Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-order is live! [Updated]

can preorder from amazon even in AUS, i got my preorder code :)

@Pitt

^ ^ me too!

Having a vendor when I need it is worth the $172.73 bucks I am paying for it! ( taxes, & same day delivery ) I cant wait!!!!!!!!

Item(s) Subtotal: $149.95
Shipping & Handling: $9.98
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Total Before Tax: $159.93
Estimated Tax To Be Collected: $12.80
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Grand Total: $172.73


Flare Gun: Fire flares into the air
Training Droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance
HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer
HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures
STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle
Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky Droid to join your adventure
Exclusive Collector's Edition Store: Unique in-game vendor with an assortment of items

@(Unverified) Ummm, you do realize that you won't 'have a vendor when you need it..."

The Collectors Edition vendor will be like a rep/honor vendor in WoW...you'll go to a certain location in the game to access this vendor. It's not an instant vendor in your utility belt.

@RaQin

Where does it say that it is not? If that's the case I would be very disappointed!

@(Unverified)

Conversely, where does it say it is? I'm assuming it is a stationary vendor you can buy items from, probably one located in each major city or something. But I can't see them giving you a pocket vendor, especially since isn't there supposed to be a mechanic in the game that allows you to send a crew member to sell items for you?

@ShivanSwordsman

I don't see anything that's a "pay to win" item. I don't think my flare gun, or holographic dancer will give me any edge over you. The vendor thing I want so bad is the same idea of paying 20k in WOW for the mammoth, or roll an engineer for Jeeves.

As for why pay a monthly sub, or the extra cash for some real cool stuff- I have a career that earns me the extra money for all the little things that may bring me joy. I play for fun, a get away from the real world grind & relax. Its worth the money to me.

Don't hate the player, hate the game ^ ^

@ShivanSwordsman

How are any of the following items "Play to win?"

Flare Gun: Fire flares into the air
Training Droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance
HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer
HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures
STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle
Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky Droid to join your adventure
Exclusive Collector's Edition Store: Unique in-game vendor with an assortment of items

I fail to see how a cosmetic flare gun gives you an edge.

@ShivanSwordsman Must suck to be poor?

@ShivanSwordsman This isn't 'pay to win' or even 'cash shop'.

This is marketing a problem product. They need to boost the initial sales numbers as much as they can among the hardcore fans, because otherwise the market is polarized regarding DIKU-derived MMOs, themepark MMOs, and storyboard MMOs.

Bioware can't be sitting in a comfy spot right now.

@FlareSama

There's two aspects of the pre-order that are game enhancements.

The training droid has some (nominal) role in combat. This is not a mini-pet, but will offer some sort of assistance.

The second is that depending upon your pre-order, you get into the game 7 days head, 3 days ahead, or at launch. For the min/maxer crowd, this forces them into the optimum pre-order purchase as 4 days of uninterrupted game time is more than enough to get an edge at end game advancement, pvp, and cornering the auction houses.

I don't like what I'm seeing already from EA on this one.

@(Unverified)

Head starts aren't an unusual concept and I've never, EVER seen anyone complain about them like this before now so I'm kind of confused why it's suddenly a problem.

@Borick

Really? Since when did a collectors edition containing a ton of unique goodies scream "Oh shit, we're in trouble!!"

If that's the case, SWG must be rolling in millions of dollars in cash..... too soon?

@Pitt Yep. This little Aussie black duck ordered his CE from Amazon. Glad I did it last night as they seem to be sold out. Where there is will, there is a way; we WILL NOT be shafted EA!

And somewhere ou there a US customer missed out ... ;-)

@Pitt hey dude how did you manage to pre-order through Amazon? It wont let me....

@MisterApathy

This site explains how to pre-order in australia, it also has direct links to the pre-order pages for us aussies. http://www.swtor-multitude.com.au

@Bezza
If the cost of doing business is higher in Australia than in the U.S., they're going to charge more - currency conversion has nothing to do with it. Don't you all have a really obtrusive and draconian ratings board, among other things? Shipping does cost more money the further you ship, especially when actual ships are likely involved, and they aren't going to change the cost ratio of the boxed-to-digital copy to reflect that, since that would presumably lower the number of boxed copy sales and (maybe?) hurt profits.

Just order from one of those websites that avoids all this junk, I know I've heard about some here.

@Caerus Not to sound elitist or whatnot, but having just attended a lecture where one of the main topics was concerning the cost of games in Australia, I feel I have enough of a background to set some facts straight.

Back in the late 90's when the Aussie dollar was buying roughly 50 US cents, games in Australia cost $100; twice the amount that American games cost, and fair enough, given that devs want to make money and giving it to us for cheap is simply unfair. However, as the years go by, and given the strong Australian dollar currently, you'd have expected the prices to go down.

Not so.

Because Australians have gotten used to paying increased prices for games, the market has expanded, where we now pay extra for the games we buy because it is more profitable for the companies to charge more, because we WILL buy them. Shipping costs and other things like that simply aren't factored into the equation; the fact of the matter is, distributors charge upwards $70-80 to game stores who must then increase the price to be able to turn a profit. It's not evil, it's just good business.

Why do I claim that shipping costs/operational costs aren't that exorborant to cause a $70 price tag from distributors? Because a store exists in Melbourne called Dungeon Crawl that sells games for half RRP in Australia because they self import all the games they sell, completely bypassing Australian distributors. This in turn means that instead of charging $110+ for an XBox game as EB are wont to do, they instead charge $60. If they can self import and turn a profit selling games for less than what distributors sell at wholesale to game retailers, then it's simply a fact of good economics that games cost the amount that they do down here.

@SteemDRIce Furthermore, I realised I didn't even address the ratings board. Yes, the ratings board is old, obtrusive and draconian, but also talking to the person giving the lecture, the cost of changing a game to be fit for Australian retail is small enough that it won't be passed onto distributors, so that doesn't affect the price of games.