I'm sure many of you have already pre-ordered TBC, but with only weeks left before release, those of us who haven't yet are probably thinking about it. Ideally, most of us would probably prefer to pre-load the TBC data and pay for a key electronically so we can start playing as soon as servers are up. Were it just me, I wouldn't be that worried about it, but I promised someone in another country that can't order it themselves that I'd ship them a copy if necessary ASAP after release.

So, does anyone know if the TBC data will be pre-loaded via the Blizz downloader at all? Will there be any way to buy a TBC key rather than buying a retail copy?

If not, where are you pre-ordering from? Local stores? Have they promised to have copies available if you pre-order? I know sometimes they only promise copies to the first XX orders or w/e. If you're pre-ordering online, where from? What places have good/bad shipping speeds for pre-orders? Has anyone found any good deals (free t-shirt, pre-order discount, whatever)?

Dear God, I hope we'll be able to buy it online and not have to actually get anything physically. Otherwise it's gonna be impossible for those who haven't preordered, I remember a friend of mine spent 3 weeks trying to get a copy when WoW was released.

I mean, it isn't that much data, and we got considerable amounts of it during the last patch. Can't see why it shouldn't be possible myself.

There is no chance you will be able to just buy a key online.* Retailers would pitch a fit and thus it will not happen, because what Best Buy thinks is more important than what you think. Simple fact of the business.

*Directly from or via Blizzard, I mean. You can probably find people/stores online that will open a box and sell you a key, but there are obvious risks inherent in going that route.

What I'm more curious about is:

Will those with a downloaded beta client be able to use it, or will you need the physical media to install the expansion? I live in a fairly remote area and the chance of a retailer actually stocking the game on the release date is slim, but when I got the game, I managed to snag a second account off e-bay (for a premium) the seller e-mailed the CD Key and then sent the box. If I can get a friend or guildy to send me the auth code and I could take it from there it would be great for me.

Interesting. I was planning on just picking up a copy from HMV on my way to work. I know WoW is popular, but I don't expect to see Wii-type shortages across London.

Based on what happened with the original beta->live and based on what is happening with the new PTR, I think it's pretty likely that people with the closed beta build won't need the expansion CDs to install TBC, just a key (which is obviously much quicker and easier to send to a buddy overseas than an entire box).


Actually obtaining a key will still require buying a physical box, which in turn means taking your chances with the tradition of stores not obtaining enough supply to meet their pre-order numbers. Myself, I pre-ordered a copy at two separate stores to be on the safe side.

Prepare to be surprised.

Hopefully Blizzard has pressed enough copies to meet the demand, but even with the huge number of people that have preordered the expansion you can bet there are a huge amount of people that haven't. When I say huge, I mean, more than likely higher than the amount of people that wanted a wii, ps3 or xbox360 combined in thier first week.

It's going to be a real pain to obtain the first week if you haven't preordered it. I would think Blizzard would be pressing the absolute hell out of the disc, but even still, there will be a lot of people in lines to get it.

I have never even touched my copy of wow. A friend a few states away had to buy it for me and read me the key over the phone. My area was completely sold out. I just downloaded the original beta client. I can't see why the same thing won't work again.

But really, who is honestly expecting the game to be playable even 2 days after release?

Obtaining it won't be as bad as the initial release

A press release from February 2nd, 2005...

http://www.blizzard.co.uk/press/050202.shtml

With Blizzard officially having 7.5 million subscribers right now, there should be many more copies available. Remember, when WoW first came out they were operating on the Everquest model of how many copies should be available.

Here's a question: when WoW was originally released, did any of you see shortages at your local stores? I remember pre-ordering my copy from an online store, and when it didnt turn up I just went down the road and picked up a copy from Virgin Megastore where they had hundreds of copies.

Did purchasing a key online (officially) ever become possible for WoW classic (is this what people are going to start calling it now?)? Because, even though it was somewhat hidden, you could download the entire client from Blizzard's website. I had to do it once when I was away from home and forgot my CD's, and assumed it was for some kind of online-purchase scheme.



EDIT: off-topic, but this is probably the only post I'm making from my current crappy connection: I always knew this forum had gotten to be kind of high-traffic, but it hits you like a brick when you've been away for a week and try to come back and read it. I can't even get started :-(

Arawethion - I believe you can buy wow digitally from direct2drive. I recall seeing it when I bought Sword of the Stars from them.

Bubbs - My area, every Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Best Buy, EB, Gamestop, Target, and everywhere else, was sold out completely for about 3 months after launch

In my area, I bought mine from a Best Buy or Circuit City (forget which) a day or two before it was released. The servers were up at that time too. :) My friends who preordered the game didn't get their copies until 2-3 days after it was released.

The European release date was after the American release date, so Blizzard probably had a better idea on the amount of copies they needed. TBC is going to be a massive simultaneous release date across the world.

Found the last copy in my city (literally) right before New Years for my girl. Every store I visited had been sold out for quite some time.

I'd guess that they will print a billion copies of TBC so everyone can buy it if they want to (read: give Blizzard money). However, there are a few million people waiting to play, as opposed to the smaller number at 1.0 release, so who really knows if they will have enough to satisfy demand.

You can actually buy a key online today, its kind of hidden - you have to use the "refer a friend" feature in account management to send a trial key to someone (or yourself). Activate the trial key. During the activation process you will be given the chance to buy a WoW CDKey online, or use one from a retail box. I don't know how much they charge for getting the online key.

Blizzard reps have said for TBC there will be no online key activation upon launch. Its a shame, but I suppose it helps them promote the retail sales box numbers which in turn drives more sales from PR, etc.

You can buy a key from Blizzard themselves, as well as direct2drive.

And as far as not enough boxes, I remember trying to pick up a box in mid-February '05 when I started playing, and it literally took me 2 weeks to get ahold of one because there was such a shortage.

No, you cannot buy a CD Key online for BC or the classic game, however Direct2Drive may sell a classic key. However, you can go the main website and click "10-day trial" that will download the 1.3 version of WoW.

It is against Blizzard's stated policy that the 10-day trial having BC content in it, but it may be updated to 2.0.3 WoW, so at least you could see the starting areas for Blood elves/Draeni (but not play them).


I hope Blizzard saw the desires for P3/Wii and have a lot of product to sell on 16 Jan.

Blizzard would be insane not to intentionally short initial demand simply to give the hardware a chance in hell of handling the initial load. I would strongly suspect that estimated demand shipments will come out over a period of at least a week and quite likely longer for that reason alone and I'm even ignoring the logistical problems of a release of that many units as it is. Honestly, if they wanted everyone to have a client ready to go on day one they could easily send them out ahead of the release date anyhow, although of course that would be suicidal.

I do hope they are renting a little more bandwidth and some processing power for the crunch but even so I have to say the outlook is pretty bleak. We are staring down a massive spike in concurrent logins and a userbase that is not at all going to be pleased with the sudden queue increases and doubtlessly crashing servers. Oh, it'll all wash out eventually but I wouldn't expect anything resembling stability in the first week at least.

Blizzard is more than welcome to make a liar out of me but launches for major expansions are usually this way.

There is no way we will be able to buy it online. It may be introduced at a later date but that is doubtful. What I am hoping is that they will make and ship enough boxes to the stores, and we won't have what happened with the Wii and PS3. It would suck if some EB Games took pre-orders for a year, end up with 430 orders, and when the day arrives they get shiped 50 boxes.

I plan on doing what I always do when a new game comes out. Head to a 24 hour walmart in a far suburb at midnight and stand with all the other nerds at the game counter. They tend to order a ton and have never been out of "hot" games on the day (ie night) of release.

I am curious of how many Collector Editions are going to be made and how many people that pre-order them end up not receiving one. There seems to be a pretty high demand for them. I know personally I pre-ordered one from my local Gamestop but also pre-ordered one online from Gamestop.

Comparing TBC software to a console system is comparing apples and oranges. The physical box you're purchasing cost pennies to produce, compared to hundreds of dollars for the consoles. Add to that, Blizzard already has a pretty accurate account of not only how many customers they have, but the geographic distribution of those customers. Blizzard knows they have 8,341 active accounts in Miami, Florida (made up number). These are people who are already paying customers and are virtually guaranteed to buy the expansion.

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony could only guess how many consoles might sell. Add to that, you can't just patch a console that has hardware issues, so it makes sense for them to intentionally undersupply at the start, to mitigate the cost of failed units.