Why bother preordering through a retailer?

[Delias]

How does that make any sense?

Eliminate the middle man = less money.

Not in all cases, SOME retailers (none in NA, I believe) are selling for cheaper than Anet.

[DrakeWurrum]

Not in all cases, SOME retailers (none in NA, I believe) are selling for cheaper than Anet.

I'm just failing to see how that results in profit for the retailer, unless ANet offered some bulk deal to retailers.

[Thulvaso]

I'm just failing to see how that results in profit for the retailer, unless ANet offered some bulk deal to retailers.

Publishers usually do that, resulting in cheaper price for the retailer to sell at so they make a profit, standard business.

[Lefuu]

buy.guildwars2.com = 54.99 e

Serbia (2 retailers) 4999 RSD each = 45 e

[Deleted]

How does that make any sense?

Eliminate the middle man = less money.

This logically seems like it should be true. But all the middle men compete for your business etc...and the big middle men are able to negotiate better deals, since they represent 1000 purchases - rather than just your single purchase.

[DrakeWurrum]

Well I guess if price is your chief concern, then yes, retailer. I guess I'm just old-fashioned.

[Ogretron]

So two reasons. It's cheaper in some parts of the world (Not NA) and buying the collectors edition. The question should now be, why buy from a store when you live in NA and just want a digital copy?

[shise]

If you don't have the money, it's not cheap.

People without a credit card will have to gather the money. That's why they need to buy it in the old way.

[Lucky_]

buy.guildwars2.com = 55.99€
http://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/produ...j/Guild-Wars-2 = 37.40€


Oh, the choice to pay the publisher who wants to gouge me or "support the local company" as arenanet said and pay a hell of a lot less. Hard choice.

[Mamado]

I bought through GW2's site purely out of loyalty to anet. I could have paid $10 less somewhere else, but then Anet would have gotten maybe $30 out of the $50 that I would have paid. I'd rather give Anet the whole $60.

While I don't think GW2 will be the game to dethrone wow, it is making so many improvements to the last generation of MMOs that it deserves funding to keep the innovation alive.

[Cairhiin]

I'm just failing to see how that results in profit for the retailer, unless ANet offered some bulk deal to retailers.

Anet asks that price to be in line with retailers. It's the same with Blizzard Digital Downloads, they're also more expensive than at retailers. Simply to avoid screwing them over. Furthermore, you pay taxes when you buy that copy online; when I order it, I don't.

[Zao]

I got the CE, so I couldn't go around retailers even if I wanted. But I don't want to, because I like having physical boxes of games I play on my shelves. No matter if it's a huge Box, a cardboard box or a DvD case.

Oh and I want to support my local retailer.

[Gámbller]

It is cheaper. ~55€ from GW site, ~37,5€ from retailer.

[terrahero]

GW2 prepurchase is in a lot of cases more expensive from the website, despite not having the middle-man. And then there are plenty who had their share of issues with actually being able to buy from the website. Such as not having a creditcard, or paypal. Or simply running into issues when trying to purchase. Such as myself.

So thats why i got it from the retailer. It was cheaper, i got store credit for future purchase. And i had a deal of trouble with actually prepurchasing from the GW2 website, so it was also easier to go to a retailer.

[DrakeWurrum]

If you don't have the money, it's not cheap.

In that case, no, it's not cheap, it's a matter of not having the money. There's always a way to make more money, though not everybody is willing to do what it takes.

[Deleted]

I'm just failing to see how that results in profit for the retailer, unless ANet offered some bulk deal to retailers.

I don't know exactly how much the retailers pay for the copies, but digital copies are always among the most expensive, no matter where you buy them. Reason for that is the big video game stores such as GameStop and Best Buy.

When digital games started coming out, they were often cheaper at release. Retailers didn't fancy that very much, cause they felt they were losing any chance of good business. If people can both easily buy online, and buy it cheaper, then why would they go to the store?

So, the big retailers banded together and basically told publishers that if they don't change full price (Say $49.99) for digital distribution, they would stop selling the games. Simply put, they went on strike against digital distributors like Steam being able to sell the game cheaper.

This is still pretty much valid today. NCSoft can't sell the game for less then what is considered full price, or the big chains will boycott the game. The retailers however can sell it as cheap as they want, they are only cutting their own profits per copy, but hope to make up for it by volume.

This generally lasts for a month or so, before digital copies drop severely in price on services such as Steam, making digital copies cheaper then new games at say Gamestop. GW2 being an MMO however, the prices may not drop as fast as they usually do for other games.

[DrakeWurrum]

Hrm. Was not aware of that "boycott" business. Truly goes to show how human greed can put a damper on progression. :S

[Dezeria]

I just like having a DVD for future installations, simple as that.

[Delias]

I just like having a DVD for future installations, simple as that.

Funny enough, I actually prefer downloading future installations.
Simply due to one bad experience a couple years back of "Oh, I don't have to download WoW off the site, I still have my disc from vanilla!"
Spent a full day patching, re-opening the launcher after every patch.. was not fun.
I'm sure they don't do it like that anymore, but that one experience turned me off of discs for MMOs.
Well no, it didn't turn me off of discs. I'm not AGAINST discs.. since you can usually download anyways even if you have the disc.
I'm just sure as hell not going out of my way to get one, if I have the choice between disc or download. xD

[vilhelm1992]

Because im skint right now! :P