News Blizzard: "Retail is still important"

Well, according to reports they told GAME, Amazon etc not to ship their Cataclysm orders to arrive before the 7th December (launch was at 11pm on the 6th in the UK) and with the weather conditions this means many people didn't get their copies for launch, with some still waiting. Being WOW addicts this lead many people to order the digital copy from the Blizzard store for €35 and send back their other copies when they arrive. Can't help but think this was a cynical decision to rake in a bit of extra money and put people off ordering from anywhere other than their digital store next time around.

 

What i really wanna know is why a guy named Greg Street thinks he needs a nickname...

 

Well for us down here in India and probably a lot of other places, not in the US or europe, we still find it better to buy our games at normal retailers.

 

Retail is still extremely important. Not everyone shops online. Even if they do they may not be fimiliar with digital downloads. Not everyone is a gaming nerd like........gamers.

As a hardcore gamer I still prefer boxes. They look good on my shelf and are easier to keep track of vs 4 or 5 digital download clients. I've bought games online and forgotten I've bought them.

 

Its his blizzard Forum name like yours for this forum is Xtrafresh.

He is usually the one who will post about big changes ect on the official forums, so most WoW players will know him as Ghostcrawler.

 

I did gather that much, but i'm wondering why he would need a nickname at all if his real name is already that cool.

 

Oh yes, having to do nothing extra whatsoever is just so inconvenient.

 

Classic & awesome, what a kickA$$ surprise .

 

I order 90% of my games online (doing nothing as you put it) BUT I buy real copys..not digital downloads.

And yes Steam is hassle. Peoples accounts get stolen, people have problems accessing their accounts due to mess ups. And oh look what happened with Fallout NV where people were losing saved games. Yes I call ALL of that hassle I can live without thanks.

I inwardly groan when I install a game and it is connected to steam.

 

Why on Earth would they do that? It really makes no sense. If they wanted to promote their digital store then they wouldn't offer online retail orders at all and save themselves the effort of making the boxes in the first place.

With a game with as many fervent fan as WoW, Blizzard can't afford to let the game out early. Imagine the shitstorm of nerd rage that would occur if a group of people in a certain area who ordered from a certain retailer all got their copies early. They couldn't play early because Blizzard gets to control the servers but there are enough fanatics to rage at others simply having the box.

Besides, all the competitive "First level 85 <class>" people will have ordered online anyway.

 

I loved browsing for games at my local shops, which until last year had entire walls of PC games, both new and old.

I go into those same stores now and I'll be lucky if they have 2 small shelves (can hold about 5-6 different rows of 3-4 games each) which are filled with crap old games, or Sims + expansions... Their Cataclysm shelf was in a tiny corner, completely obscured from sight and only had 3 display boxes (normal, no CE). It is like this in all the Game, Gamestation and other stores all around my area (even been into stores in Birmingham and Manchester and its the same)

Quite frankly, they couldn't give a crap about PC reatail here, its all about the consoles, which pisses me off as I prefer having a physical copy of a game, and not a digital copy where you could loose the controling account easily.

PS... Ghostcrawler is a tw@

 

Crap isn't it, I used to like browsing the PC section until it became an extremely pathetic few slim shelves, heck my own shelves hold more games than most game stores , it's all about the consoles sadly & even console games are grossly overpriced in brick & morter stores, a stack console games could buy you a GTX 580 pmsl.

 

How about we Trash all of our DVD Drives and just Go All Digital from PC Games to Operating Systems that's Full of DRM, OS that runs in Full DRM, DRM in Notepad & Calculator, DRM for Turning On your PC, Steam all out! I Mean its like the Internet is your Computers Power Supply, Hey isn't that a Good Idea your LAN Card will serve as your PSU, Trash your PSU as well. . . Hehe

 

We are getting there (if true):
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsof...ud?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

 

Oh that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen..

 

WT*! S**t! Sorry for the Words. . . But Guys Read the Link! Your Right Fizzban "a disaster waiting to happen.." Indeed!

 

And when it's linked to GFWL and The Rockstar Social Club??

 

Oh GFWL is terrible, I actually prefer steam to that ^^. Never come across the Rockstar one. I gather it is even worse? lol