Dark Souls is hard. Not the kind of hard coming from cheap AI tactics, but from an incredibly well refined AI that knows exactly how to make millions of gamers pull their hair out. Well it turns out the first headache comes just from pre-orderers trying to pick up their game.
Recall the really cool pre-order bonus that was offered to those who dropped money on Dark Souls early? These brave men and women earned a free upgrade to the Collector’s Edition, sporting a steelbook case, soundtrack, art book, digital strategy guide and map. Well, it turns out that many retailers and frustrated consumers are reporting they’ve received no Collector’s Editions for pre-orders.
The shortage is not exclusive to any single retailer. Everyone from Best Buy to Amazon to Wal-Mart to Newegg are reporting they did not receive enough games to fill pre-orders, with many brick-and-mortar stores receiving no Collector’s Editions at all.
According to some tipsters, the problem stems from the fact that the Collector’s Edition and the regular edition both carry the same item number, or SKU, in retail databases. This caused confusion about how many Collector’s Editions to produce and ship. This method of limited/collector’s editions is actually quite common, especially with more recent EA games, which have a “limited edition” for those who buy the game within the first few months.
Both Best Buy and Newegg are offering a $20 gift card to anyone who pre-ordered and did not receive their desired copy. No other Collector’s Editions are expected to be stocked, although in a strange twist, GameStop still seems to be carrying the PS3 version of the Collector’s Edition at the time of this writing, so grab them quick!
What say you, gamers? It’s disappointing to see such a fiasco like this, but at least Namco will learn a lesson about how to number their games for retail.