Posts with tag gamestop

---

GameStop has announced a brand new bundle online that gets you World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King all for just $19.99. We don't know when the World of Warcraft Battlechest combo bundle is going to expire, but for now, customers who purchase the Battlechest from GameStop will get a copy of Wrath bundled along for free. The deals don't get much better than this, folks.

Many people, myself included, believe that WoW's barrier to entry is perhaps one of its most difficult challenges to overcome. With more deals like this, WoW can get into more hands at a lower price than ever before, hopefully adding on subscribers and new blood in anticipation of Mists of Pandaria.

---

---

Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

Greetings, Lawbringer readers. We've got two very interesting emails this week from readers that are about as diverse as they come. First, we'll be looking at using World of Warcraft in fiction and whether or not that's a good idea, despite its potential fair use classification. Second, a reader wants to know what happened with GameStop over the past few weeks concerning Deus Ex: Human Revolution and whether it could happen in relation to Blizzard.

Your emails are awesome, and you should send me more of them. "But how?" cries the inquisitive reader. Send your emails to mat@wowinsider.com with something Lawbringer in the title, and I will try my best to answer the question in the column. If you've got a question about the legal nature of the video game industry, MMOs, etc., ask away.

The release of Cataclysm is upon us. There are launch events happening all over the world, from Blizzard's official midnight release event in Fountain Valley to the Exclusive Books release party in Johannesburg, South Africa. Despite the ease of purchasing a Cataclysm digital download, many members of the WoW Insider staff will still be attending midnight releases -- and we'd like to meet you!

Don't be shy! If you see someone in a WoW Insider shirt, stop and say hello. If you don't see someone in a WoW Insider shirt at the locations listed below the break, it's probably because it's the middle of winter and we're all doing our best not to freeze to death. Just ask around!

Oh, did I mention all WoW Insider staff members will be armed with Slashdance and Tiny loot codes from WoWTCGLoot.com?

A list of attending staff members and their locations are behind the break. And below, pictures from the Wrath midnight launches attending by the WoW Insider crew.

If you haven't preordered Cataclysm yet, either digitally or via your local brick-and-mortar, then Gamestop has a deal for you -- as long as you like buying stuff, anyway. Folks who preorder the upcoming expansion from Gamestop receive an immediate smattering of 20 percent discounts, good on stuff like select EVGA GeForce video cards, SteelSeries headsets, Linksys routers, and even the Alienware M15X gaming laptop.

If you don't need discounts on hardware, then you're probably better off just doing the whole shebang digitally, because you'll have access on launch night regardless of how or where you bought the game.

---

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.

---

There's been a lull of Cataclysm info recently, so we're getting repeats tenfold of the kind of emails we used to get before Wrath's official release date was announced -- emails saying that Amazon or Gamestop or other retailers have release dates listed for the new expansion already.

Here's the rub. Blizzard hasn't yet divulged a release date for Cataclysm, probably because they have no earthly idea when it's coming out yet. Until they do, any release dates from stores are, at best, speculation or, at worst, outright lies.

But why would retailers list a release date for Cataclysm if one doesn't exist yet? Simple: to take your money. Many game retailers (Gamestop especially) stock their stores based solely on preorder numbers, only getting a few extra for the teeming masses that never thought to go to Wal-Mart to get a guaranteed copy without putting money down first. In the meantime, you get to ... not have that money. Not a good deal.

Preordering is a process designed to get money from you without getting anything in return for an inordinate amount of time, so wait until Blizzard announces a date before you plunk any of your hard-earned money down. And, again -- we know when the sites say Cataclysm's coming out. You'll know just as soon as we do when it'll actually be available.

---

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.

---

Yes indeed, this Friday is none other than Black Friday, which means the deals will be aplenty, the crowds will be horrendous, and the holiday money drain will begin (of course, you could go with Buy Nothing Day, but that seems a little too grinchy to me -- why not go ahead and buy while the buying's good?). Fortunately, there are a few WoW deals floating around out there, in case you need to pick up a copy of the game for a loved one (or that Recruit-a-friend account you've been planning to make).

The regular WoW vanilla game (useful for leveling to 60, but if you want to go past that, you'll have to buy the expansions) is on sale in a few places for super cheap -- the Ladies of Leet saw it at Best Buy for just five bucks, and Gamestop's matching that price. Gamestop also will have the Battle Chest (with WoW and BC and a few other goodies) for $19.99, and Newegg has the same price if you don't want to fight the crowds. Unfortunately, there's no sign of Wrath on sale -- you'll still have to pony up the $40 if that's the one you want. But stay tuned in the comments -- if readers can find better prices on this stuff, we're sure you'll see them below. Good luck out there, happy deal finding.

We taped our podcast a little early this week, on Wednesday night, and rather than having you wait all the way until Monday for it (not to mention that Pirates' Day will gone by then), we figured we'd post it up for you today). Matt "Matticus" Low was kind enough to join us (he writes the Spiritual Guidance and Raid Rx columns), and while Turpster was on a business trip, he did end up making it to provide us with his usual sparkling insight. We talked about that wacky 2v2 team rating and what it means for Blizzard's Arena system, the Abyssal Maw and what else we've heard about Cataclysm's dungeons and raids, and whether being in a guild really can calm you down (Matt, our only guildleader on the show, says no).

And as usual we answered your emails (including why Gamestop claims to know Cataclysm's release date) and chatted live with listeners, and you can listen to the show at any of the links below. Haven't subscribed to iTunes yet? Why not? Not only do you get the show automatically every week, but you can also leave us a rating and a review in iTunes, and we appreciate every single one. We'll be back a week from Saturday (on the 26th) at the usual time (and between you and me, we've got some nice guests planned for the next few shows, too!), so we'll see you then.

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.

Listen here on the page:

It's been recently announced that the World of Warcraft has hit another milestone: a grand total of 11.5 million subscribers. This really comes as no surprise after the release of an expansion, especially one as widely hyped as Wrath of the Lich King which broke a few records of its own. I think it would be bigger news if they hadn't hit a couple of new milestones.

Gamesindustry.biz has a quote from Senior VP of merchandising at GameStop Bob McKenzie, indicating that it's not just Wrath of the Lich King doing well. These numbers haven't spiked because of all of the returning customers, WoW is gaining plenty of new ones, too. The base WoW package and the World of Warcraft Battle Chest are still doing quite well. Better than last year, he specifies. So while those base package purchases are certainly fueled by the Wrath hype, it's bringing in new customers, not just the returning customers.

WoW may not be the kind of game for every gamer out there, and the game isn't without its flaws. Despite that, it has proven over and over that it's by far one of the best games out there, and definitely the best of its genre. I don't expect it will be going away anytime soon.

WoW players that preordered their copies of Wrath of the Lich King through GameStop have been having a bit of a scare since late last night sometime. Preorders have started to display as Backordered on order histories and order trackers.

Our advice? Don't panic. Until your item specifically ships, it's not unusual for the Item Status field to reflect the status of the item in general and not your copy in particular. The Backordered status refers to their stock as a whole, meaning overall they've hit the Out of Stock point. The copy you ordered may be just fine and dandy and you'll probably see your Status flip to Pending or Shipped at some point throughout the day. If you ordered your copy early, you are most likely completely safe and fine. If you ordered it very very late, it's a little more likely that your personal order will be affected, but chances are still very good that you'll turn out okay.

It's a weird system. When that Backordered label crops up, it's hard to tell whether your copy is actually going to arrive at your doorstep or not. It's not a completely unusual occurrance, it happens now and then with really big releases. It's just as confusing each and every time. Just relax, keep an eye on it, and don't worry too much until it still says Backordered tomorrow morning and your copy hasn't shown up on your doorstep. Then you might have a problem.

When Gamestop first started taking pre-orders for Wrath of the Lich King, they told their customers that they would be open at midnight for the launch. About a month ago, however, the Gamestop stores in malls had to cancel their midnight launches. When I asked my local mall Gamestop employee while taking the mini-gamer trick or treating, I was told that the malls were charging too much to keep the doors open and that all Gamestop mall stores were canceling midnight launches.

I informed my friends who had pre-ordered and they went to cancel their pre-orders only to be told that Activision was paying the mall costs and the midnight launches were back on schedule. When I called to confirm, I was told the same information but that the employee would not be quoted.

So I called Gamestop Corporate. The marketing department refused to comment saying that they would not release information about a publisher covering any costs for Gamestop. He was very irritated, to put it mildly.

Whoever writes the descriptions for Gamestop and EB Games is quite the joker -- we already reported on their hidden little note for the early preview, but now that we're getting closer and closer to the Wrath of the Lich King release, they've posted another funny on the preview page.

This time, they're making fun of the starting zones -- apparently the "Borean Tundra" is where the Packers play (chuckle), and a "Howling Fjord" is what you get when the windows of your Tauren Taurus are cracked open (guffaw). Cute. Just don't quit that day job of writing descriptions for Gamestop's sales pages.

Thanks, djtyrant!

Blizzplanet's got the deets on a Future Shop midnight launch going on in Canada (eh?), so plans of Wrath midnight launch events are starting to sneak out into the world. Blizzard will be doing their usual schtick in Los Angeles, and this time also in New York, San Franscisco, and Austin, where developers go out to stores to sign and say hi while people buy their game. Our good friends BRK and Mania are hosting an event in Orlando, Florida, and I'll be picking up my game at the Gamestop just south of Clark and Diversey in Chicago (and I'll probably invite you all out for a drink or two beforehand at a bar around here, if you're interested). We're also planning some more events around the country here at WoW Insider -- stay tuned for more information about when and where things are going down.

And if you've got information about a special midnight launch event going on around the country (or if, hint hint, you happen to work for a retailer and want to give us an inside scoop on what they've got planned, anonymity assured), please do drop a note on our tip line. The Burning Crusade launch was the biggest expansion launch of all time ever, and Wrath, with its return to Warcraft III lore and the increase in Blizzard's playerbase, is shaping up to be even bigger.