SWTOR/en/ "PC Digital Download Temporarily Sold Out"

[Prode]

So um I was thinking about getting SWTOR on a digital copy, since the physical copies getting a bit later than expected to my country. Going to SWTOR's homepage to find out how/for how much can I download the game I've noticed this, like the title says:

"PC Digital Download Temporarily Sold Out"

http://buy.swtor.com/en/

Sorry what ? Digital copies got sold out ? First EA games release a game like BF 3 with tons of game breaking bugs and now this. I ain't gonna take EA games serious anymore. What's your opinions ?

[Theelol]

lol how can a digital game be sold out

[Underfoot]

They have been very cautious about the release and the potential server overload.

Limiting digital copies help reduce the amount of people, who log on tomorrow at the same time and possibly crashing the game.

[Moriarty]

It's probably similar to that time the blizzard store sold out of pets. They likely don't have an actual 'unlimited' flag in the database, so someone just inputs a large number thinking there won't be enough sales to reach it.

[Finnio]

my guess is that the servers are so full already even before the official launch day , that they just cant accept any more players in for now .

[Deleted]

I think it's because it's only a few hours from release, they don't want people preordering and flooding servers with early access until it's officially releaesd.

[Bazgab]

So um I was thinking about getting SWTOR on a digital copy, since the physical copies getting a bit later than expected to my country. Going to SWTOR's homepage to find out how/for how much can I download the game I've noticed this, like the title says:

"PC Digital Download Temporarily Sold Out"

http://buy.swtor.com/en/

Sorry what ? Digital copies got sold out ? First EA games release a game like BF 3 with tons of game breaking bugs and now this. I ain't gonna take EA games serious anymore. What's your opinions ?

Probably should have preordered it. EA has always been kind of a joke, BF3 is still an amazing game even though it was buggy for the first few days.

Stay away from the server "The Fatman". A WoW guildie randomly picked it and it is the most popular East Coast server and might be the most populated overall. I have had 3 hour queues twice so far, though they are supposedly upping the population cap on the servers tonight.

[Synche]

Have you tried buying it through Origin ? I was able to get it on Friday and got my pre-order code right away as well (to get into the pre-release play period)

[Chingylol]

Funny, cause the first day it was available for pre-order it said something like "limited quantities available" for the digital download and I was like "wtf"??

[Shuttle]

It's still for sale on the US store!

[Prode]

It's like 6-12 hours until release. There's a mass of people bombarding the servers. Probably flagged it as sold out to ease any potential issues.

What's more likely is that they had to put a value in order to add it to the store, and that 99999 or whatever people bought it through there already before they refreshed the value.

Well my point is that they failed my expectations once again.(EA games, tho I dunno what was their part from creating the game) I mean the last thing I would let to happen if I release a game is that even a single customers can't get the game for the release date.

I still think this is a massive fail from their side as well as the (I ain't an English master but) "sold out" expression they use about it. You can't take such a serious thing so lightly.(talking about the incredible cash-flow) You gotta be definite and give clear information about what exactly happening. I don't think it should be as silly as this digital copies sold out roflmao.

Have you tried buying it through Origin ? I was able to get it on Friday and got my pre-order code right away as well (to get into the pre-release play period)

Well I think this download IS Origin download.(would be)

[Jolly Duck]

I assume it's the same issue blizz ran into with the pet store (panda mount or mount, don't remember which). Digital purchases of this nature obviously are just purchases of activation codes used to authenticate you as the owner of whatever you bought, meaning there are finite amount of codes spawned in each period and over time more are created. Large rushes can just deplete the generated code stocks.

Of course it isn't outrageous to imagine it as a marketing / server safety gimmick pull, but personally I doubt it. Digital sales are far more profitable for a company. With the actual number of people buying digitals vs physicals aside, they save money on packaging and retail middle-man shinnanigans. It would be a highly unusual move to withdraw that much potential cash flow in the 24 hours of the largest sale rush.

[Mister K]

Well my point is that they failed my expectations once again.(EA games, tho I dunno what was their part from creating the game) I mean the last thing I would let to happen if I release a game is that even a single customers can't get the game for the release date.

I still think this is a massive fail from their side as well as the (I ain't an English master but) "sold out" expression they use about it. You can't take such a serious thing so lightly.(talking about the incredible cash-flow) You gotta be definite and give clear information about what exactly happening. I don't think it should be as silly as this digital copies sold out roflmao.



Well I think this download IS Origin download.(would be)

EA is the publisher and the one that pumped money into this amazing game. You don't know the true story behind their decision so no need to make stupid assumptions.

[Redblade]

Might be to change it for release as well, no need to pay the 5 $/€ pre-order fee once the game is released.

[Prode]

Might be to change it for release as well, no need to pay the 5 $/€ pre-order fee once the game is released.

This actually makes sense and I didn't think of this yet. However this is what I would like to see on their homepage or wherever they announce their problem instead of on mmo-champion forums.

Lightly? It's a game release. It's not like you've just been run over by a truck and suddenly all the Hospitals are full, but will have resources available to save you in half a day.

You're entitled to nothing in this world, but suddenly you seem to know everything there is to know about how their online store works. I'm sure you've got a masters in computer science, web design, or programming, so you know how it works. I'm sure you also work for EA and thus know the reason for it being unavailable.

I don't have a masters, nor do i work for EA. I do, however, have the knowledge on how online stores work, as well as the ability to think logically instead of blowing everything out of proportion in my assumptions.

My point is you shouldn't take something like a game release so serious. What information is there to give exactly? Servers are going down for maintenance very soon ready for release date.

No, I am not even near good at how the online store works, tho this is how much I think average people know about this stuff. This is exactly why I miss the almost nothing explanation they give to people like me who know close to nothing about it.

However I do not think I SHOULD get a masters in computer sience to order a game on the internet. In fact I think it should be a standard to not expect anything like that from your customers, since what they want to buy requires to be like what, to be 16 years old ? I would not recommend to use (in my eyes) periphrasis while advertising something.
The customers should be satisfied and I am not, and I haven't even started playing it. Of course as you stated above, this is not an all-important thing, yet I still think they didn't give the required amount of informations about this so they failed in my eyes.

Also, under "lightly" I meant if I found this "sold out" expression funny and silly and if I did, then probably so did many others around the world. But why would a company want that their customers think about them like this ? I think this is an unnecessarily failure they made, this is my opinion.

[Ottius]

EA is the publisher and the one that pumped money into this amazing game. You don't know the true story behind their decision so no need to make stupid assumptions.

He doesn't need to know any story. He is a customer, who has been denied of product and lied to. He can make any assumptions he's willing to.

[Deleted]

the game is not available in some regions- however, if you use a US proxy you will be able to purchase the game from origin. Since the client is not region locked it shouldn't be any problems.

May the Force be with you.

[Forfax]

they lowered the price thought , it 54.99 not 59.99 anymore.

[Costia]

the game is not available in some regions- however, if you use a US proxy you will be able to purchase the game from origin. Since the client is not region locked it shouldn't be any problems.

May the Force be with you.

i tried that. they didn't accept my credit card or paypal.

[Gritalian]

He doesn't need to know any story. He is a customer, who has been denied of product and lied to. He can make any assumptions he's willing to.

How was he lied to? The digital download has been listed as Limited Quantities since I order it on July 21st. The customer read that and thought "no". Supply is a very real (essential) part of transactions. They set a certain amount of quantity to be sold in order to ensure people who gave them money over the past 5 1/2 months were able to play a product they paid for.

It's funny, if this was Valve or Nintendo this thread would be about how great their customer service is, allowing paying customers to enjoy the product they paid for while enduring immediate sales loses 2 days after a game that cost $300 million to create.

But it's EA, so it's a horrible company who is evil because they are 'denying' the product and 'lying' to customers. If EA was really looking out for their best interest, they'd be generating new serials every .2 seconds, flooding their servers, and trying to make as much money off the bat as possible. This community is pretty much the only one that would be upset with a company trying to keep servers stable while allowing populations to grow.