Is the Physical CE a SE store exclusive?

[Geesus]

Greetings,

I'm only speaking for the North America side, but no, the FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward Collector's Edition is not a Square Enix Online Store exclusive. However, other retailers will only have it available in limited quantities when compared to the Square Enix Online Store.

So. I just left the Gamestop across the street and they had NO IDEA if they were getting Physical CE boxes or not. Now, I don't know if we are supposed to WAIT for a yay or nay at 2 PM EST but, that does not bode well. If they were like, "Yeah we are but, we can't place your order until 2." I would have waited. but with the advent of JP orders selling out in 1 hour AND the crash of EU store orders, I'm not taking that chance. Someone at SE dropped the ball on this.

[Geesus]

And site is down and when it IS UP, not showing a CE of Heavensward at all. -.-

[Ecks007]

Yeah, I've been checking NA GameStop too. I called my local store earlier and talked to a guy, basically he said it wasn't in their system and to see if it gets updated tomorrow..... I don't want to wait for tomorrow if it's a limited quantity item. :/

[Mrfox0707]

I just called Best Buy. They also said it's not in their systems to pre -order. Lady told me the company is wait for SE to give them the ok to put it up for order. So..it may just take a bit longer for it to pop on those retailers.

[Katsaria]

I just called Best Buy. They also said it's not in their systems to pre -order. Lady told me the company is wait for SE to give them the ok to put it up for order. So..it may just take a bit longer for it to pop on those retailers.

Not surprising really. They get a larger cut if we buy directly from them. They'll open the floodgates when most of the dedicated fans have already pre-ordered from them.

[ThaiChi]

Greetings,
I'm only speaking for the North America side, but no, the FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward Collector's Edition is not a Square Enix Online Store exclusive. However, other retailers will only have it available in limited quantities when compared to the Square Enix Online Store.

Kinda interesting how this is worded. This seems to imply that the SE has unlimited quantity. Does this mean everyone who tries to purchase through SE is guaranteed to get a physical copy of the collectors ed? Right now trying to buy off the SE online store is just as much a nightmare as when Digital River was their online partner. SE has picked some sketchy affiliates with click-and-buy and digital river. I really hope that by forcing the consumer to do buy directly from SE promises us the physical CE, because honestly I'd rather give my business to Best Buy, Amazon or GameStop. If the SE site is going to sell out, I'll take my chances with other retailers.

[Firesped]

theoretically, SE should have unlimited quantity because they should be able to make more physical CE with the more people that place the order for it. I have the pc CE in my cart right now but the checkout won't load, neither will the account settings on the store.

[ThaiChi]

So pretty much I was trying to confirm that there is no rush. Obviously there's a lot of site traffic that's reminiscent of trying to get into comic-con but those badges are very limited and high demand. But if buying through SE directly means that I can at any time place my order, rather being first-in-line on a digital storefront, people can just do this later. After nearly two hours of trying though, I finally got through all the site traffic. Two CEs and two early access codes ready to go. This is a step up from the previous affiliate, but damn it all if I didn't get the same blasted invalid login errors Digital River gave me. At least it didn't invalidate my email like before, requiring me to input 3 emails before I completely gave up.

[Mrfox0707]

Anyone anywhere have any news on NA stores ie Best Buy/Gamestop starting their preorders for the physical Heavnsward CE yet?

[Avenger]

ARR CE was not a SE store exclusive. i got ARR CE from gamestop. amazon also had the CE during that time.

At this moment, ARR/2.0 CE is still available at list price from the Square Enix store.

Amazon, however, seems to have finally sold out of their legitimate stock, so now it's being sold at ridiculous markup (200% or more? not worth it even with "free" shipping!) by the usual scalpers and scammers that infest Amazon. I guess some people buy cheap NPC shop goods for absurd prices on the market board, so maybe it's ignorance, or money laundering... Amazon desperately needs a "warning: you are paying 200% over list price" feature.

You can still get the 1.0 CE from Amazon though.
Fortunately they do warn you that 1.0 is not actually playable (not in the sense of having problems with gameplay or performance, but rather in the sense that 1.0 has been shut down and replaced by ARR, though the codes might still work for ARR, which is nice!!)

It's possible that 3.0 will be much worse than 1.0 and 2.0 CE in terms of availability and scammers trying to cash in, but hopefully not!

In other good news, the Mac version (download only?) seems to be available for pre-order now!!