Tyrranos@Splitpaw wrote:
Thankyou for making those points as clear as possible 
One thing that really confuddles me is why put the most interesting item in the boxes. Seems to make more sense to encourage people to download the expansion rather than go out and buy a box with discs etc... More economical, less expensive as having to make less packaging blah blah blah.I guess it keeps the mounts more exclusive as most people that dont live in the US would rather just download the expansion on the day rather than having to wait for the box to get shipped over to another country 
(and yes i know it was said that the box gets shipped around the world prior to release but other than the original box im not sure i have ever seen an EQ2 expansion in a UK store)
I think the answer is fairly obvious to anyone vaguely corporate:
Christmas. Retail boxes on shelves mean walk by impulse purchases by parents and relatives who dont know what Timmy/Johnny/Sally etc really wants. In general they will default to buying WoW because thats all thats on the shelf, not because they honestly feel it has superior technical merits. Retail boxes are free advertising, where it counts, and where the largest number of new subscribers MIGHT come from. Preaching to the choir via digital download saves money upfront but wont solve the long term death spiral EQ2 seems to be going through.
If the retail box didnt have a gimmick that was truly cool, people wouldnt clamor for it. If in ANY way they made the coolest item available by digital download the reported "tens, nay Hundreds! of Thousands! of subscribers calmoring to buy retail boxes" would dwindle by a factor of at least ten. Now that I live pretty darn far from the USA, it's not an option to go 20-30 miles and hassle with retail. But hey, Fry's Electronics MIGHT have had it, if they thought a lot of people would buy it. HOW will they know if there's ANY interest in SOE EQ2 add-ons? They have zero experience with the product; it's been only something an afficianado even knows about. WoW is available in every cell phone brick and mortar distributor in EAST EUROPE! (we know Credit Cards exist; just nobody uses them here, its cash and carry only here.) I think I've seen 3 people play from Bulgaria; but as I am an American passport holder and played EQ1 for 7 years before coming here I knew what I wanted. I couldn't buy it (EQ2 release on DVD) until I found it at a store in the UK, which seemed happy to sell as "nobody buys it anymore". Glad business travel took me there, as that was a three year wait for me to leave Bulgaria. This was maybe 4 years ago.
I know nobody HERE likes the retail mess. BUT, I can say with some certainty SOE realizes they HAVE to make retail DESIRE their game, which in turn means having some marketing numbers of people BUYING the game IN RETAIL channels. Direct Distribution == 0 walkby sales. Retail sales == free (well, actually NOTHING is "free", retail space costs up front spiff money or from the back discounts to the disti/retailer), but anyway RECURRING advertising at point of sale. THIS is why they can't offer a magic fix to allow downloading as a quick fix. Its a quick fix but a death spiral long term. In medical terms, the patient is in a bad way but COULD be resuscitated. SOE the junior entity of a large multunational has to answer to corporate why they cant much break even let alone make net profit for the stock holders; failure to get retail boxes in front of ANY potential new audience will mean all 2000 or so forum posters are happy and all the servers strangely barren. Know what I mean? 20K-60K daily users for Eve sounds cool, until you estimate costs of making say an EQ III, with multi-million dollar runtime rendering engine on client side and some impressive costs for *reliable* internet bandwidth. At the corporate side, they can either play ball or punt. But the one option that isnt an option is to just fold and remove the retail box. Anything this close (8 hrs from game time) is too late. But they MUST put retail boxes where newbs and their parents/spouses/relatives can find them. That's the whole idea of November releases...
Sorry if its darned inconvenient. I'm outside the US. There is no way in heck I can get it retail. But I'm all for keeping the dang USA servers ALIVE next year. They closed my Darathar. I went to Naggy (Nagafen PVP). But when Naggy closes, THEN I'm in a bear of a situation. The retail bear is less an issue than keeping the servers fully populated. Aus/NZ have a much better chance of getting solved than South-East Europe, although maybe I'll see something in Greece or Italy next year. But ONLY if the numbers in US make retail EQ2 look worth carrying. Otherwise it ties up floor space that could have gone to WoW, which has real point of sale marketing. Do I like WOW? I'd want to play with my younger brother -- BUT WoW here can ONLY roll toons on Europe Servers. Game Cards here for WoW are Europe only servers. So... don't think WoW is perfect from a marketing stance. They have numbers, but EQ2 has the technical edge. But if EQ2 doesnt make sales, corporate will have these guys commit seppuku for honor's sake.
It's not the answer you want, just the one you need to hear.
Saami with 2 "a"s, woodworker et al
Nagafen