(UK) Distributor problems?

[TheTris]

So I pre-ordered from play.com, release date 27th July, everything good, been looking forwards to this game for years.

Then I check, and find that the release date for play.com has been pushed back to 10th August.

I'd like to know what's happening before I decide what to do: Is this a problem play.com have had, or is it a decision taken by Battlefront? I haven't seen any information on why this has happened, either from play.com or Battlefront.

If someone from Battlefront can shed some light on the reasoning behind this decision, I'd be very grateful.

It's funny how after waiting for years, 2 weeks can seem so painful :-(

Tris

[MikeyD]

When i buy a pair of pants from a mail-order catalog and they tell me to expect my order in 3 weeks i do not conclude there must be a grave problem with the pants

[Major Catastrophe]

do what i did - cancel the order at play and buy from the guys you should have in the first place.

Patiently for waiting the download section to open

[Michael Dorosh]

Armchair General is giving away five free copies of the game, if you get their online newsletter.

[Moon]

Battlefront has no influence on this. We're at the end of a fairly long distribution chain with play.com at the very opposite end. In between is a whole bunch of people, including Paradox, the main retail publisher for the game. Actually this is the first place that I am reading that they have pushed back the release, but it is probably true because I know that the UK street date is August 10th according to a press release from Paradox that I just signed off on.

Martin

[TheTris]

Excellent - Thanks Moon. If it was nothing to do with Battlefront, I have no compunction about ordering from them. Which is good, because 2 weeks wait wouldn't have done my health any good

MikeyD - I could take that analogy all sorts of places, but who said there was a problem with the pants?

MajorCatastrophe - You mean using an approved distribution route which makes everyone involved a profit and gets the product to me efficiently would somehow be morally wrong?

[Moon]

TheTris - not morally wrong at all. If we didn't want to offer that option to customers we wouldn't be offering it. So it's your right as customer to make that choice, and we made a conscious decision to offer that choice to our customers.

Please note however that this is actually only the second time that we are offering this choice. For most of our releases, the game gets launched only in one place, battlefront.com, and goes out to retail partners much later. This has a reason, and that reason is in fact at the very core of why Battlefront.com as started:

The problem is that the concept of "everyone involved makes a profit" that should apply to a distribution chain doesn't quite work like that. It didn't work like that 10 years ago when Battlefront was started by Steve and Charles, and it does so even less now. The people at the very end of the chain are keeping by far the bulk of the profits, and only a tiny amount trickles through the chain to us from each game you purchase. This imbalance doesn't end at financial aspects, either.

For huge mass market releases that's ok but for a niche genre such as wargames the return is not enough to sustain a development team like ours. Without direct purchasing customers there would be no Battlefront, it's as simple as that.

So you ask why we do offer that choice for CMSF? Well, it's a huge mass market release Or at least it's big enough that we feel that it will work out ok. The fact that it allows our fans to make a choice and get the game from what is most convenient is a bonus. Luckily a decent number still decides to purchase from us anyway, but then a download right away and a Deluxe hardgoods version aren't all that inconvenient either, are they?

Martin

[TheTris]

Moon: Yep - I agree with what you say 100%