Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The Search for Burning Crusade

My luck with pre-ordering high demand items sucks.

No matter which channel I use, I'm always late to the party. Amazon's order page locks down (or, more recently, they push back orders!). Stores remove their product minutes after I set foot on their page. Even when physically visiting stores I get shafted, with employees either lying about stock or claiming ignorance.

As logic would dictate, the same happened for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition, but I won't complain. Unlike the Wii and other items, this game is going to be shipped to stores a-plenty, and if WoW Insider's Eliah Hecht has reliable numbers, that's only 2 million people I need to compete with. Not to mention, a good portion of them are not level 60, so the expansion purchase would be pointless for them. So, with the remaining 1.5 million or so spread across the country, I figure the odds are slightly in my favor for this release.

And if not, well, call me naive once again. I tend to underestimate product demand and forget that I live in densely populated areas. Oh well. I'll beat down some kids to get my hands on the CE if it comes down to it- don't you doubt that.

Burning... What?
For those of you yet-unitiated to World of Warcraft (or perhaps just haven't tripped across any of the Burning Crusade websites strewn about), check out Blizzard's Burning Crusade mini-site they recently tossed up. It's got lore worth creaming over, and more pretty pictures and music than you can shake a polearm at.

Where to Go
In case you're wondering where you can still get the expansion (specifically, the Collector's Edition) while lacking a pre-order, refer to the following stores:

  • Wal-Mart
  • Toys 'R Us
  • Best Buy
  • Circuit City
  • Fry's Electronics (CA Only)
There are other stores that will have the Collector's Edition available, but the above are your best bets in the rush to obtain the game on launch day. Essentially, stores that didn't take pre-orders will likely have both types of the game purchasable.

When to Go
BE ADVISED: Some stores will be doing midnight releases of the game (likely coordinated by Blizzard, since the BC servers are going live at midnight as well), so you'd do well to call ahead before heading out. Nothing's worse than showing up at 8AM and seeing empty shelves (with a tumbleweed drifting by). EB Games/GameStop have confirmed midnight releases. Wal-Mart's 24-hour stores are also having a midnight release (confirmed in above link), and there are rumors circulating major Best Buy stores are doing the same.

Oh, and Blizzard's releasing this behemoth of a game on a Tuesday for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. Part of me is angry for having to sacrifice sleep in order to obtain the game (since life resumes Tuesday, snap). But, I guess the 16th of this month is better than the 16th of June. Color me neutral.

That's all for now. See you in Azeroth, hopefully on the 16th!

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