Digital Distribution for Wrath... when?

[Fahsky]

I know no one here has a crystal ball, or works for Blizz (or do you? ), but the official forums are a cesspool. Sorry if I accidentally cloned some old topic.

Two questions-
1) How quickly do you think Blizz will (or should) offer up WotLK for digital distribution?
2) How long was it before TBC was available for download (my memory = crap)?

I'm guessing about a month, maybe two, just to let the retailers whoop & moneygrab. Thank you Gamestop for taking my $5 reservation to sit in your savings account, then telling me oopsie I can't really have a CE copy unless I want to show up hours early to wait in a throng of sweaty basement dwelling gamers for the midnight launch & pray to get the one extra, & jading me of the whole damn thing.

[ulushnar]

Given the way some ISPs groaned when the 3.0.2 patch was released, I'm not sure Blizz will be going for Digital distribution at launch.

[Elsie]

midnight release ftw

Remember to store 3.0.2+ patches locally before November 13th.

[Snake-Aes]

<QQs about Blizzard not selling in Brazil>

[lusisia]

<QQs about Blizzard not selling in Brazil>

Further QQ about trying to ship to Brazil and getting it returned 3 months later from customs =/

[Snake-Aes]

<QQs about Blizzard not selling in Brazil>

Further QQ about trying to ship to Brazil and getting it returned 3 months later from customs =/

;_;

[Whait]

blizz wil not have a digital copy at launch, they have contracts with the physical distributers to promote the game in their locations if blizz launched a digital copy blizz would lose a ton of money they spent making all the hard copys and such

[Sabindeus]

It'll be like 6 to 12 months after release.

[kurros]

blizz wil not have a digital copy at launch, they have contracts with the physical distributers to promote the game in their locations if blizz launched a digital copy blizz would lose a ton of money they spent making all the hard copys and such

If there was a digital copy available at launch blizzard could save money and NOT make those physical copies.

[Snake-Aes]

It'll be like 6 to 12 months after release.

I really, really hate you.

[Whait]

blizz wil not have a digital copy at launch, they have contracts with the physical distributers to promote the game in their locations if blizz launched a digital copy blizz would lose a ton of money they spent making all the hard copys and such

If there was a digital copy available at launch blizzard could save money and NOT make those physical copies.

yeah sure but they have already made them,
hindsight is always better then 20/20

[Sabindeus]

blizz wil not have a digital copy at launch, they have contracts with the physical distributers to promote the game in their locations if blizz launched a digital copy blizz would lose a ton of money they spent making all the hard copys and such

If there was a digital copy available at launch blizzard could save money and NOT make those physical copies.

except for all that money they lose by not selling it via retailers and also paying for overwhelming bandwidth

[Barathorn]

It'll be like 6 to 12 months after release.

I really, really hate you.

Can't I just buy a copy and ship it to you as a gift Snake? Or will that still involve Customs?

[Snake-Aes]

There's a very good chance it'll involve customs. Lus tried to hand me a nPad or whateveri t's called and it returned after a few months.

[lusisia]

There's a very good chance it'll involve customs. Lus tried to hand me a nPad or whateveri t's called and it returned after a few months.

Yeah basically I tried to send Snake a Nostromo N52 that newegg had on sale. I finally got it shipped via FedEx and it got returned 2 or 3 months later. There could have been some confusion with the addressing scheme among other things but I think I remember it just simply being rejected.

Now with Wrath, it's quite possible that you could do the following:

Buy an extra copy
Email the key
Host an image on Bittorrent or somewhere else (Amazon S3) so that he can download it.

The only serious delay will come from the transfer times. I mean, you're going to be waiting for the install to finish. Assuming a reasonable upload rate (hell, I could go into the office at midnight and use the 100MB fiber uplink), you'll be installing anyway while the upload is going on.

I'll need to do some math (isn't the game only being shipped on DVD?) as to how long the upload would take but after it's up, the only delay is the time it takes Snake to download from wherever. That's much better (i.e. on the order of several hours) vs. the days it would take to get a physical copy in or wait for someone else to ship it.