and I am probably going for a retail version for a reason that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet: I can trade in games I don't play for it, and save a moderate amount of money. Have a good one!

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: thepugilist

Just wanted to say that my local EB Games says that they will get it on saturday and my nearest Gamestop says tomorrow (friday). I know that nothing is for certain, but it might be worth calling your local stores and seeing what they say. Oh, and I am probably going for a retail version for a reason that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet: I can trade in games I don't play for it, and save a moderate amount of money. Have a good one!

Just some food for thought, some month ago when RTW was released I went to my fav gameshop and asked about it.
The clerk sayed they didn´t have the game. When I scanned the shelves for another game to buy I foudn they had RTW allready placed there, 10 copies of it (!!).

Never trust clerks is my motto since long, not that I blame it on them [;)]

[Ulster]

Long time lurker here. First, thanks to everyone at 2by3 Games and Matrix for what I anticipate to be a superb game.

I hate for my first post to be a downer, but I noticed this morning that Gamestop changed their ETA on the game to 3/28. Just thought I would let ya'll know before making a big trek to your local mall, dodging out-of-school hooligan kids on Easter break, only to find your hopes and dreams spilled on the food court. [;)]

[ryanw]

I called my local Gamestop yesterday, the clerk said he didn't think they would stock it, that it seemed "obscure." He said if I pre-order it, that would trigger them to get a copy for me in their store (I'm in Cincinnati, Oh) -- question is to Matrix, will most Gamestop retail shops get copies, and this guy doesn't know what he's talking about?

-Ryan

[David Heath]

Hi Guys

This issue of "obscure" is just to funny. Gamestop does not seem to have the pull of EB has with its online store. EB had hundreds of preorders and Gamestop didn't get past two dozen. These stores chains base store orders on how well the preorders went. So base on this you guys can figure out where to look.

[Cmdrcain]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

I dont know, I would think as the game developer AND publisher, you have complete control over it. Those on the development side of things may not, but you can pass along the info being posted here to the suit types that do. However, I could be wrong, and if I am be sure to correct me [:D]
Also I have edited the above post, please check it out.

Good Grief, Sonny, you don't have any idea of what might
be in the contracts , etc between Matrix and the Retail distributors, it could well be that a target date for retail selling is in there which would also set the earliest date Matrix own store could sell, If I were a retailer i'd be sure to put in the terms that Matrix own store couldn't sell sooner then The date I and other retailers sell, if I were a retailer..

[:-]

[targul]

ORIGINAL: Paul Vebber

There is this thing called the "retail supply chain" if you have read any of the industy rants about who controls what, you might get a more realistic idea of where publishers fit.

with thanks to ravinwood

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/596/596 ... ?fromint=1

Now given the "challenges" of the retail chain exist, do you completely ignore them, or occasionally (as we are doing with this game) flex the system?

There is this thing called the "retail supply chain" if you have read any of the industy rants about who controls what, you might get a more realistic idea of where publishers fit.

with thanks to ravinwood

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/596/596 ... ?fromint=1

Now given the "challenges" of the retail chain exist, do you completely ignore them, or occasionally (as we are doing with this game) flex the system?

The solution was certainly not to throw out the good customers to satisfy your strange idea of how the market works.

Competent companies can control the placement and do.

I have purchased a number of titles from you in the past via download and have always been excited and happy with that concept.

I have produced and sold computers games since I produced Civil War General so I do KNOW how it works. Interplay was a horrible company to work with but I didnt throw out the baby with the bath water as you have done with this title.

I am retired now and have been for a few years so things may have changed some but I doubt they reinvented the wheel. Distribution is simply that and if one will not do it the way you want use another. If the game is good customer demand will develop. This is obvious from many of the titles out there.

Personnally I was anxious to get this title but after the extremely poor customer service on this title I decided to take a wait and see. If the boards say it is actually good and without too many flaws I will buy it on Ebay or some other discount house but I have lost the extremely strong interest I had in the game and will be very careful with any future orders with Matrix. This issue was more important then you know to your customers.

[Becket]

FYI Targul, Matrix is the Interplay in your example -- they are the distributor, not the developer. So you dealing with Interplay is not like Matrix dealing with a powerful retail chain, it's more like when 2by3 Games cut their deal to have Matrix distribute W@W. Interplay would have to deal with the retail chains for a title, just like Matrix does. Those retail chains exert market power.

To the extent you really have any experience with Interplay, the question to ask yourself is whether Interplay -- a publishing house with sales that dwarfed Matrix's back in the day -- had enough pull to get a game onto retail store shelves while making it available as a direct download before retail release? Unlikely. Now, Interplay is out of business, and most wagging tongues say the PC game business should be ditched in favor of consoles. In that tougher market, how likely is it that Matrix could secure retail shelf space for the game if they made it available via DD beforehand?

If you're being fair, you'll consider that argument.

In any event, the game is so incredible that I really hope the retail space exposes it customers who would otherwise never hear of Matrix. It will be good for the genre, good for Matrix, and, more importantly, good for 2by3 Games.

[mllange]

Bravo! I agree with you 100%, as a loyal Matrix supporter who owns just about every product they offer i think that us loyal "old timers" should get first crack at it. Now i demand a response and we need swift action: Anyone with more than 100 posts, none of which contain superfluous fluff, who has registered before the year 2005 ought to have a shot at it. Sorry Scott, thanks but we're not accepting new applications, please come back when you have more experience .

and

Good Grief, Sonny, you don't have any idea of what might
be in the contracts , etc between Matrix and the Retail distributors, it could well be that a target date for retail selling is in there which would also set the earliest date Matrix own store could sell, If I were a retailer i'd be sure to put in the terms that Matrix own store couldn't sell sooner then The date I and other retailers sell, if I were a retailer..

IF there are any budding new wargamers scanning these forums in hopes of discovering a new hobby/passion they will likely stay the hell away from joining this 'community' with the way people berate and demean those who differ from their own opinions. I don't see the point of putting other people down just to make your point, even if made in jest. Obviously the 'old-timers' are the only people that matter here...