PC Gaming

[mkfink]

I'm just trying to interpret the list of stores on the D3 landing page--If the store is on the list when I choose my state, that means there is a midnight release there?  The page says "Please visit a participating Best Buy store page for complete details" however the majority of stores listed have no useful information on their pages. Only a few have an Events section with the midnight release listed. And with the number of stores listed for my state (Michigan), I can't tell if its just listing every store in the state or not. Especially since they're not in alphabetical order--I didn't even notice my store (Utica) in the list until I saw they were out of order.

[Laserbeast]

I'm extremely disappointed that my store (#340, Mobile AL) isn't opening for the midnight launch. I'll have to get there immediately at 9am to secure my Collector's Edition.

This is ridiculous, as this Best Buy has a HUGE proven track record of selling pre-ordered limited/special/collector's editions to people who have not pre-ordered them. In fact, I'm sure anyone can walk in there at 9am on May 15th and the people behind the customer service counter will sell a pre-order to anyone who asks for it. Totally ludicrous. I know what the BBY staff posters on here will say: a pre-order "secures" your Collector's Edition at launch. I promise you, it doesn't. At least not at this store.

Here's to stressing out about it until May 15th! I should've pre-ordered elsewhere.

[Mariel-BBY Retired: Community Connector]

Hi mkfink,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your question about the midnight opening list for Diablo III. It's my understanding that it was just announced on Sunday and you are correct that the list you see on Bestbuy.com are the stores that should be participating in the midnight release.

I decided to call your store to see if they had been made aware of this yet, and it seems like they have not. I explained that the Utica store is on the list of midnight openings for this title, but that they might not have had this communicated to them through their leadership quite yet. I would encourage you to call them a little later, as they should be having one.

I apologize for this lag of communication and that you are being stuck in the middle. I am confident though, that you will be able to go to the Utica store at midnight on release day. Let me know if I can help with any other questions or concerns!

Regards,

[packetloss]

Are you sure about that?

I called 2 of the stores on the list that are near me  (Wesbury, NY and Levittown) and they told me they are definitely not doing it. 

[Derailed]

I'd like to know if the list is complete because it seems rather thrown together. I live in Sacramento, CA and I find it difficult to believe that none of the stores in the area are having midnight releases but that significantly smaller mountain/rural communities outside the area are hosting midnight releases.

[Laserbeast]

Yes, the list is complete. Best Buy Corporate does not control which stores stay open for a midnight launch. The decision is purely left to the General Manager of the specific store and no one else.

[Slipgate]

Is there a way to petition this? I ordered at the only store near me that I could order from and I'm not seeing their name on the list. Without sounding butthurt, 10 hours (store opens at 10a) is going to be far too long to wait. On top of losing 10 hours worth of game time, we would be losing 10 hours worth of RMAH (real money auction house).

If anyone else is getting from store 1010, let me know and we will try to get them to cooperate.

[Laserbeast]

Unfortunately no, there's no way to petition this. You could try talking to the General Manager of the store, but at this point it probably wouldn't do much good. There are usually a lot of factors involved in making the decision whether or not to open the store at midnight, the main ones being how many people pre-ordered, and how much labor they have that's willing to work until midnight. If they don't have the labor to spend, and there are only a handful of pre-orders, they won't do a midnight launch. For you and I, this game might be a 12 year wait (which it certainly has been for me), but to Best Buy, it's still a business and if they can't make a profit off of the event, they won't do it.

My advice: be patient. Everything will work out. I was pretty bent out of shape about this at first. But if you think about it, Battle.net will no doubt have some server issues and outages with the amount of people connecting at midnight. It's inevitable.

Going into the store with a fresh night's sleep, picking up the Collector's Edition and going back home with no server issues to be able to play ALL DAY sounds much more appealing than getting to the store at midnight, picking up the game, then Battle.net doesn't open until midnight PST (East Coaster's will have to wait until 3am to play), dealing with the server issues and crashes. It's just not worth it. 

[Slipgate]

I doubt 10 hours would be enough time to square away launch bugs, but the few that manage to eek out a decent game in the meantime will be able to enjoy it. Anyways, if they don't decide to, can we swap the pre-order to another store? Can we get a mod in here?

[Laserbeast]

You can't swap pre-orders to another store. Your pre-order will have to be purchased at the store it was pre-ordered at. They won't swap inventory to another store.

As much as Best Buy is a corporation, their stores operate individually, almost as "franchises". A store is not going to potentially lose money by sending your pre-order to another store. Not only is it inconvenient for them, it's really not that important honestly. They don't even do this when people purchase TV's.

You're either going to have to wait out the 10 hours (which isn't that much, think about it), or try your hand at another "24 hour store" in your city that may have some CEs at launch.