Sentinel's Fate Update

[Kiara]

<div><img src="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/content/en/news/banners/newerbanners/community_news.png" /></div><p>Greetings Norrathians!</p><p>As you all know, EverQuest II released its sixth expansion, Sentinel's Fate, in February. We're all very excited about it and EQII in general and know that you share our love of this fantastic game. Our Marketing department has prepared an update on the expansion's performance in the industry and we thought that you would find the reviews of interest!</p><p><a href="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news/read/032010/3479" target="_blank">Read more</a>!</p>

[Brook]

<p>While the sales might be up in comparison to the months prior to release I highly doubt this expansion was one of the best, and the hype leading up to it did not match what was released. I am glad you guys have friends in the marketing departments of some of these other companies that gave you a thumbs up, but what I have been seeing said in game and on these forums is hardly what I would call a success.</p><p>You didnt even get good things said from the players (except for the artwork) from the polls you ran in beta.</p><p>MYSCORE. 42 and thats being generous because I am in a good mood.</p>

[Galithdor]

<p>Well it isn't like SoE is making up those quotes, it's illegal...</p><p>Anyways, I agree, I've been having fun with this expac, might not be the best, but it's my 2nd favorite...EoF being my first <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Though I do admit, it's amazing that it's the best selling PC game...for the 2nd week</p>

[swedago]

<p>“It is clear that a lot of work and creative detail went into the making of The Sentinel’s Fate, and the hope is that this worthy expansion pack does not fall on deaf ears...” Askmen.com <strong>score: 82</strong></p><p>I am sure Askmen distributes to many eq2 players lol.</p>

[Merrier]

<p>So far, I really do love this expansion.  I've spent a great deal of time lately going back and doing TSO things with some guildies.  I'll take SF over that any day.  What I've seen of SF so far is fun.  TSO was just a slogging job.  The guildies who are being exposed to TSO for the first time seem frustrated and annoyed.  We're really looking forward to when we can all be in SF, because from what we've seen of it, it's awesome.</p>

[Ikke]

<p>Kiara,</p><p>Although I love this game and think that the developers have done a great job I have to make a critical remark here.</p><p>The marketing department should NOT be patting themselves on the back but should be ashamed about how they ran the sales and marketing campaign for this expansion.</p><p>The international sales disaster where they let you take the heat for their mistakes until days before the expansion went live; the problems for the Canadian customers who had trouble finding the game; the fact that most shops that did pre-orders didn't order extra boxes to put on the salesdisplays and the fact that (as far as I know) no big games magazine or gamse site has reviewed the new expansion yet all point to a conclusion that they did not do a good job.</p><p>That is a shame because, as I already mentioned, I think that EQ2 was and is one of the best MMORPG's on the market and deserves a much larger audience and way more recognition for the quality it deliveres.</p><p>Regards,</p><p>Ikke</p>

[Gzelle]

<p>I have to say...  this expansion brought back some of the old eq magic.  I have loved every minute of the expansion.</p>

[Azzad]

<p>About 6 months ago PC Gamer had a blurp about EQ2 and they mentioned how they really liked that you started as a generic class then narrowed it down to a sub-class at lvl 10 and then your final class at level 20. So obviously they were a little behind on the EQ2 updates...like 5 years behind.</p><p>What these people say means nothing.</p><p>When will the development team be in charge of an expansion instead of marketing?</p>

[Obadiah]

<p>Glad to hear the sales are up. Looks like the last expansion for me. Between the international sales debacle, the week-long delay for DD purchasers, the longest development time for an expansion resulting in the buggiest launch to date, more subsequent unscheduled downtime than in the past 4 years, very hastily written (or copy/pasted?) quests, the decision to stop making notes when substantial game changes are made, it just doesn't look like things are headed in the right direction. </p>

[dawy]

<p><cite>Ikke wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Kiara,</p><p>Although I love this game and think that the developers have done a great job I have to make a critical remark here.</p><p>The marketing department should NOT be patting themselves on the back but should be ashamed about how they ran the sales and marketing campaign for this expansion.</p><p>The international sales disaster where they let you take the heat for their mistakes until days before the expansion went live; the problems for the Canadian customers who had trouble finding the game; the fact that most shops that did pre-orders didn't order extra boxes to put on the salesdisplays and the fact that (as far as I know) no big games magazine or gamse site has reviewed the new expansion yet all point to a conclusion that they did not do a good job.</p><p>That is a shame because, as I already mentioned, I think that EQ2 was and is one of the best MMORPG's on the market and deserves a much larger audience and way more recognition for the quality it deliveres.</p><p>Regards,</p><p>Ikke</p></blockquote><p>I have to agree with you on all your points,SOE's marketing team can take no credit over the fiasco of the launch.</p>

[Bhagpuss]

<p>I'm finding SF to be a pretty good expansion. Certainly better than the last two.</p><p>As far as the marketing goes, while it looked a bit ham-fisted the results speak for themselves. Marketing's job is to shift product and product was shifted.</p>

[Lantis]

<p>I'd have to agree there.  For SF, I'll give an 8/10 to the devs (this is a good expansion so far, and the less troublesome one I have experienced so far in all EQ2 launches), but 2/10 to the marketing department.  Announcements for the DD were made at the very last minute (like, the week before actual early launch if I remember - should have been done at least a month early), and us Canadians had to struggle to get our copies during that week because the Canadian branches of those major retailers do not work on the same schedule/inventories as the US ones despite what SOE's marketing department might think.  Please, do not repeat that experiment next year.</p><p>Here's an example of good marketing: the very same month SF launched, ATI was bundling a link to downoload a trial of a competitor's MMORPG right into the Catalyst video drivers.  I have to say this was interesting timing on the competitor's part.  But more specifically, this exposed that MMORPG (no, not the big major competitor, but a lesser known one who, just like EQ2, needs more public exposure) to people who downloaded the new drivers (which are, for the most part, gamers, and therefore potential customers).</p><p>Forcing people to go retail wasn't a bad idea to force more exposure... Except it didn't work as expected. As someone else pointed out, stores tended to buy boxes to fulfill preorders, but still didn't bother filling up shelves with boxes of the product.  Their websites also failed even advertise that the product was coming, except for some game-only retailers putting it as yet another entry on their "Soon to be released" list.  End result?  Mostly current EQ2 players bought it.  I have even seen quite a few former players coming back.  However I doubt we got many new, first-time players because of the marketing surrounding SF.</p><p>Kudos to the devs.  But marketing should go back to their drawing board and come up with a better plan.  Beating the competition in sales on the week of launch means little when said competition was non-existent, and the usual Station sales were simply shifted to retail due to the early launch deal forcing people to buy retail so not to be left behind.  In short - it's probably all number shuffling, blowing smoke in everyone's faces.</p>