Why offer merchandise exclusive minions/items when they almost instantly sell out?

It's pretty annoying when merchandise that offers items are almost always out of stock.

Not to mention that I've been waiting for the "Before Meteor" soundtrack to go up and it finally did but without the Wind-Up Dalamud. At this point they should just add the minions to the store if they can't keep up with the supply and demand.

I doubt SE cares at this point but I'm just venting out my petty frustration.

It is horribly frustrating though, especially the minion stuff. Why only add that to the first few? That only causes people to want to buy it less. If they didn't limit ti that much, people who manage to buy it now atr going to buy it anyway, but the ones who don't manage to now would more probably do that if the stock and ingame-bonus wasn't so limited.
I wanted to buy the soundtrack, but since there won't be the minion that you originally got with it... Meh, i can just listen to it on youtube.

I just want those prime mogs..

So more people will buy them. These posts are a prime example.

To this day, I am STILL on the waiting list for the emerald carbuncle....

The idea of first-run bonuses is to promote preorders. Preorder, and you'll get the reward. Don't preorder, and you might lose out.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

The idea of first-run bonuses is to promote preorders. Preorder, and you'll get the reward. Don't preorder, and you might lose out.

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But what if you pre-order and still don't get the reward?
(Fortunately I have never been in this situation but still)

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Originally Posted by Paladinleeds

But what if you pre-order and still don't get the reward?
(Fortunately I have never been in this situation but still)

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That has never been a case with items I purchase with SE so I cannot speak on that. But that is the intention behind first-run copies, as they are the first copies to be delivered/sold.

You would get even more sales if you include the minions. Removing the minions is dumb and hurts your sales and profit. I mean it's only pixels. They can't run out of pixels. They should seriously bring back the minions on these items and send the ones that bought the CDs without the minions a code to get theirs, too.

I probably wouldn't be so peeved about it if the actual line situation hadn't been such a mess. I got there an hour early, and was tossed between 4 different lines before being told the line closed. I managed to get a red ticket at least, but missed out on the lore book, which was the main thing I wanted (besides Fat Cat)

I understand the idea of preorder bonuses, but I wish the older soundtracks were still available for purchase with the minions. I collect the minions and I would really like the wind-up Bahamut minion since T13 is probably my favorite fight. But it's doubtful they'll ever make it available again. And I can kind of understand why, because then people would probably ask for them to make the Cait Sith Doll available again (as it was a ARR preorder bonus, it kind of falls in the same category as the soundtrack minions). And my friends in game would probably have a fit over that. Myself, I don't really care if they made, for example, the carbuncle minions available again because I had it first but. It is what it is.

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Originally Posted by Esp

To this day, I am STILL on the waiting list for the emerald carbuncle....

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I finally bought the carbuncle plushies from an independent seller on Amazon because I was on the waiting list for months and got tired of waiting. I do recall getting an email shortly after that they were available again in the SE Store, but I'm not sure if that's still the case now or not.

I'm just sticking to preordering stuff now so I can get the bonuses (I preordered the HW OST because that Spoony Bard minion ;_; plus the music in this game is just amazing, as per FF standards). I do wish they offered more than just Bluray for the OSTs. >.>

This is sort of a sidetrack from the thread, and I'm not sure if anyone plays LoV much, but are any of these "bonus minions" particularly overpowered in LoV?

I agree. Now of course I don't know the actual situation, but I'm pretty sure the amount of pre-orders pales to how many of a certain merch they sell after it got released.
Pre-orders are nice for the seller since you "know" you will be selling those while how much you sell afterwards can be anything between 0 and infinity, I get that.
Still, I think they are totally shooting themselves in the foot with this.
I really, REALLY wanted the soundtrack minions, but at the time of release, I couldn't just throw an additional 100€ for 2 CDs at SE.
The next month the soundtrack was out of stock, and when it finally came back, the minion was removed.
Just like the second poster in this thread, my motivation to buy went from 100 to 0%, since I can just listen to nearly all of the songs even without buying the soundtrack.

It's even worse when pretty much the only way to get one of the "limited" first ones with the code is through a RL event that is either super far away and therefore not exactly possible to visit for everyone
AND the selling of merchandise is so absolutely horribly organized that it doesn't even work out for those who attend and spend the entire time there trying to obtain said merch >.>

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Originally Posted by Esp

To this day, I am STILL on the waiting list for the emerald carbuncle....

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I recently bought the topaz carbuncle plush, and they both are in stock in the American store.

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Originally Posted by Ninster

This is sort of a sidetrack from the thread, and I'm not sure if anyone plays LoV much, but are any of these "bonus minions" particularly overpowered in LoV?

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I have every single minion available through merch purchases, and haven't found any of them to be particularly useful.

I also like my item exclusivity. Wind-up Dalamud means more to me because I know he's not available anymore. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. ;)

The minion thing is a nice bonus, but they haven't swayed me into purchasing an item.

I have the Relm minion. I have no connection to the character, so having it just get's me closer to the next achievement, but all I cared about was the awesome artbook. I never use her despite being an extremely rare minion. I like my Owlet and Coblyn Larva better.

I feel like I'm on the opposite side of people getting angry vanity bonuses are attached to merchadise. They are bonuses, and if a minion or emote tied to (locked behind?) merch makes you that mad, then you've got it made.

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Originally Posted by Genaxx

So more people will buy them. These posts are a prime example.

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I'd love to buy them if they were not on Waiting List for months and months on end, not to mention the "Before Meteor" came back without the minion. If you look at the time it came back it took months. There's also the fact that the Soundtrack "A Realm Reborn" with the minion sold out in almost 3 days presumably because it had a minion.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

The idea of first-run bonuses is to promote preorders. Preorder, and you'll get the reward. Don't preorder, and you might lose out.

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First-run bonuses are cool and all but there's a lot of people that are not fans of unobtainable items, even more so when they started playing later than that item came out. It's just kind of a shame when you can't even obtain something no matter how hard you work or strive for it.

Sorry for the long post, I was out for most of the day yesterday.

Oh look, Final Fantasy Lore Book is already sold out, woo..

Don't the Japanese go bananas for the whole rarity schtick? That's what I always figured was the case when looking at pre-order bonuses from Square-Enix.

Obviously not the best course of action when you're trying to be a global company, but it may be a "When in Rome..." thing.

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Originally Posted by SessionZero

Don't the Japanese go bananas for the whole rarity schtick? That's what I always figured was the case when looking at pre-order bonuses from Square-Enix.

Obviously not the best course of action when you're trying to be a global company, but it may be a "When in Rome..." thing.

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I guess so, but at this point Final Fantasy as a franchise has grown and spread to the point that it's huge. A friend of mine also said when he went to Japan he saw multiple stores selling FFXIV merchandise that were sold out on the SE store so that was also a shock.

[QUOTE=Bloodyrains;3895222]It's pretty annoying when merchandise that offers items are almost always out of stock. /QUOTE]
From a business man's perspective, this is really good to do from this side. Not making too many of them, selling them> out of stocks = people wants it. That means they doing well and the hype is even bigger, this is normal and it's good they are sold out, means people wants it. If they never did, it would mean it was a bad product.

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Originally Posted by HungryHippo

From a business man's perspective, this is really good to do from this side. Not making too many of them, selling them> out of stocks = people wants it. That means they doing well and the hype is even bigger, this is normal and it's good they are sold out, means people wants it. If they never did, it would mean it was a bad product.

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Brings out the scalpers also, there a person on ebay selling the mog slippers for $129, the lore book for $250 and the odin statue for $500

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Originally Posted by Lexia

Brings out the scalpers also, there a person on ebay selling the mog slippers for $129, the lore book for $250 and the odin statue for $500

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Yea, plus people's hype turn more into anger and frustration when they sell out in a few hours. If I recall correctly SE seems to hate scalpers greatly.

It is to create false demand, look at what nintendo did with fire emblem Fates, those things were 70USD but were selling for 200 USD. And it wasn't because it was highly valued or anything but it was because they intentionally made it seem like the copies were scarce.

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Originally Posted by OMGAFLYINGPENGUIN

It is to create false demand, look at what nintendo did with fire emblem Fates, those things were 70USD but were selling for 200 USD. And it wasn't because it was highly valued or anything but it was because they intentionally made it seem like the copies were scarce.

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Artificial demand normally only works for a short time or in short bursts, at this point it seems that it's hurting SE and helping scalpers more.

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Originally Posted by OMGAFLYINGPENGUIN

snip.

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That was for the special pre-order edition. It was kind an ordeal since it was the only way to have both Birthright and Conquest on one cartridge, and it was bundled with an early access code for Revelation. And that's just the game itself, as it came with an exclusive 3DS case and I believe an art book.

It was also limited pre-order and actually scarce. Most stores sold out within the first day, so most players were forced to either buy the single story carts separately, get one cart and buy the other storylines as half-price discounted DLC, or all three digitally with the same pricing structure.

Basically, some crazies were so against the digital idea, despite the massive discount, that they were open to purchase the scalped special edition to have the hard copies.

SE could also just offer digital versions of the books/soundtracks with the minions, having the physical copy is nice but if they can't seem to produce that much they could always have this as an alternative.

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Originally Posted by Bloodyrains

SE could also just offer digital versions of the books/soundtracks with the minions, having the physical copy is nice but if they can't seem to produce that much they could always have this as an alternative.

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Japan, specifically fandom in the country, is a place that greatly values physical items. The idea of digital goods is almost a waste of effort in that market, especially if the initial goal is aimed at being collectables or rare goods. Obviously that doesn't make sense to us in the west, but it is what it is. They might do it if there's enough demand, but it's unlikely mostly due to the different outlook on such goods.

You know if they need limited bonus items with their merchandise because otherwise their JP fanbase would not buy them that much..how about putting some really nice RL bonus with it? Like some stickers or even a signed artwork for the first few units..This would be something with a real life value (and wont be gone if the game is gone..) and put those minions and other ingame items in every merchandise. It does not cost that much to produce more codes..and we already have people posting that they would buy it if they still had the minions...I also wanted the music, but at the same time I did not feel like buying a version without the minion..so imo they would probably make more money if they put in limited RL bonus items and on top of that always the minions..

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Originally Posted by Bloodyrains

SE could also just offer digital versions of the books/soundtracks with the minions, having the physical copy is nice but if they can't seem to produce that much they could always have this as an alternative.

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Some of the soundtracks are on iTunes but without a minion. Many of them have no album purchase option. So if you want an entire OST that has over 100 tracks, you are basically paying double or triple the cost of the physical album having to buy every track separately...

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Japan, specifically fandom in the country, is a place that greatly values physical items. The idea of digital goods is almost a waste of effort in that market, especially if the initial goal is aimed at being collectables or rare goods.

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Personally I value physical merchandise a lot more than digital, but at this point it's so hard to obtain the physical copy without waiting an absurd amount of time or shelling out a lot more money than the original product was going for. I do understand the culture but it does seem a little strange not to make a few acceptations since SE has branched out so far.

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Originally Posted by ReplicaX

Some of the soundtracks are on iTunes but without a minion.

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Yea, the soundtracks are already there, they just need to bundle it and add the minion(s).

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Originally Posted by Bloodyrains

Yea, the soundtracks are already there, they just need to bundle it and add the minion(s).

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Physical copy on the SE store for $49.99.
On iTunes, 119 tracks X $1.29 USD = $153.51 for a digital version.

I believe this is due to Apple's policy with partial albums. As the BR disc has the hidden bonus 120th track for Battle on the Big Bridge, which is not included on iTunes.

How does one run out of digital copies of anything?

Isn't it digital to produce an infinitesimal amount in the first place? Why are there limited runs of digital goods? I thought the purpose of digital goods is so that anyone can purchase them. Instead, it almost seems like you're lording status. Kind of demeans diversity but I'm not a "bidness" person. This game gets enough of my monies.

I want that Zantetsuken emote... but I can't justify paying $140.00 USD for the epically cool Odin statue to get it..

-Signed

A Canadian who's being skewered by an extremely high dollar...

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Originally Posted by Genaxx

So more people will buy them. These posts are a prime example.

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To be fair, if they put those minions up as a "premium minion," they'd likely get even more sales. Plenty of people aren't interested in plushies for $40 but would spend $10-15 on the minion. And people who do want the actual items will still buy those because the minion isn't why they're purchasing it.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

To be fair, if they put those minions up as a "premium minion," they'd likely get even more sales. Plenty of people aren't interested in plushies for $40 but would spend $10-15 on the minion. And people who do want the actual items will still buy those because the minion isn't why they're purchasing it.

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TBH $50 for a plush that gets smashed into a box that barely fits it bent over onto itself is way too much if it did not come with the minion lol. I just bought them because I really liked them. If they weren't carbuncle/moogles I would not have paid for them. Even $30 is too much for those plushes. If I were at a con and saw it for $30 I would laugh and move on to something with better value / quality like my ginormous alpaca I can cuddle with at least.

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Originally Posted by enthauptet

TBH $50 for a plush that gets smashed into a box that barely fits it bent over onto itself is way too much if it did not come with the minion lol. I just bought them because I really liked them. If they weren't carbuncle/moogles I would not have paid for them. Even $30 is too much for those plushes. If I were at a con and saw it for $30 I would laugh and move on to something with better value / quality like my ginormous alpaca I can cuddle with at least.

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It seems like some people don't really care for the merchandise and just want the minion which is understandable.