Amazon guide Sept 10 (postponed)

[Brian Boru]

It says seller - Gamestop, available for pre-order from Gamestop. Somone more familiar with B&N can comment on whether this is normal for their website to list books they aren't actually selling.

Don't know if it's normal, but B&N used to own GameStop until ~5 years ago. B&N's major shareholder & founder [Riggio] had a lot of shares in GameStop, sold a chunk of them last year, and afaik still has some. All to support pure speculation that B&N may have some 'uncommon arrangement' with GameStop.

 

[craig123]

Amazon.co.uk says it's available on 21 October

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Civilization-V-Official-Strategy-Guide/dp/0744012457/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284108186&sr=8-3

 

[krunsh]

Not available at amazon.ca either...

 

[Luft46]

I see that the guide is now "Temporarily out of stock" at Amazon,com - I wonder if that means it sold out that quick, or they never had them to start with....

Civilization V Official Strategy Guide at Amazon.com

 

[Tylerryan79]

They probably got the wrong date, seeing as barnes and noble and gamestop say the 14th.

 

[Zhahz]

Barnes and Noble said the 10th yesterday and had it priced almost the same as amazon, now it's full price and the 14th. Amazon was doing pre-orders a few hours ago now out of stock? Mmmhmmm. Something is afoot! I was gonna check AT a local B&N but looks like I'll be waiting.

 

[Tylerryan79]

My sister was just at B&N and I asked her to take a look for me. She didnt see it, but knowing her there could have been a huge banner with an arrow pointing to them, and she'd still walk by it.

 

[2K Greg]

Hey guys, I just checked in to this and the street date for the strategy guide is the 21st of September. I don't know why so many retailers have the wrong date listed, but I wouldn't expect to actually get it until then at the earliest.

 

[Col Kurtz]

Hey guys, I just checked in to this and the street date for the strategy guide is the 21st of September. I don't know why so many retailers have the wrong date listed, but I wouldn't expect to actually get it until then at the earliest.

Thanks for the response, Greg!

That saves me considering buying/looking at it at all.

 

[D-Man777]

Hey guys, I just checked in to this and the street date for the strategy guide is the 21st of September. I don't know why so many retailers have the wrong date listed, but I wouldn't expect to actually get it until then at the earliest.

Great to hear since I placed my order yesterday morning. So much for getting anything Civ V related before the apparent line in the sand that 2K has drawn that is September 21, 2010.

So, Greg, any news on the possibility of seeing the pdf manual early? -sigh-

 

[Thormodr]

Oh well. It was to be expected I guess.

They lost my sale anyway. The only reason I'd buy the book would be to familiarize myself with the game beforehand somewhat and get a sort of sneak peak into the game.

Now, it's almost a complete waste of money as the book will be dated already when the game comes out.

 

[Guardian_PL]

Yup, they probably did that ruse to lure many people into buying the stuff, then pulled it back hoping that folks won't cancel.
It's the same sort of crap as this guy SirMaru does, going on about Strategy Guide in Kindle format here on CivFanatics, on 2K forums as well as Steam forums and who knows where else

It's kind of sad that there're so many dirty tactics like that nowadays... I guess there's more simpletons with Internet access now, so perhaps some poor souls are really going for the whole "congratulations! You're a 100,000 visitor on this site! Click here to claim brand new Apple iPad!" idea...

 

[Stutz788]

Given the printers lead time to publish a book... How long ago was this "guide" compiled?
I think too long ago to be of any use.

 

[Thorburne]

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!

I just got an email from Amazon about my order for the guide! It tells me about a new date for the arrival date...

Estimated arrival date: October 28 2010 - December 27 2010

This is crazy!!! You can bet that I am canceling my order and they better be glad if I decide to not go after them for false advertisment and misdirection!

 

[rastak]

Hey guys, I just checked in to this and the street date for the strategy guide is the 21st of September. I don't know why so many retailers have the wrong date listed, but I wouldn't expect to actually get it until then at the earliest.

Thanks.....saved me some screwing around trying to find it.

 

[D-Man777]

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!

I just got an email from Amazon about my order for the guide! It tells me about a new date for the arrival date...



This is crazy!!! You can bet that I am canceling my order and they better be glad if I decide to not go after them for false advertisment and misdirection!

Yeah, pretty crappy. I checked the site and it says "usually ships in 1-4 MONTHS".

Order cancelled.

 

[Twahn]

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!

I just got an email from Amazon about my order for the guide! It tells me about a new date for the arrival date...

I've seen Amazon do this at least two times this year with new release items. It seems to be part of their marketing strategy to list something as available at Amazon before it actually is and then put back the release date at the last second.

I hope somebody puts an end to it soon though. It's annoying and mis-representative. And it's no accident. I'm sure it gets them sales.

 

[craig123]

Look on the bright side: If it had have been released now it would be based on an old build of the game and it would have been wrong when the game was released.

As for Amazon.com and other sites lying about when it will be ready:

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I've seen Amazon do this at least two times this year with new release items. It seems to be part of their marketing strategy to list something as available at Amazon before it actually is and then put back the release date at the last second.

I hope somebody puts an end to it soon though. It's annoying and mis-representative. And it's no accident. I'm sure it gets them sales.

Have you ever dealt with sorting multiple release dates from a multitude of sources? Vendors often get bad or incomplete information; from studios, distributors, etc. Occasionally they'll get two different dates from the same people. I'm not Amazon's biggest fan, but I'm not ready to pin that from them (especially considering several other retailers ALSO had incorrect dates). Even if the mistake was on Amazon's part, I'm finding it kind of hard to believe that it was part of some nefarious plot to get your $13.59.

My guess that is the date that the guide's producer gave them several months ago but never updated. Please trust me on this--this happens ALL THE TIME. Getting product information from some companies is like pulling teeth.

 

[civzombie]

"Vendors often get bad or incomplete information; from studios, distributors, etc. Occasionally they'll get two different dates from the same people."

Yea, but do they indicate that it is bad or incomplete, for example, by putting "not yet available" for the release date? No, they do not. In fact, I bet if they got two different dates from the same people they would just go with the earlier of the two as a matter of course.

It reminds me of game developers giving false expected release dates. Bush league developers will throw out the earliest possible date (they that probably know they cant hit) to get on the radar and then just delay, delay, delay. Smart more experienced game developers will wait until they are sure before releasing the date.