About the EU campaign for maid outfit and fat chocobo

[Miyafuji]

My first thought when they announced this promotion was "Does GameMaster even still exist?" Which, no it doesn't where I live (I live in the UK). It hasn't been stocked for many years for probably good reasons, it's a trash magazine in the world of online journalism. Also it's incredibly dodgy to be required to send in pictures of yourself to a magazine to be able to redeem something. Thanks for the offer, SE But I'll have to pass.

[BunnyChain]

Bad, SE. Bad!

Assuming one would actually cave in and buy them... Will there be enough printed issues? (By the looks once they are out they are out.)
And if you can't buy the 3rd one, you won't get the items people care the most about and won't be able to get the mount?

[LaylaTsarra]

Seems the full details are here for the current promotion. http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...3c16b84020f539

Also interesting to see that a lot of countries aren't included. One only has to wonder what they'll need to do to qualify.

Note: Separate campaigns offering the same in-game items are currently being planned for those residing in: France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Nordic territories. Further details on these campaigns will be posted at a later date.

[LittleWulfie]

Bad, SE. Bad!

Assuming one would actually cave in and buy them... Will there be enough printed issues? (By the looks once they are out they are out.)
And if you can't buy the 3rd one, you won't get the items people care the most about and won't be able to get the mount?

Oh man! I didn't even think about availability! The magazine hasn't sold well recently, and I'd expect that even the biggest shops may only have up to 5 copies, disregarding the fact many shops don't even stock it because people haven't bought it. It is entirely possible there aren't enough copies for all UK players.

[Nenelle]

So I just made a forum account to comment on this.

I'm so utterly disappointed (and mad) about this "promo". I've been wanting to get the maid/butler outfit since it was first announced as a 7/11 promo for Japan. They told us it would later come to US/EU and we waited patiently for it, just to see how it was made available for the US and we Europeans had to wait again. And now this?? After all this waiting we still need to wait 3 more months to get all the items?

That's not fair, I tell you.

[Eldevern]

Super... they are just waking up the old contacts and promo methods from 80's. O_O I've never imagined I could see this again.

Only for UK? I'm afraid to think it is just the publishing compagny that will change from a country to another. And only one code for customer? What a joke. What about people from the same family? Obliged to buy several time the same thing? Amazon promo what pretty more fair.

Money for money, just put this in Mog Station...

*Disappointed*

[jameseoakes]

Who even reads these magazines anymore?
This might be the worst thing the 14 team has done to date and there has been some terrible ideas

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

Pretty inconvenient and doesn't benefit the users as much as NA and JP promos did (like, at least there it was a bonus to buying stuff on Amazon or drinks).
Really out of touch. But hey, at least it ships to more countries than SE's own European store.

[BunnyChain]

Oh man! I didn't even think about availability! The magazine hasn't sold well recently, and I'd expect that even the biggest shops may only have up to 5 copies, disregarding the fact many shops don't even stock it because people haven't bought it. It is entirely possible there aren't enough copies for all UK players.

Wikipedia lists "Circulation 17,492 (Jan - Dec 2013)"
According to the latest unofficial census there are about 122k active characters on EU servers. Let's assume 1/2 of those are accounts (each person has 2 characters) which is likely to be less in reality, about 61k accounts. And let's say only 1/2 of those will want to buy the issue. That is still almost 2x as much as they sell on average.

edit: I'm seeing the 3rd issue being sold for 100€ on ebay.

[Rin_Sato]

The important thing to realise is that the tax in a lot of EU countries can more than double the cost of these, so even if all 3 magazines required to get all the codes costed 25 euros all in one, the tax+shipping will probably bump it up to over 50 euros. That's 55+ USD for a magazine you will never read.