I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to the end of summer vacation. I thought I would console myself by playing Xseed's The Last Story, immersing myself in a JRPG as my time began to run out. Things didn't work out quite as I planned.
The release date for The Last Story was supposed to be August 14th, 2012. Here's the announcement on Xseed's own site:
"XSEED Games Announces The Last Story Release Date in North America and Special Pre-Order Incentive
Highly-Anticipated Action RPG Title from Famed Game Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to Enthrall Fans on August 14; Initial Launch Copies to Include Limited Edition Art Book and Pre-orders with Select Retailers to Include Bonus Soundtrack CD "
Later on in the press release it says "The game will be published by XSEED Games in North America on August 14, 2012."
In their defense, it also says in the release that the game will "ship to retailers throughout North America on August 14". So from the first day of the game release date, the confusion began. But if you were like me, you read that first abstract part of the announcement, marked Aug 14 on your calendar as the release date, and forgot about it.
Suffice it to say that I never read the whole press release. I just looked at the headline saying the release date was set and that it was supposed to "enthrall fans on August 14." Suffice it to say, Xseed did a horrible job with getting this game out on the date they said they would. Or maybe they did a horrible job at communicating when the game would be in stores. Or both. It's hard to tell with all the doublespeak coming from them.
Here's a Facebook update from Xseed account from early August: "Hey guys! Guess what comes out August 14th?", which is referring to Last Story.
Here's another Facebook update from early in July: "It's the news you've been waiting for... The Last Story has an official release date! On Aug. 14th ready your Wiis for one last hurrah!"
If you read the Xseed twitter account, it seemed much better informed in terms of getting out there that Aug 14 was the shipping date, not the release date, if that's what they didn't want fans to think they did that they thought Aug 14 was the date it would release ship or ship release. It just doesn't seem like they had a united message.
The thing that rubbed me wrong about the whole deal is that Xseed, even to this day, says they never said August 14th was the release day for the game. They said that was always only the day it would SHIP to retailers, meaning stores in my area only got it late Thursday or Friday.
Why do they act like we, the people that buy their games, are DUMB? That we should have known that a release date is really a shipping date like all the other publishers do.....um, wait, no other pub uses a release date as a shipping date. The release date is when it's actually released.
A question as to why Last Story's release was delayed was answered during a Kotaku online chat on August 16. Xseed employee Jessica Chavez retorted that "There have never been any delays. Our only official announcement was for an 8/14 shipping date." From the quotes above, you can see how this is utterly ridiculous and a lie. It sounds almost as if she was ANNOYED by the question.
Soon after that, another question asked why Last Story wasn't out yet since Aug 14 was the release date. She replied "The 14th was the shipping date...".
Xseed pissed off a lot of fans with their conflicting info. Or maybe I should say LACK of info. Even on Thursdays most retailers had no idea when they would have the game. There were no release dates on any of the online sites like Amazon, Target, or Toys R Us even by Thursday. I finally saw late Thursday night that a few Best Buys in my area had the game in store but you couldn't order it online. I ended up ordering it from Walmart late Thursday, which turned out to be their last copy! The Gamestop I had originally preordered the game from got it yesterday but it was too late.
Xseed lost money. I know that. Because there are people that showed up Tuesday to get the game, found out the retailer had no idea when it would be available, and bought Sleeping Dogs instead. I thought about it. Or like me, went to the Best Buy across the street which was having a videogame summer blowout sale and spent that $50 reserved for Last Story. But I love JRPGS. And except for this debacle, I am a huge fan of Xseed and have a ton of their games. So I ended up ordering it online.
I would just like for them to say they did a horrible job marketing this game as far as communicating when it would actually be out. Instead of essentially saying that the its the fan's fault for not listening to their paradoxical release/shipping date official press releases of not the actual release date but the shipping date.
I had purposefully held off starting any new games, reserving my last week of summer gaming time to playing Last Story. Unfortunately, I wasted that precious time. I'll get the game sometime next week, but who knows if I will be able to set aside the time to play it. I'm on to other games.
Hey. Tom from XSEED here. Just wanted to respond to this real quick, as I can tell how frustrated you are, and that's not something we ever like to see our customers feeling.
ReplyDeleteI'm very sorry for any confusion regarding The Last Story's release date. We certainly weren't trying to double-talk or anything, as you claim. The fact of the matter is, when we give a release date, it's always intended to be a ship date (which is something we realized a lot of people might not be aware of, and thus attempted to clarify through Twitter). And usually, the game shows up on store shelves the very next day -- so if we give a release date of, say, July 10th, the game will be in your hands on July 11th.
Big companies can often get away with giving out release dates that signify the day the game will be available in stores, but for li'l old us (and other similarly small publishers), we don't dare give an in-store date since we have absolutely ZERO control over that -- as The Last Story's release clearly proves. Essentially, we're not comfortable giving an in-store date for any of our products since we don't want to be responsible for the spread of misinformation if a game gets delayed in shipping or isn't unboxed and put on shelves in a timely fashion. We give the last date we can stand behind, which is when we make sure the game is packaged and sent on its way.
Many of our releases in previous years were ready for shipping a little early, allowing for you to pick them up on their individual release dates instead of the morning after. But that's never something we can guarantee, and I think that holds true for most smaller companies. Even larger companies have to deal with ship date vs. store date on occasion -- I don't know about anyone else, but I wasn't able to get my hands on Gravity Rush for Vita until the day AFTER its official release date.
Ultimately, we got unlucky with The Last Story. There were clearly shipping delays that kept the game from reaching store shelves by the 15th -- but those delays were out of our hands. Makes me glad we didn't give a shelf date, since it would've been wrong for a LOT of people.
Either way, I am very sorry for any disappointment you've experienced here, and for any confusion you may have experienced as well. What strange fate befell The Last Story after it left our hands, I couldn't say, but I hope that those of you who don't have it yet will get your hands on it soon, as it's a great game that's well worth waiting for.
-Tom
Well, you should never ever use the term "release date" again. Because for every other pub in the galaxy "release date" means the day it is in stores. Instead any time you talk about a "release date", you should substitute the words "shipping date". Then there would be no no confusion ever.
DeleteI pre-ordered it. (it's supposed to be coming in the mail). It's now available in stores and futureshop still hasn't shipped it. -_-;
ReplyDeleteI just hope i get the soundtrack and artbook sigh.
When will I learn not to pre-order anything from futureshop. Only did because i had a gift card.