Retail Box vs. Digital Download

kaif · 10-17-2007, 09:19 AM

I was thinking....would it make any impact on getting EQ2 noticed more if we all made a push to go out and buy the game from retailers vs.. downloading it? I was thinking if enough of us went to our local Best Buys maybe the would at least move EQ2 from the bottom shelf to the middle shelf. Then maybe just maybe more people would be inclined to try the game out. We all need to do our part to bring new players into the game.

Thoughts?

LFG · 10-17-2007, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaif

I was thinking....would it make any impact on getting EQ2 noticed more if we all made a push to go out and buy the game from retailers vs.. downloading it? I was thinking if enough of us went to our local Best Buys maybe the would at least move EQ2 from the bottom shelf to the middle shelf. Then maybe just maybe more people would be inclined to try the game out. We all need to do our part to bring new players into the game.

Thoughts?

I suggested that when EoF was launched and tried it myself.

The problem I found was that in the San Francisco Bay Area, a metropolitan statistical area with 10 million people, only about one third of the Best Buys had a copy on the shelf on release day, and none of the Fry's Electronics had a copy. I checked the computer at a Best Buy near me, and saw that the nearest copy would be about a 2 hour drive through traffic, and it only had a few copies, so I couldn't even be guaranteed of getting one even if I made the drive.

After driving around for 3 hours searching in vain for a copy, I finally said fuck it, gave up, and bought the download.

Johnathon · 10-17-2007, 09:29 AM

Do you get anything different for RoK for purchasing Retail vs Download?

Kungao · 10-17-2007, 09:29 AM

mehh atleast ya can buy copies if ya look for them long enough over there :P, in holland 0 nada noppes sigh gogo soe marketing ehh?

Grach · 10-17-2007, 09:39 AM

I dunno... buying the box might get EQ2 slightly more notice in the retail channels, but even if every 2x as many active accounts bought a box it still wouldn't make all that big of a blip. I would hope that Sony still has enough retail clout to get some shelf space, if they want it, and potential new players don't really care about how well a game does in retail, they care more about online perception. We'll see if they do with the RoK box. Given that the retail box has an ugly picture of someoeorother (mayong?) on it and a huge EVERQUEST II emblazoned on the front, I doubt it'll do that well. (Seriously, why can't they find a happy medium between adolescent-fantasy-Firiona-Vie and ugly-as-hell-whoeverheis?)

Nyax · 10-17-2007, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnathon

Do you get anything different for RoK for purchasing Retail vs Download?

The shiny coin they put in the box! SoE usually puts some kinda small trinket or collectible in the retail box with most Games. I think it has always been a coin for eq2, with eq1 they had all kinds of little keychain things.

Kesselia · 10-17-2007, 09:47 AM

I've always purchased the retail versions just so I have the disks should anything happen in the future. We have an Electronic Boutique at the mall in the city where I live so I've never had a problem...so long as I pre order I'm guaranteed a copy....now if the idiot last year hadn't sold the second copy that I preordered by mistake I wouldn't be mad...but thankfully there was a game stop store in the mall too who had copies of EOF so I went over there and got my second copy without having to pay twice for it.

Usually only difference between retail and download are:

1. House pet

2. Disks include DOF, KOS, EOF and now ROK too.

3. People who do digital download usually wind up getting in the game quicker than those who buy the retail version so if you aren't a patient person like myself this may be another good reason to do digital download.

Cheers!