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Recently, I was...
jingfoxx
Member Posts: 54
Recently, I was taking a trip to the local Wal-Mart, often just looking for things I might want. And as always, on my trips to Wal-Mart, I stop by the electronics section in search of some good gaming experiences and was surprised to find that three copies of APB: All Point's Bulletin were still on the shelf.
This threw me off-guard as I had also recently heard that APB had shut down. I quickly asked one of the passing by Electronic Section Clerks if they knew they were selling a game that was no longer any good. She told me that she had no knowledge of the game shutting down and proceded to ask me if that mattered and if the game was single player or "playable without any internet connection" as the nice - albeit ignorant-about-gaming - lady put it.
She told me that it was not her call to take any one item off the shelf and would ask her supervisor about it. I haven't been back since, but I would bet pretty good money that if I did return, there would still be copies of APB on the shelf.
I had told the woman that I would feel bad if any passer-by - who had no previous knowledge of the game and of it's ill fate - bought the game only to discover that it didn't work.
So, this little trip prompted me to ask the gaming community a couple of questions.
1. Do you think that this is the fault of Wal-Mart or the fault of Real Time Worlds? In other words, did Real Time Worlds tell Wal-Mart of their recent financial trouble and their breakdown and Wal-Mart just didn't listen, attempting to sell the games anyway, or do you think Real Time Worlds just didn't send out the memo?
Personally, I wouldn't put it past Wal-Mart to attempt to sell defunct items, but I also wouldn't dismiss the chance that Real Time Worlds, in light of it's impending doom, didn't get the chance to send out some kind of memo.
2. Do you think, or even hope, that this game will get bought up by another company, meaning that Wal-Mart, and any other stores, won't have to take down all the remaining copies?
Also, as I have bought this game and probably won't get a refund - I bought it off of Steam - I hope that this game get's picked up by another company so that it may continue. It was, in fact, a fun game to play.
Ignorance may be Bliss, but Knowledge is Power
Comments
EA gave people who bought it through steam a free copy through their store of other games you should look into it
was it still 49.99? lol
that is not entirely true. you only have 60 days from the DATE you purchased the item. so if i preordered back in May 2010 that disqaulified the buyer. I got disqaulified according to their email and all i got was $20 for my trouble =p
I think it's a really good game. I played the beta and enjoyed it. Now, I only got to level 5 or 6 or so. The only problem was the repetitive missions and lack of content. I think if it was bought out and enough good things were done to this game, it could be popular and more enjoyable.
So I think it should get bought. They had the ideas right, it was just that RTW was in finiancial trouble before the game even released and they just didn't have enough to put into this game.
I've worked at Toys R Us, which is smaller in scale then Wal-Mart, but a huge retail chain nonetheless. It's impossible to keep track of the tens of thousands of items in the store. Also, we almost never receive updates on an item's status unless there was a special promotion involved or a major issue arose, like the many china-made toys pulled from shelves due to risk concerns.
Honestly, I wouldn't put blame on Wal-mart for the incident you experienced. Yeah, whoever was in charge with the video game section isn't exactly a specialist in the genre, but I still wouldn't blame him for it. Most likely he wasn't contacted that the game has been shut down. Real Time Worlds just went bankrupt - I doubt contacting every retail outlet and telling them that their product failed isn't on their things to do list.
And besides, what is the worst that can happen when people do purchase the game? Not get a refund? I highly doubt it. What will probably happen is, they find the game is shut down, go back to Wal-mart, tell them what happened, and they get a full refund, if not extra store credit due to the troubles they went through. There is no conspiracy here.
I think legally RTW would have to notifiy all vendors of their game that it is no longer working, as someone who went to walmart to buy it and couldn't play would take action against walmart and RTW.
Do I think Walmart knows? Sure. But the few people who know, and getting that information to their 30 stores per 1 square mile is a lot harder.
I remember seeing Fury and HGL at stores after the game was closed down.
I'm not entirely sure but I do believe it was...
Yeah, I would agree that telling each little supervisor would be over-excessive, but sending out a mass notice to the controlling stake of these companies would probably be in the best interest of everybody. I mean, I have no personal experience in Retail, but I would guess that as sue-happy as some people are, it would be in the best interest of these companies to send out a resend order.
And although the shutting down of APB is not as bad as a toy with risk to human health, it still follows the line of a defunct product needing to be resended, at least until it can find a buyer.
Ignorance may be Bliss, but Knowledge is Power
I bought it through Steam and the order went through on June 16.
Ignorance may be Bliss, but Knowledge is Power
I was looking for another game and noticed several boxes at Bestbuy and Target. I collected the boxes, took them to the counter with my purchase and told them the game company went bankrupt and you can no longer play the game. Both sales people were disinterested, and I know the guy at Target was skeptical.
But retail in general in my area sucks. Even if you go to the gaming stores around here, I would say the majority of the time I get wrong information or the clerk doesn't know anything.
Last month my wife and I went to Hallmark to get a card. The power went out as we went up to the counter. The young lady said she couldn't ring us up because her register was down and she could not calculate the tax. How hard is it to figure out sales tax? Apparently it's very hard for some people...
Like always, I will put the blame on EA. I'm a hater, what can I say? They may have tried to blind people by offering other games to download, but they are still making money off the shelved copies, I'm sure.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
There is a shop around where I live that has a copy of Tabula Rasa on a shelf, messed with a few low budget already forgotten games.
My local Wal-Mart has 4 copies still on their shelves. They all selling for 49.99. I feel bad for someone who buys a copy only to find out it has shut down. But a little research goes a long ways now a days.
Took another trip to my local Wal-Mart this week and surprisingly, they didn't have any copies of APB: All Point's Bulletin on the shelves. My only question would be if the copies were sold to unsuspecting buyers or taken off of the shelves due to the finishing of the game.
Also, another question....
Has there been any more news about the selling of APB to a new producer?
Ignorance may be Bliss, but Knowledge is Power
There was a news story here and on Massively the other day about some company in the process of buying up RTW. Whatever company it is has not been announced nor has whether or not they will relaunch the game or simply use the assets for something else.
Steam: Neph
I was in my local walmart the other day, and they had a few copies still on the shelves....