Heavensward CE preorders not being released in AUS???

[Zebyxus]

<snip>

And yet the retailers are pointing at SE being the reason, not the OFLC.

[CarmenSandiego]

Today 19/03/2015 when to my local EB game and ask about pre orders Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward he said only standard editions info in the system and I ask about collector's edition , "if you put $50AUD as pre orders deposit you are automatic upgrade to collector's edition"

So just to clarify this, (I work at EB in Australia) if you put $50 down your edition will NOT automatically upgrade. We need your permission first! What he probably meant is that we require a minimum of $50 put down on a pre-order for a product which is worth over $120, generally CEs and Hardware. However, if we get a new edition such as the CEs put in our system after the standard we will call those that have pre-ordered the standard and let them know there is a new edition available. To save the trouble of you coming back to the store, if you have put $50 down on the standard already, we can then ask you if you want us to cancel that pre-order and assign the $50 to the CE. To do this make sure your EB World Card has your phone number assigned to it and we can contact you. You can also ask them to leave a note in your pre-orders that you would be interested in this.

I'll let you all know when Heavensward is available on our system! On that note, if one EB doesn't have it listed in its system it means ALL don't, we have a nation-wide shared system, so contacting another store won't bring you any luck. But be sure to ask the person serving you to check PC, PS3 and PS4, and to look for either FFXIV or Heavensward. It's possible they might not recognise the name because its title is written in shorthand.

[Arielyanna]

So just to clarify this, (I work at EB in Australia) if you put $50 down your edition will NOT automatically upgrade. We need your permission first! What he probably meant is that we require a minimum of $50 put down on a pre-order for a product which is worth over $120, generally CEs and Hardware.However, if we get a new edition such as the CEs put in our system after the standard we will call those that have pre-ordered the standard and let them know there is a new edition available. To save the trouble of you coming back to the store, if you have put $50 down on the standard already, we can then ask you if you want us to cancel that pre-order and assign the $50 to the CE. To do this make sure your EB World Card has your phone number assigned to it and we can contact you. You can also ask them to leave a note in your pre-orders that you would be interested in this.

I'll let you all know when Heavensward is available on our system! On that note, if one EB doesn't have it listed in its system it means ALL don't, we have a nation-wide shared system, so contacting another store won't bring you any luck. But be sure to ask the person serving you to check PC, PS3 and PS4, and to look for either FFXIV or Heavensward. It's possible they might not recognise the name because its title is written in shorthand.

I fully preordered the Standard Edition of Heavensward yesterday at my local EB Games and the manager there (who also plays FFXIV and is after the physical CE for himself) is going to upgrade my order to the CE when it's announced automatically as he already has my permission to do so. He also spoke to the state manager (who was in the store as well) about this, who also contacted head office. Again (as I was told the other day) they are still waiting for their vendors to inform them if they can get the CE or not as they've only committed (at this time) for the standard edition. Hopefully in the next few days, we'll find out if we get the CE or not. So now... the waiting game continues...

[CarmenSandiego]

You can preorder the standard edition on PC for $79.95 or for PS4 for $89.95. There is no listing of it in the system for PS3. It's under the title FFXIV H/W + R/R. Weird that it has R/R (Realm Reborn) as well. It's unclear whether that means you get the expansion and the original game together as a bundle or if it's just a mistake in the name. So yeah, put $50 down if you want the CE so they can change your preorder when it gets added into the system later.

[Niqote]

You can preorder the standard edition on PC for $79.95 or for PS4 for $89.95. There is no listing of it in the system for PS3. It's under the title FFXIV H/W + R/R. Weird that it has R/R (Realm Reborn) as well. It's unclear whether that means you get the expansion and the original game together as a bundle or if it's just a mistake in the name. So yeah, put $50 down if you want the CE so they can change your preorder when it gets added into the system later.

Yeah I was at EB today to check it out too, the manager there said they are waiting on more info for the Boxed CE but pointed out that one.

I believe the H/W + R/R one on the system is the bundle version that they mentioned in the live letter.

[Altena]

I sent the following to SE email support. Curious as to how they will respond:

I am from Australia, and after reviewing the Australian Square-Enix store, I noticed that the physical collector's edition of the upcoming FFXIV patch (Heavensward) is not on the list.

I wish to purchase this, and was wondering as to the best way to go about it.

I am unsure as to why you have my country counted in the EU region, as we are nowhere near Europe. (Some people in the company may need to re-take geography at secondary school).

The American price is $129.99 USD, which equates to roughly $170 AUD, however if we were to purchase from the EU store, the price of the collector's edition would cost us close to $250 AUD (approximately 150% of the price that NA players are charged).

My major question here is how am I able to get my hands on a copy of the Heavensward Collector's Edition (Physical), and if I cannot purchase it at a semi-reasonable price, why is that the case? Myself, and many other Australians are willing to pay the extra money for the merchandise, however it appears to be unavailable from the AU store.

Are there any work around solutions to this major oversight? None of us are willing to pay 150% of the price that Americans are charged (especially considering it all gets converted into JPY and ends up the same in the Square-Enix pocket anyway), and even if we were - how would we go about purchasing it?

The only "solution" I can see would be to purchase a NA copy simply for the physical items (through a friend), and have that person ship it to us (effectively double dipping on shipping cost), and considering the actual game is region specific this would require us to purchase a Digital Download (Collector's Edition) from the AU store, which would increase the total cost from $170 AUD to $240 (plus shipping).

If there is no solution other then the one I mentioned above, please take this up with your superiors and rectify this huge problem.

Simply unlocking the region specific code (allowing us to download a copy of the game after purchasing an NA collector's edition) should suffice - but considering we have to effectively purchase two copies of the collector's edition (Physical from US store, and Download from AU store) is beyond ridiculous.

[Arthen_Fushichou]

I'm interested in that reply as well, However I would like to point out that the reason the prices are so high are probably due to the following example of how it all gets to Australia/New Zealand.

1) Square Enix has ordered the stock to be made.
2) Stock is sent to the Shipping Company -> Going to the Distributor in Australia/New Zealand.
3) Stock is then sent to Retailers.
4) Stock is then brought by us.

*My post was too long see below for more.

[Arthen_Fushichou]

- Say the product is sent to the Distributor in Australia/New Zealand @ $100 USD.
- Now factor in Shipping Costs/Freight Charges/Duty/GST etc on top of each unit.
- Say it costs a $1000AUD freight for 100 Units of Stock including everything.
- That's $10AUD Freight added per unit from USA to Australia.
- Then the USD to AUD Exchange rate of say 10%. $110AUD per unit.
- Then the added cost of how much the distributor takes say 10% each + 10% GST. So that's like what $133.10AUD per unit.
- Then the Distributor sells to the retailer for $133.10AUD.
- Then there's a freight charges sent to different retailers if any.
- Now the retailers are probably trying to get like at least a 1/3 margin if not more so say 133.10 + 33% + 10% GST including any freight. = $194.7253
- Then the retailers sell the product at the (Recommended Retail Price) or RRP of $200.

*Please note that this is only an example and does not represent correct pricing or marigns for anything.

[Okottekoneko]

I looked online on the EU store and the physical edition is not available.

I emailed them questioning them on it and this is the reply i got.
So if EB and that sell out there will be no hope from SE


"Thank you for contacting the Square Enix Support Centre.


We are very sorry that you have been experiencing issues ordering Heavensward.

Our store unfortunately, does not ship boxed games to your country and we apologise for that.

We can only advise you to look online for retailers that might have the Collector's Edition for sale and ship to your current location, simply keep in mind that the game needs to match your Square Enix account region.

Should you require further assistance, please advise.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

[Amaranths]

Hope the wait to get CE box to be at EB is not to much longer SE should of been on top of this from day one this is just ridiculous