You can't buy UO 9th Anniversary from EA Store!!

[Pax]

I just had a really depressing shock! Decided to upgrade another of my accounts to 9th, and thought I'd purchase it through the EA Store, but you can't buy UO 9th Anniversary from the EA Store, because they don't sell it or anything UO!

Eve Online is actually advertising their game on cable, yet EA doesn't even have copies of UO to sell to would-be customers who make the effort to hunt down their online store? If EA doesn't even bother to sell their own UO product in their own online software store, what could that mean for the future of UO?

Please answer Devs... or anybody in a position to know.

Be well - Pax

 

[Mythic]

Really? what kind of sense does that make!

 

[Blesh]

I haven't seen UO on a store shelf since i bought it at Wal*Mart two years ago.

it worries me too. how are they going to get new players if they dont have the product out there? Now that i think about it, I haven't seen The Sims Online on any shelves in a few years too. and look at them now

 

[DevilsOwn]

on this page http://www.uo.com/uo9/ clicking the sellers on the right hand side......

GameStop and EBGames tells you "not availalble online at this time"

Amazon has one used and one new copy

GoGamer will ship in 24hrs for $29.90

and I didn't click for international ordering information

.... but directly from EA? no, not on that page, nor any other place I could find

 

[Uriah Heep]

Now that i think about it, I haven't seen The Sims Online on any shelves in a few years too. and look at them now
----------------------------------------------------

Closed down it's what happens when you neither advertise nor sell a product, it dries up and blows away. But don't fret, Warhammer is coming, *and* and expansion for Camelot

 

[Uriah Heep]

Best serious answer tho, go the UO.com, click the gamecodes, and buy ML. Gonna cost ya, but looks like the best bet.

Good Luck!

 

[packrat]

<-------Went to Best Buy, EB Games, Wal Mart, Circuit City and Game stop and not 1 single copy of any UO games. Whats up with that?
I think they need a new advertising firm.

 

[Nosuperiors_Damnfewequals]

@ Packrat
That's what we been preaching all along. ANY kind of Advertising > no advert at all.
Put out a CD in a simple Jewel Case, nothing fancy, just to have SOMETHING out there.
Ship and sell a Box, with cloth maps, a cd, and perhaps an Ankh, for a greater price, might draw a player, would definitely sell to the vets for the collectibles and memories.
There is sooooo much that could be done to save this game, (sorry folks, KR is NOT it), but there is 0 effort being put into it.

Sorry Draconi, that is NOT a stab at you and the team, you guys are doing your part. This needs to be addressed by a totally different department, its called marketing, EA has one, just a very very very small % of what they spend on sportsgames, etc, would go a looooooong way for us.

 

[eolsunder]

Well it goes to show you what many of us have known all along. They don't care about bringing UO back at all, since most of their advertising/marketing is geared towards other things.

No copies on the shelves? means no incentive to advertise a game they don't plan on continuing. The current game they will just let go until they decide they don't want to waste manhours on it.

I mean come on, they want to sell you 1 character slot/housing increase for the price of a new expansion. Know that that is? Not caring about the game and just wanting to squeeze as much money out of their little pet project as they can.

Just do what the rest of us do, stop buying junk from their store, play the game and have fun with your friends, and just wait till the end, wether its 1 year or 5 years down the road. Then we will simply move onto something else.

 

[love2winalot]

Them's be the FACTS. I hope EA will do everyone a favor, and SELL the game to someone else, anyone else........

 

[Arbuckel]

... Then, we will simply move on to something else, not run by EA.

Fixt.

 

[Redxpanda]

<-------Went to Best Buy, EB Games, Wal Mart, Circuit City and Game stop and not 1 single copy of any UO games. Whats up with that?
I think they need a new advertising firm.

It took a lil doing but i found a copy. You have to travel past your local gamestop and find the one that has a larger selection of PC games. Its usually one in the area that concentrates on consoles (usually a small one inside a mall) and another that has everything (usually outside and bigger). In the larger one, i found a single copy sitting on the shelf all lonely.

 

[Blade_Thugluv]

I Went shopping and this is what i found

Gamestop:

4 9th age 19.99
2 UOSE 29.99
1 UOBTR 14.99

Software etc.

3 UO AOS 9.99
6 UO 9th age 19.99
2 7th ann 24.99
3 8th age 29.99


Wal-mart

0

best buy

0

hole in the wall game shop:

4 8th age
1 UOTD


My shelf(unopened copys)

2 UOTD
1 UOR
5 UOBTR
1 UOAOS
4 UO 7th ann
3 UO 8th Age (1 will never be opened because is signed by whole dev team)
4 UO 9th age
2 UOML CD Never opened (no reason as no codes came with it)


so you can still find new copys its just a matter of where.

~Blade

 

[Warsong of LS]

Simple answer is pure greed. When the 9th anniversary came out, I paid $19.99 for it. Now if you can find it, it should be that or less.

But EAMythic is still selling ML codes on the website for $29.99.

You figure out which one, EAmythic would rather sell?

It just shows the lack of committment to the game, no matter what is said by the various EAMythic that post here. And thats no counting the lack of advertisment the game has not had for years. But I can not take 10 steps without tripping over an advertisment for Warhammer Online. go figure.

 

[Loquacious Wrath]

You can't market the 2d client today. Graphics are outdated. Waste of marketing dollars. KR needs work so it can be marketed sooner rather than later.

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

i bought a copy of 9th anni at my local EBGames/Gamestop (they seem to have merged?) last week. they had a few copies on the shelf. if you go through the uo9 web page and click EBGames, they'll tell you which local or semi-local shops of theirs have copies of 9th anniversary. i was lucky since my local one had the copies. still sucks. i think you should totally be able to buy it from the UO website. specially if you still have to pay the original price of $19.99...

 

[Fortyniner]

My local Circuit City had a copy when I was in last week. It's kind of deceptive now since the box says it includes all the updates and it doesn't include ML. But I agree that it's sad that EA is doing so little to market the game.

 

[kennykilleduo]

Launch of UOKR was there best chance to re sell UO , but with the bugs in UOKR i think they may have lost there chance , UOSA maybe??

UOSA has to have a store / disc option to expose UO..

 

[kennykilleduo]

I found it very odd while shopping for a Wii last weekend to see not only one , but 4 stores that had copies of 9th anni.. Could this mean they are sorta listening to us?

 

[Skylark SP]

My local Circuit City had a copy when I was in last week. It's kind of deceptive now since the box says it includes all the updates and it doesn't include ML. But I agree that it's sad that EA is doing so little to market the game.

You are incorrect.

9th anniversary edition DOES include Mondain's Legacy, as well as shadow/crystal housing sets, which was the featured "goodie" for the edition. (See FAQ)

The 9th AE was required to get those special housing tile sets. They also did an early purchase promotion for 9th AE with heritage tokens.

The problem now is that people cannot readily buy the 9th AE box since it has been 2 years since release and the only retailers that have any, have old stock, which means the players cannot get the shadow/crystal housing set access now.

The problem would be solved if EA offered 9th AE housing tile "entitlement" as a for purchase code from the store.

To compound the annoyance in looking for official info, is that currently, if you type www.ea.com you are redirected to the EA Japan site, and if you select change country to U.S./Canada, you are directed back to Japanese.

They really make you work to buy UO. :-/

-Skylark

 

[Sheridan]

At the Town Hall in San Diego last week, someone mentioned that while many of the stores have no copies of 9th Anniversary on the shelves, some stores had boxes of them in their back storerooms still for sale. This particular individual that told us about this had purchased a number of copies this way from places like Babbages, Electronics Boutique, etc.

 

[Xotche of Meade]

At the townhall meeting in Maryland, we brought the same questions to the table. This time the actual marketer was there, we dragged her to the side and hounded about why can't we see our game cd's for sale.

An example was given as to why can we go to a clothing store (Hot Topics) and find a WoW cd for a buck and no UO cd? In her honesty, she was just appointed the position and will be ontop of the situation very soon. Like many others on the team, they are new and just now rolling up their sleeves.

But what was posted here has already been said, their latest updates have flopped. How do you market a product that is not ready? Do you know anyone who is playing KR? Personally I am still using the 2D client, no sounds and almost all my filters on. We're hooked pixel addicts, no need to market to us.

Our beloved game needs some fixing, I personally know someone who has played the game since Beta and is actively seeking a position with the UO development team, let's hope he gets it. Finally someone who actually plays UO, knows the field and can come work on the actual problems.

If it is any consequence 3 weeks ago, 2 of the dev team showed up to my local Best Buy here in DC to look into this situation. There is hope...

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

Get this ... interesting business policy.

Buy the SE version of UO.

Activate the account.

Go to uocodes.com and TRY TO UPGRADE to ML.

Unless it has changed after my experience, you will NOT be allowed to upgrade to ML untill you have paid at least one months subscription.

So if you got a SE with 45 day free trial and wanted to upgrade to ML, after finding out the SE version was NOT the most current version, you cant for at least 75 days. Cost to upgrade 2 accounts that way? $29US for uocodes.com

Go buy the 9th aniversary edition from an ebay store for $19. You forfiet one of the accounts (a free trial), you upgrade the other and create a new account. $29 vs $19. 75 day wait vs instant access to ML.

$29 to EA/Mythic vs $19 to 3rd party.

Makes all the sense in the world.

 

[Jeremy]

The 9th Anniversary box was a limited print run - it wasn't intended to be sold on the shelves indefinitely. To be perfectly honest, we'd expected it to be supplanted within a year by SA, which... obviously didn't happen.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Get this ... interesting business policy.

Buy the SE version of UO.

Activate the account.

Go to uocodes.com and TRY TO UPGRADE to ML.

Unless it has changed after my experience, you will NOT be allowed to upgrade to ML untill you have paid at least one months subscription.

So if you got a SE with 45 day free trial and wanted to upgrade to ML, after finding out the SE version was NOT the most current version, you cant for at least 75 days. Cost to upgrade 2 accounts that way? $29US for uocodes.com

Go buy the 9th aniversary edition from an ebay store for $19. You forfiet one of the accounts (a free trial), you upgrade the other and create a new account. $29 vs $19. 75 day wait vs instant access to ML.

$29 to EA/Mythic vs $19 to 3rd party.

Makes all the sense in the world.

I would open a business with you. There is so much flawed business logic around... I wonder.

You would think EA would be interested in getting some of that cash.

 

[Skylark SP]

Many people bought TONS of the 9th AE boxes on pre-order for the Heritage gifts, so there are probably enough unused free trial codes floating around to take care of many new account creations, which would then have access to the crystal/shadow housing tile sets...the catch is they have to know existing players in a forum of this sort, and ask. That limits such a solution to existing players wanting to open another account.

This doesn't help existing players wanting to upgrade EXISTING accounts to access the special crystal/shadow housing tiles nor does it help any new players who purchase an ML account code from the EA-Mythic store and then learn later about these tile sets...that they cannot access.

-Skylark

 

[Flora Green]

Y'all managed to put that special edition at Wal-Mart a couple years ago with the advanced characters in it. A lot of us (myself included) stocked up on those. Why not do something like that again?

 

[Flora Green]

So wait, let me get this straight (my brain is fried today). As an existing player if I purchase the 9th edition (at a stupidly high price) I still can't access the new tile sets? But, if I register a new account from the 9th edition I can? I'll reread your post Skylark cause I'm probably confused.

 

[kennykilleduo]

The 9th Anniversary box was a limited print run - it wasn't intended to be sold on the shelves indefinitely. To be perfectly honest, we'd expected it to be supplanted within a year by SA, which... obviously didn't happen.

But will it happen?

 

[Skylark SP]

So wait, let me get this straight (my brain is fried today). As an existing player if I purchase the 9th edition (at a stupidly high price) I still can't access the new tile sets? But, if I register a new account from the 9th edition I can? I'll reread your post Skylark cause I'm probably confused.

Sorry if I confused you. I'll try to clarify.

The 9th AE boxes were sold with 2 codes in each box. One code was to upgrade an existing account. The other code was to make a new account with a free trial subscription period. By way of example, I bought 3 boxes, and used the upgrade code on each box to upgrade my existing 3 UO accounts. Those accounts all show as "9th Anniversary" enabled now. That left me with 3 unused new account codes from the boxes to give to others to open new accounts for themselves. New accounts opened with those codes were both ML and 9th AE enabled.

So, the bottom line is if you want to upgrade an existing account, and have a 9th AE box with unused existing account upgrade codes, you are fine.

If you want to open a new account and have a 9th AE box with an unused new account free trial code, you are fine.

The problem? How to get those unused codes for your purpose? The 9th AE boxes are no longer readily available through normal retail avenues. In a particular area/region, you may not be able to get them at all.

-Skylark

 

[Jeremy]

Well, not within a year of 9th Anniversary.

 

[canary]

The 9th Anniversary box was a limited print run - it wasn't intended to be sold on the shelves indefinitely. To be perfectly honest, we'd expected it to be supplanted within a year by SA, which... obviously didn't happen.

Wow!!!

That is the most honest answer I have seen from a team member in some time (and no I'm not kidding)!!

I actually applaud you for your honesty.

 

[Eslake]

So the Marketting lady said she would be right on top of it did she?
20 to 1 if the TH would have been 10 months ago and you asked the exact same question, you would have recieved the exact same answer and we would still be where we are right now.

check out www.worldofwarcraft.com
then www.everquest.com
any of the other major games' main sites.

Step through the buttons to start a new account (just don't actually sign up for one)
Pretty easy isn't it?

Now go do the same thing from UO's site.
You can't.

To use the gamecodes store you have to already have an account that has been paid for at least 30 days. The other link (ea store) goes to 3rd party sites that no longer have it and on in-the-store which goes no where.


They have mentioned it being difficult to market a 2D client, and another comment was about stores taking the UO Risk...

They seriously need to fire their marketting team.
If they cannot creatively market the idea that UO is a Classic Game Environment rather than 3D, they have no business being in their field.

 

[Flora Green]

Oh you didn't confuse me, Skylark. I was already there. Too much Elmo, Curious George and Strawberry Shortcake. Not enough adult stimulation I think. Thanks for sorting out my jumbled thoughts on this.

 

[Jeremy]

Ack! I didn't realize that the gump actually said that. I'll let QA know - should be easy enough to fix.

 

[Mulch]

Would it not be more clever to sell 9th age codes on your website than outdated ML one?

But then it is ea .....