From: "D. B."
Subject: Beyond Good and Evil - Something you probably did not know....
Randy,
I just read your article about the best games of 2003. Beyond Good
and
Evil was a great game with much deserved praise! I do have an "interesting"
story about the partial reason why it didn't make much of a spalsh
as they
intended although most people involved probably won't fess up.
:) If only
I kept my emails... :) Basically, I got that game hot off the shelf
the
day it came out. EBGames.com had it listed as "Shipping in 24
Hours" and
they had a copy of it selling at the local Electronics Boutique store.
I
quickly picked it up and installed it. When I got to the registration
part
I filled out all the required fields except "platform" because
the only
choice listed was "Playstation 2". I realized right away
that their
registration page was going to generate a lot of false
demographics because Playstation 2 was the only choise given so I emailed
their webmaster. The email I got back was "This game is only available
for
Playstation 2 currently. How did I get a copy and where did I get it from."
I immediately provided the store location and a link to Ebgames.com
to prove
that it was "Available in 24 Hours". The webmaster sent
me another email
afterwards stating that my information had been sent to his superiors
and that EB dropped the ball on it and that the game shouldn't have hit the
shelves yet. If it had been held until marketing had finished hyping it and
after the Thanksgiving rush the game would have had a better chance to sell.
I still cannot believe
the steal people are getting for such a great game.
I hope that this does not hurt their intentions of creating a sequel.
That's about the whole story from my end. I have heard from
some
other
people that video game stores have done this before which has caused
> problems with sales. Don't know how much of a story is out there
on such
a wide topic but I thought I'd share with you my experience with
this
particular title because it deserves much needed praise.
D. B.
