Despite many years of being an avid gamer, I have never once preordered. I always wait until the game’s out awhile and get the skinny. However, I don’t want to miss out on my guild’s fun in WoW, not to mention being reportedly unable to level - so I need me that Burning Crusade expansion ASAP.
I’m concerned about preordering locally, as the local places around here have famously bad history with friends preordering - an individual store will often stand by an incorrect and very late release date and refuse to sell (for even a week or two later). I’m too nervous to just wait to see if I can get it off the shelf, though.
Yet, if I preorder on Amazon, don’t I have to wait for it to be shipped? Doesn’t this take a lot longer? Or do they ship ahead of time? (Would free shipping be an option)?
Basically, I want to have an expansion in my hand on the day it’s released. What’s the best way?
I pre-ordered Flight Simulator X from amazon.com which I wanted badly on the release date just because I wanted it. They didn’t ship until the release date so I got it about 5 days later. In the meantime, I had gone to Target where they had plenty of copies but I just had to wait.
It doesn’t make sense to me that you won’t be able to level without the expansion, unless, of course, you’re talking about lvl 60s wanting to reach 70.
Anyway, I just preordered two games yesterday from Amazon, one of which is the BC expansion. According to my order, they’ll ship the game to me on the 16th, the same day it comes out, with an estimated delivery date of the 20th-23rd. I could have chosen free 2-day shipping, but I chose not to, for some reason I don’t recall right now.
In your situation, I would preorder from Amazon and get the 2-day shipping. I suppose you could take a chance and try to get your copy locally, but given the popularity of WoW, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Besides, since you know the local places suck, why risk the stress, and why give them business?
I think it varies, both between companies and specific instances.
I do know that, if you pre-order software directly from Apple, they will ship it out so that it arrives at your house on the release date - and sometimes, if you’re lucky, they screw up and you get it early.
I’ve googled to no avail, but in-game, I’ve heard rumors that Amazon and other retails are shipping this particular game in advance. How do I find out?
My roommate, who orders stuff much more frequently than I do, says that Amazon occasionally will ship preordered items just before the release date so that you actually receive the item on release date. But I don’t know if this will be the case for BC.