I figured I would make a quick post letting people know I’ve now received confirmation on my two Warhammer Online orders. Yesterday I received an email from Gamestop that my regular edition has shipped, and this morning I received an email from the EA Store that my collector’s edition is also in the mail. The 7 pounds of WAR goodness can’t arrive soon enough!
Also interesting, I received an email yesterday from the EA Store saying my CE might be delayed, but that EA and Mythic would be sending me a code so I don’t lose access to my account while I wait, which I thought was very up front of them. I won’t need it of course, but good for Mythic and EA to have a back up plan like that, and avoid any pre-emptive nerd rage, very smart.
This also wraps up my ‘beta experience’ with EA and Mythic, and for me at least, it was almost flawless. Yes downloading 9 gigs over a painfully slow bit torrent took 34 hours, but considering the servers were down during that time, it was a minor annoyance at best. I also did not get my beta keys for a few weeks after I ordered the CE, but again, non factor since I got them well ahead of actually needing them. The servers were up for a good portion of beta, the game was never in a state that made me hate it, and it was impressive seeing Mythic handle the bugs that did pop up. They were also very upfront with the status of beta and their future plans, and did not feed fans ‘press talk’ when addressing concerns.
So with 1.5 million preorders, and who knows how many week one retail sales, things are looking bright for WAR and Mythic, and the ride has just begun!
Hardcore Casual 
Just one little correction, WAR is shipping 1.5 million boxes to retailers, not 1.5 million pre-orders.
If they sell them, that’s still a colossal achievement and a much more successful launch than AoC, which was one of the most successful MMO launches in history (even if it didn’t last). It took WoW 3 years to reach 4 million western customers. If WAR gets 1.5 million in the first few months thats amazing.
Here is the quote from the report:
“WAR set a company record for the most retail pre-orders placed by consumers for a PC title in EA’s 26 year history. Overall, the company has sold 1.5 million units of WAR to retailers.”
Not sure if ‘shipped’ and ‘sold’ are interchangeable for retail. Even so, breaking the pre-order record for EA means they had a ton of units, and anything above 500k sold means they topped expectations (by ‘industry insiders’, whoever that is)
Tough to say how much money EA makes off WAR, wish I knew so I could make a call on the stock. It’s down right now, and if WAR does anything close to what WoW did for Blizzard/Activision, buying some EA stock might be a good deal right now.