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Thread: Distribution in Asia-Pacific and query for Funcom marketing

  1. #1

    Distribution in Asia-Pacific and query for Funcom marketing

    Starting a thread for those of us who live in Asia and the Oceania regions.

    ---------

    Here's the fact:
    The Asia-Pacific region is teeming with active and dedicated gamers and there are many games being well-marketed and distributed and supported in this huge region. Where MMORPGS are concerned, games like EQ, AC, UO, Lineage and SWG will enter gaming conversations easily. However, Anarchy Online has neither top-of-the-mind presence nor shelf presence.

    Here's my experience:
    In Singapore, I have only ever seen a display box of AO (yes the empty display box type) way back in July 2001 and it stayed displayed for only a week. Stores here do not carry AO much less heard of the Notum Wars booster. All of the Singaporeans I know still playing (not many of us left as numbers have been dwindling over the year) ... all downloaded AO during Live Launch. We do not have the AO cd.

    For myself, I recently had NW activated as an ingame friend very kindly and sweetly gave me the booster as a christmas present. More likely he took pity on me also, heh. However, as a customer, I remain highly concerned about getting future boosters and expansion packs.

    Here's my query for Funcom marketing:
    It is obvious your main distribution efforts are for the North America and Europe markets but will you eventually look into the distribution for Asia-Pacific? If not, then will download options be made available after a suitable lead-time for shelf sales has passed?
    Ino
    rolling leet, crouching tiger, hidden dragon

    Pioneer rifle/crossbow Vanguard with a personal sidearm and a campstove
    Atlantean

    AO Adventurer Professional (2003-2004)


    Map design suggestion for mapmakers

  2. #2
    Very very agree. I am living in HK and I play AO more than 20 hrs a week. I really like the game and want the NW installed in my PC. But you know, I never seen any NW selling in our Game shops.

    IMO, Funcom u know APAC is a huge demand in MMORPG. Many successful story here happened. Even some local MMORPG are very successful and money making. Why not you guys come and visit the Asia Game Show 2002? You see what APac market look like. You see chance to get big money here. Now you dont see, all the money is going to other company's pocket not yours. AO sooner or later will be forgot by us if you do nothing here.

    Suggestion 1, get someone here to promote your game and setup a local server in APAC. Do a Chinese localization version (Traditional and Simplfied) to sell in APAC. I tell you EQ is now entering China market. You all Funcom marketing know China is a real big market. So do something instead of getting huge salary every month sitting in office.

    Suggestion 2, I think enhancing the content is great, but why not add some more fun like multi planet traveling by Vehicle. So that we can explore more worlds instead of Rubi-ka only? What I can see is SWG gives this option and sooner or later is need such elements in the game. Or may be add something similar like Earth and Beyond. They are great SF MMORPG.

    I like AO and I want it be better enough to hold players in game. Ask yourself if a MMORPG become less and less ppl to play, what is the point to play the game????

    period.

  3. #3
    Its not just in Asia-pacific. AO gets no shelf space anywhere that i am aware of.

    On the 28th of december me and a friend went around looking at all the local stores to see if any of them stocked AO and/or NW. We checked close to 2 dozen stores in the city of which probably 10 were EBgames. not only was there not a single copy of NW for sale in the entire city we only saw 1 copy of AO on the shelves of all those stores(was in future shop). We literally came across 100s of copies of AC2 and the new eq and DAOC expansions during our travels though. Even the the copy of AO was price to stop it from cluttering their shelves. 15$ CDN which is like 10 USD which is to say 1/2 of the retail price?

    AO just doesn't have the marketability of those other major MMOs which i think is evidenced by the fact they don't even have 2 servers full of players while games like AC EQ DAOC have more then i can count.

  4. #4

    put it up for download already!

    i am german and in my area (population density around 2-3k people per square mile .. which is about that what the shadowrun pen and paper mmorpg used for heavy sprawl areas. nrw rhein/emscher&co) i found exactly 1 copy after checking the 2 biggest malls around.

    the bigger chains had 1 ordered due to "arrive sometime in december".

    if the reason to not offer it for download was to get shelf presence before christmas they utterly failed - nuff said.
    sept 03 - the day ao was keeled by sl.

    gone now. byebye.

  5. #5
    Same here in the UK. Funcom wanted shelf space.... they failed.

    I live in Manchester (population 3.5million ish ) and found 1copy... which turned out to be an empty box. They would order it for me if i paid upfront!
    I checked about 15 games stores, all but one hadnt even heard of anarchy-online/notum wars/funcom and the one that did assured me that Funcom had gone bust over 6months ago and that anarchy-online was no longer running! i informed him that he was wrong and that it was going strong... he just shrugged and said that i was the first person to ever ask about it.

    So lets recap funcom.... here in the uk it seems your so called Outlet partners dont even KNOW you exist. Good job i managed to order it online isnt it? or id still be without it now. Lets just cut the poo-poo and admit that the best way to distribute is online (your excuse that NW was too big to download was just rubbish.. NW was in the patch that HAD to downloaded ) all we paid for was a key and some rubbish sounding voices, oh and a few flying things that nerfed our yalms flight ceiling.

    (As a side note on my travels EVERY store had EQ and AC 1 and 2.)
    TAMIYANA - RK1

    Mail Tami!
    ------------------------------------------------
    To fear your enemy is wise.. to know your enemy is wiser still.....

  6. #6
    *bump*

    In Australia, nowhere I know of has it in stock. Or on order list.

    Don't forget, you get a brand-new game client with ever copy of Notum Wars!
    My Main - Actionpete of the Red Tigers

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  7. #7
    From what I've heard, they are trying hard to get shelf space, they just don't have the market sway. There are some really crappy games out there that get 5 front row boxes *cough* 007 Nightfire *cough* but that's not because they're good, it's because they're made by big-ass companies who can call up and say "Look at this new game we made. We've published all these other great games so this one must be good." No one seems to remember all the coaster games that that developer has put out though. Anyway, all FC has is The Longest Journey. That's the only marketing move they can make. And after the abysmal launch and the tons of returns, many large chains simple decided to not carry the game anymore and lost touch with FC *cough* Best Buy *cough* Wal-Mart *cough*. When(if?) the game gets some good reviews from reputable magazines/websites, FC may be able to use that sway to perhaps get some shelf presence again.

    But that all kinda pertains to the Europe/America region. As for Asia, I don't know if FC even considered the ability to market there (despite the presence of the japan ooc channel) and if it was just by international corporations that AO ever made it in the first place. I do support the idea of marketing EVERYWHERE (Africa, Asia, Russia, heck give the middle east a shot too). And, maybe after your employees go home, they can call Australia if they want . But make them have to find the number if they wanna call New Zealand

    Oooo now them aussies not gonna like me....
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  8. #8
    Ino, thanks for starting this thread. I've been trying to get my hands on NW and always ended up in frustration.

    I've noticed that there is an order online option on AO's official website. So I tried that.

    Guess what I got ?

    Price for game: 19.99 USD
    Delivery via Fed-Ex to Japan-AsiaPac - 40.00 USD

    WHat kind of @(*&!#$ is that? Why are there no cheaper shipping options? (I can ship for USD 10 from amazon.com)

    Then I tried to order from amazon.com. They NW in stock! Happiness.

    Until I tried to checkout. )(@#&&^!*#, they do not allow shipping of software out of America.

    Arrgh. Looks like I (and my frieind here in Singapore) wil not be able to get my hands on NW...

    It's kind of dumb IMO, FC should stilll give us the option to purchase online.
    Ashuras - Sol OT Adv on RK-1

    Bartle Quotient:
    Explorer 93%, Achiever 53%, Socializer 40%, Killer 13%

    Proud member of the Wardens of Omni-Tek

  9. #9

    Notum Wars Availability non-existant

    I too was dealt with the problem of paying twice as much to order NW from the states. I found this to be absurd considering that the main activation for the booster pack is the registration of a serial number on your accounts page.


    Also after specificly requesting a major hardware/software retail outlet [harvey norman] to order it in (they had no record of it being available on their systems) and not hearing from them for over two weeks, one of my US based friends bought the game for me from a local store and contacted me with the serial code.
    I have been using NW ever since.


    If you [funcom] wish to create an artificial market to get boxes on shop shelves you should spend more work on your distribution channels rather than thinking up ideas on how to force ppl to demand things from shops that have no capability of even locating your product. Especially when all that is needed for an existing player is a key code.

  10. #10
    EBgames.com is the best way to get anarchy online. You can also find some people on eBay selling Notum wars keys. Thats how i got my second copy. Cost 30 bucks which was cheaper then getting a copy shipped here.

  11. #11
    Marketing's whole idea was to improve the availability and confidence of their retail outlets. It was not intended to make existing customers happy.

    Retail outlets as a rule do not like online games so it's a tough area to break into. The main reasons for this are that most of the game is server side, not in the box; also refund policy is defined by the manufacturer. The shop will make the same if not more money selling MW4 than AO, without the hassles.

    I live in Australia so by law the retail shop has to give me my money back if the product does not work as advertised.

    A problem that occurs for the shop, is that once I have registered, the game is now worthless to resell.

    Now look at the problems Funcom face with the retail chains.

    1) The release of AO was so buggy it is now a legend within the gaming industry.
    2) Retail shops do not like online games as a rule
    3) No retail shop is going to stock a game that in the past has proven, extremely buggy, and is online. Unless they have a very good reason that out weighs any possible problems.

    So it seems FC's solution to this, is to get 65,000 of it's existing customers, to demand NW from their local retail outlets (even though they only really need a key).

    This is a very good move as far as the retail outlets and FC is concerned. There is no better reason to stock a game than having customers walk in off the street and demand it.

    The only draw back is that it screws the existing customers, but I feel that FC's respect for its customer base, was a very shallow thing to start with.

  12. #12
    The silence from Funcom is deafening.
    Ino
    rolling leet, crouching tiger, hidden dragon

    Pioneer rifle/crossbow Vanguard with a personal sidearm and a campstove
    Atlantean

    AO Adventurer Professional (2003-2004)


    Map design suggestion for mapmakers

  13. #13

    not just asia

    I live in Portugal. For those that don't know where it is, it's in Europe. I've ran through all the possibilities. Been to the small shops, the big malls, specialized shops, not so specialized shops, online portuguese sites, even tried mailing the major portuguese distributors and guess what..

    No AO

    No Notum Wars

    And noone ever even heard of Funcom (except one of the smaller shops where the owner remembered a game (Longest Journey) which he sold a long time ago, a single copy brought in from import.

    FC, c'mon, let us buy a NW CD key. I refuse to pay 50 Euro for Notum Wars, where 20 € is the game and 30€ is shipping, and it's pretty damn obvious you won't be present in any portuguese shop for years to come...

    Oh, and btw, all the stores and outlets I checked had AC1 + expansion and ads for AC2.
    Basher Tarr, Engineer, and damn proud of it!

    (really)

  14. #14
    We were allowed to download the full version of Anarchy Online, yet we can't download a booster pack?
    The only logic behind this absurd idea is to get NW on the shelves, so people see AO players coming in and buying it everywhere they go, in order to attract curiosity, and therefore more customers, to the game.
    A bold plan, unfortunately FC did such a ****house job of supplying NW to stores that now half of their customers cannot even get the game without ordering it online from the other side of the world, effectively doubling the price in some cases.

    I hope I am wrong, and if so I would like to hear a very good excuse from FC as to why they denied APACers the ablility to buy the game without the hefy $$$$hipping fees.

    Maybe FC needed the distribute the game to the stores in order to keep business up, I'm not sure, but they'd better let us download the game ASAP or there will be riots.
    Last edited by MagicalSteve; Jan 13th, 2003 at 22:42:19.

  15. #15
    Living in Norway we dont have those problems.
    At the local store (got 2 big warehouses close) there was around 10-20 copies of notum wars (in each of the stores). So no problem getting it here. On the other hand the gold pack of EQ (or any other eq games) I only found in one store (one copy).

  16. #16

    i agree

    I am from Singapore too, and I was just lucky to find AO in a bargain bin at one of the biggest PC shops here. Somehow, I do not think I will be able to get NW, a sad fact considering that the towers supposedly add more fun -_-
    I hope Shadowlands would get more shelf space. I heard some great stuff bout Shadowlands, and if I miss it ....bleh
    Truedream-RK 1 pistol advy

  17. #17
    FC must just admit that they messed up the release of NW totally. Myabe if they admit this and say how the release of shadowlands will be different then maybe some confidence can be restored.

    As a little fun id give ANY FC employee £500 pounds if they could go out TODAY in the north west of england and buy AO or NW in a shop.... because they cant.
    TAMIYANA - RK1

    Mail Tami!
    ------------------------------------------------
    To fear your enemy is wise.. to know your enemy is wiser still.....

  18. #18
    Originally posted by Tamiyana
    FC must just admit that they messed up the release of NW totally. Myabe if they admit this and say how the release of shadowlands will be different then maybe some confidence can be restored.

    As a little fun id give ANY FC employee £500 pounds if they could go out TODAY in the north west of england and buy AO or NW in a shop.... because they cant.
    I don't think Funcom messed up the release if the idea was improve the marketability of any future game releases.

    After AO was first released few shops would touch a Funcom product, due to being very buggy, was downloadable and an online game.

    I believe FC was not concerned with any existing customers obtaining the upgrade; they wanted to use the existing customers to ask for the games in shops. So then the retail shops will be more inclined to stock any future FC products.

  19. #19
    Originally posted by Tink
    I believe FC was not concerned with any existing customers obtaining the upgrade; they wanted to use the existing customers to ask for the games in shops. So then the retail shops will be more inclined to stock any future FC products.
    ...and then said shops did not comply, which means there are no Notum Wars boxes in the shelves, and the current players have difficulties getting to them....
    Basher Tarr, Engineer, and damn proud of it!

    (really)

  20. #20
    B U M P . . ! ! !
    i need nw in australia NOW DAMMIT

    but reality is ebay

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