I stopped by at a local EB Games store this afternoon, and found a copy of Going Rogue on the shelf. I asked them if they had heard about the games cancellation, and when they said they had they also mentioned that they leaves games affected but such a situation on the shelf until they receive instructions to pull them from the shelves. It has not happened yet, even though as far as I know, all codes have been rendered inoperable.
Does this strike anyone else as odd?
Probably just means NC sent the notice to EBHQ, but EBHQ didn't forward it to stores.
Not really.
NCSoft has already made their profit on that box. They made it when the distributor for EB Games bought the copy of the box they then provided to the store. So, they certainly don't care that some retailer still has it in stock. Obviously, EB Games also wants to make a profit on that box, so they'll keep it on their shelves as long as they can, until it sells, or someone at the company decides they're not going to be able to sell it because the game has ended.
That is something that can get somebody - likely the store - into legal trouble, as it's effectively fraud. It's like selling a lawn mower you know hasn't got an engine.
To be honest it doesn't really surprise me at all. I remember going into the GameStop near where I was working one afternoon and seeing a copy of Shadowbane for sale ... several months after the servers were shut down.
A communications issue involving NCSoft? Perish the thought... :roll:
Quote from: Turjan on October 10, 2012, 09:10:32 PM
A communications issue involving NCSoft? Perish the thought... :roll:
I dunno, one would think they would be pros at this by now, this is the fifth time :)
Quote from: Nafaustu on October 10, 2012, 09:26:46 PM
I dunno, one would think they would be pros at this by now, this is the fifth time :)
Actually... it might not hurt to contact EB and find out if they did receive anything or not. If they didn't, it's more icing on the PR headache cake.
Quote from: TimtheEnchanter on October 10, 2012, 09:32:42 PM
Actually... it might not hurt to contact EB and find out if they did receive anything or not. If they didn't, it's more icing on the PR headache cake.
A minor one to be honest, I'm fairly sure I've seen a few other dead MMO's still up for sale in the store (at ridiculously low prices like 10$ or something, which makes me believe the stores were quite aware the game was dead =P).
Quote from: Knightslayer on October 10, 2012, 09:36:37 PM
A minor one to be honest, I'm fairly sure I've seen a few other dead MMO's still up for sale in the store (at ridiculously low prices like 10$ or something, which makes me believe the stores were quite aware the game was dead =P).
Older games sell at those prices regardless. Pretty sure I saw Rogue at that price long before anything was announced. And when many MMO's now offer the client for free, it's not really a sign of anything. Besides, stores doing that doesn't help NC's side of it. OK, so stores had it marked down, so what? If anything that makes it more likely someone will buy it, only to find out they can't play.
It combined with everything else adds up to a LOT of mismanagement. Poor communication is all over the place. They couldn't even be bothered to replace the Nature Affinity ad with a proper shutdown image. Some of us are still finding players in-game who are going, "Wait, shutdown... wha?" Still no server notice upon login. Poor handling of the refunds. Weeks before NC produced a news byte of their own at all, and that was only after a ton of rallying by the players.
Quote from: TimtheEnchanter on October 10, 2012, 09:45:34 PM
Aye, but it all adds up to a LOT of mismanagement. Poor communication is all over the place. They couldn't even be bothered to replace the Nature Affinity ad with a proper shutdown image. Some of us are still finding players in-game who are going, "Wait, shutdown... wha?" Still no server notice upon login. Poor handling of the refunds. Weeks before NC produced a new byte of their own at all, and that was only after a ton of rallying by the players.
Oh, there's no doubt - they are gunning for EA's number one spot! (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/09/why-ea-won-the-worst-company-in-america-award/)
The worst part of it is they are not allowing you to upgrade Your account anymore. I tried to upgrade my son's account And I received a message that the code was no longer valid, and when I spoke with an Seasaw support they said that they were no longer allowing upgrades on accounts.
What's really at issue, here, is: if there is going to be any fecal precipitation, it's going to fall on EB, not NCSoft. It's tangential press, but not bad for us. I vote for letting it ride and seeing what happens.