As expected, the book is once again available for pre-order through Amazon, at a substantial savings.
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To put things in perspective, I pre-order nearly all of the Paizo books from Amazon. The release dates are always pushed back, without exception. However, this is only the second time where Amazon has cancelled the order and both times were on a weekend. It's unlikely that this has anything to do with Diamond or any release date or availability issues. This is simply an Amazon snafu and they will no doubt have the book available again by the end of the week. So far, I've yet to find any retailer besides Paizo who has it in stock. Amazon Customer Service said that they would forward this to their Purchasing Department, so hopefully this will be avoided in the future.
For the explanation of why this happens, please see this post from Chris Self responding to when they did this same thing with Ultimate Magic. This isn't about pushing release dates, Vic. Amazon does that most of the time with Paizo books. This is a rare anomaly where orders are actually cancelled. I never expect a Paizo book on release day, but I don't like it when the order is cancelled outright at though the book was no longer scheduled for release.
I dropped a note to Amazon while I was at it. I don't think it's Amazon policy, per se. It looks like some bumble on the weekends gets a wild hair and starts cancelling orders. I've rarely had this happen, in fact, I think only twice and both times with Paizo books. The last time, Paizo was quick to get it straightened out.
Looks like some weekend warrior at Amazon is at it again. I tend to pre-order most Pathfinder products as soon as Amazon lists them. I've had the "Advanced Race Guide" ordered since the book appeared. This morning, Amazon sent me the following: "Due to a lack of availability, we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order: Jason Bulmahn "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide" We've canceled the item(s) and apologize for the inconvenience." They did the same thing with another book a few months ago, again on a weekend and Paizo's Sales Department was able to straighten it out. I hope they can convince someone at Amazon to stop being so quick to cancel orders. Hell, I've had items pre-ordered on Amazon sometimes for years.
That balance is going to be the trick, Ryan. I've seen MMO developers make the same mistakes over and over. Here's hoping that you guys can buck that trend.
As the owner of a Lifetime Account for LOTRO, I can say that Turbine's decision to make the game "Free" killed any desire for me to log into the game. The decision to "layer" the major cities, the freeloaders running around with nonsensical names, and the constant inducements to purchase destroyed any sense of immersion in Tolkien's world. Turbine already has my money, but they won't be getting any more. I successfully resisted all temptation to buy the last expansion. Also, it needs to be added into the discussion that, human nature being what it is, there is less incentive for developers to create shiny new content for subscribers if they can concentrate their time on making Premium content. In essence, the exceptional content goes to the people willing to pony up extra cash, while subscribers, the heart of any successful MMO, wind up with content that is just barely "good enough". |
