I want to express some general thoughts and maybe find some additional information that slipped away from my research (although I’ve read almost the whole wowhead, icyveins and this forum). The topic is the purchase of the War Within CE Physical Box + the beta test access that starts this week.
Now, let me get this straight out of the way first. This is not my first ride and I am aware that the digital / physical goodies that are coming with the CE are not available until the order is actually delivered, but since we are approaching the 20th Anniversary of WoW, I am still having hopes of making this in a slightly different way.
The majority of us in Europe were still expected to pay + / - 300 euros for the normal shipping of the CE and now we are also expected to buy the regular digital edition in order to gain access to the Beta Testing?
This is confusing in multiple ways but the TLDR is that I do not want to invest more money into getting an access to the Beta since I’ve paid the high price for the CE. (I am aware that you can get a refund to bnet balance once you add your CE key if you already possess the digital edition, but I simply do not want to invest more right now ).
I guess this post is to see who else is feeling like that and maybe raise some general awareness with hope that we get a feedback communication from the Blizzard team.
I am sorry, I love this game as I am still here 20 years later and I want to get the collector’s edition, but all of this is getting a bit out of hand.
I do not understand why the people that purchased the CE can’t get the code for the game by email and then wait for the actual physical box to arrive with the rest of the goodies.
I guess the problem stems from the codes physically being in the box. I can understand that people don’t like buying the CE and then have to fork out for a Digital Code that they can only get back as bnet balance.
The codes ensure if you buy one later, or second hand unopened, you can still get all the goodies. If the codes were not kept in the boxes and generated externally with the purchase they’d devalue unclaimed CEs. They’d literally become just a box item.
I get the concern about them becoming just a box item, but everybody that is actually passionate about this game after all of the ups and down throughout the years should have a way to actually claim (at least the digital part of it) right on purchase (especially if we are expected to pay 300 euros).
It is not my job as a player to think about this, but Blizzard should find a mechanism that allows us to tag our Bnet accounts as sort of “owners of un-shipped CE” so that we can enjoy the game while waiting for the box to arrive.
I honestly don’t understand what a problem it would be to send beta codes to people who bought the collector’s edition. After all, nothing bad is happening. Another person with access to the beta version. No harm actually. Sure, it may be a bit difficult to achieve, because many stores in many countries offer collector’s editions. This doesn’t seem hard to accomplish.
The account flagging is an interesting idea and maybe allow some way for later claiming somehow too.
I’m not suggesting you have to come up with the solutions but sometimes people have something in mind and suggestions can sometimes prove to be fruitful.
TBH I don’t really see why anyone who orders the collectors edition direct from Blizzard, needs a “code” of any sort, Blizzard can simply mark the account as “Owns TWW” and then the box comes when it comes.
Coming to another thread caliming to be “robbed” doesn’t change that this is false…beta was never part of the physical CE, Blizzard never claimed to give beta access to us physical CE collectors.
Anyway:
The Problem with flagging the B. Net Account is, that you are capable of buying the CE as “guest” or with a Gear Store account, and how should Blizzard flag these? They won’t intorduce seperate ways of distributing codes for each type of purchase model.
No it is not “the customers fault” if they refuse to use their B. Net account for Gear Store purchases for what reason so ever, before someone here goes down that road.
Sending the codes via eMail is, as Punyelf mentioned, not in Blizzards interest, be it because of the devaluation of unopened boxes or who knows why.
FF14 send codes via eMail, but you basically buy the digital editon plus a CE Collectors Box, like Blizzard did with Diablo 4. I would appreciate this take, and maybe Blizzard will go down that road one day.
But keep in mind that the pricing in this scenario will inevidably become even more crazy, that’s sadly just how companies work, especially because they can pull it off because we will just buy it anyway.
We can cry and throw tantrums as much and loud as we want, it won’t change anything.
We “Premium” customers have to face the hard truth, that we pay premium prices for games and what not and can still get a fist to the face when it comes to certain parts of the product.
I hate it, but that’s something completely out of our hands.
And how are they gonna check that you don’t sell/prevent you from selling the beta codes? Oh, you can’t…got it?
It sais in the discription…
"If you want to enjoy the The War Within digital items and any available access before receiving your Collector’s Edition, you can buy The War Within on the Battle.net shop. If you buy The War Within (Base, Heroic, or Epic) on the Battle.net Shop and then redeem a Collector’s Edition code later on, you will automatically be refunded the cost of your original digital purchase in Battle.net Balance, as long as you redeem the Collector’s Edition code before December 31, 2025.
If you have purchased a box upgrade product (e.g., Base Edition to Epic Edition), this upgrade will not be automatically refunded. You can contact Blizzard Customer Support through Battle.net in that case for a refund of your box upgrade product."
And:
I’m not quite sure, but I’m pretty sure it was mentioned from day one.
But mandela effect is a thing, so maybe I’m wrong here and someone else can confirm that they added this later to the gear store description.
You are completely right, OP. It’s an absolute rip-off. Blizzard should be ashamed of themselves for this mess.
And last time they broke almost all the items in shipping because they shipped them in a clothing bag.
You know Homeworld 3, that recent unfortunate fiasco of a game, did? They just gave me the key and invited me to the 3 day pre-release. In cooperation with Amazon, no less. So the fact that Blizzard can’t do that using only their own store is baffling.
I guess they are indeed hoping that we’ll pay for the expansion pack twice over.
It is also correct that this detail wasn’t mentioned at first:
And before anyone says “Oh but it doesn’t specifically mention beta access” - it mentions “Epic Edition Game Content includes” and if you go to https://thewarwithin.blizzard.com/en-us/ it is quite clear that beta access checkmark is ticked.
So it was absolutely promised at first, then silently rescinded with a nice little note at the bottom.
Since you can’t actually play wow without an account, why not do away with codes entirely.
Buy the game for you? It’s added to your account, buy it as a gift? Tick “it’s a gift” at checkout, and the recipient is invited to sign in or make a new account.
Buying the physical box? The website can ask which account it’s to be added to (either by battletag or email address) , these are basic things.
Codes also expose Blizzard to the risks of CD key selling sites, honestly the more I think about this the better it’d be if there was just no codes.
And that’s gonna give them what? B. Net currency refunds that you use to buy game time with so you just buy the next game time later?
They won’t make more money with refunding physical CE as B. Net balance.
Uhm…
“*** Beta Test Access and Early Access to World of Warcraft: The War Within may be impacted by shipping dates and subject to change. Early Access duration is 3 days. Limited time only. Play time subject to possible outages and time zone differences. Certain endgame features, including Mythic dungeons and weekly quests, not available during Early Access.”
Old page still said shipping impact and subject to change, soooooo…
…still no guaranteed beta access.
That’s one solution, one I would appreciate, yep, but someone at BHQ likes the envelopes with codes (well, they are pretty) in the physical boxes and as long this is the case we will have to sit it out.
You do know that B. Net balance is no money they have on their bank account, yes? They can’t work with B. Net currency and can’t add that to their investors report.
They only get money once per account, not twice.
Well, you know what? “Subject to change” means this: Subject to change.
Okay, I was wrong and they changed it from “Beta Access” to “Beta Access only possible when purchasing digital edition on top and get B. Net balance refund after release.”
Still dosn’t give you the right to rage around like that, as they just made use of their right to change stuff when they mentioned that stuff can be changed.
It is a slap in the face for people who lack the money at this point to pay for an extra digital edition, yes, and I don’t have a proper solution for this, but this is just how the real world works.
If you really, REALLY are that angry then just have the guts and withdraw your physical pre-order and go digital or even nothing. That is the only way to really “hurt” Blizzard and force them to overthink their physical CE handling.
I am glad that the feeling is shared across fair amount of the community.
In my mind, the blizzard store should ask you for a bnet account that is going to be used to play the game. After purchasing the item, the code for the edition can be bound to your bnet account (this way it should also be transferable if indeed its bought as a gift) and just not shipped with the box at all.
Even if they want to keep the collectors value of the box, no-one is buying it ever for the game code, just for the physical goodies so this is intact anyway.
I was well aware of the current mechanism when I made this post, so there is no need to repost information that is already present everywhere. We all know how it works. The point is that it’s dysfunctional and not that we are not aware of it.
Anyway, good luck playing the beta to everybody! I will be waiting for my CE box. Hopefully at least it arrives on time so I can enjoy the 3 days early access
Yeah that’s just completely wrong, sorry. B.Net balance is a gift card and has therefore been turned into revenue, so you absolutely can.
Pray we don’t alter it further.
'Course it does. I’m a customer and they are not treating me very well.
So… I can’t rage about a slap in the face, is that it?
Or, alternatively, I express my frustration so that Blizzard knows why, when they have finally got too far, that this was part of it.
Almost any transaction has a defect or problem in it. As long as I’m overall happy I’ll buy it, but that certainly doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be told that this is not OK.
Sure, they are not sure whether someone will sell such code. However, how harmful is this? You have one more person in the Beta who bought the code. The Trade chat in MoP Remix is full of offers for selling various types of services for gold. But if you insist, you have many more offers on the Internet, also for real money. That one person who bought the beta code because another person has no intention of using it is honestly the least of the problems.
Enjoy the game in the new expansion and enjoy unpacking the collector’s edition I personally saw it after purchasing the digital version of the game and then I thought that it would be nice to put this figure for myself, but I think it’s too much It would be confusing to figure it out.
. Bought the epic edition but theres so many easy solutions here
