darkSpyro

The UK is constantly being left out by Activision with Skylanders.

Once again, UK is getting the game days later than the US.

UK usually have to wait weeks, sometimes MONTHS before getting figures of any kind before the US. By the time we've got them, the US has got the next wave.

For some reason, UK never got the Wii U dark edition for SWAP Force and this year UK isn't getting the Xbox One dark edition. Why?!

All of the contests that are held, every single one, be it on Facebook, Twitter or Frito Lay, the UK can never participate. Its always US only.

The US is supposingly getting the Kaos trap single first.

For Giants, the UK never even got series 2 drobot and there's still no sign of LC Bumble Blast. This means UK has to go on ebay and buy them from scalpers.

Okay five days extra for the game is not too bad....Although I agree months for the figure and the lc bb and drobot is quite unfair. Same with the Kaos and Dark editions thing,you guys should get every thing within atleast three weaks apart(they do need time to manufacture and ship)!

Theres some stuff we dont get from UK......Darts, Guinness Beer, copies of Shaun of The Dead or Hot Fuzz.......LOL , I kid, I kid....

Activision is based in USA....im sure shipping costs worldwide cut in on profit margin. It's a business.

Hey, at least you guys aren't getting it THREE MONTHS after release, paying triple the US price unless you find a broken toy(because don't expect the book stores and game stores here to actually look at what they're stocking), and missing more than 2 waves per game except SSA. It's not Doom Stone that is missing the most in here, it's Series 2 Ignitor and Whirlwind!
For a country in the same continent, Brazil gets the shortest end of the stick. Even on events,the only one I've ever seen them hold was a PVP competiton in Saraiva just for a select city and the annual BGS, which has pretty much every AAA game that's coming out this year anyway.

Though it doesn't excuse the lack of stock in the UK. It's the easiest way you can provide toys to the european audience, and actually in other continents too since the shipping is by miles cheaper than from the US.
And for events in general, they should do a lot more international ones. It's easy to just not offer US citzen only stuff, just make toy giveaways and contact the stores that offer them in the winner's country or some crap. Even encouraging more PVP competitons would be pretty cool, at least while the game isn't unbalanced beyond repair.

I heard that they didn't release the Wii U Dark Edition in PAL region becuse they thought it wouldn't sell enough.

Don't forget about Australia. The most dramatic waits we've had include getting Legendary Night Shift in... I believe it was April or May this year? And we got SF Wave 4 two months after the US did.

Also, in SF, every wave beyond the second was frustratingly stretched out so reposes and new characters got released at different times. The only things in 2014 I remember being released around the same time they came in the US were the Easter trio.
We did get Arkeyan Crossbow and Sheep Wreck Island early- but to be honest, I would have rather had a release schedule similar to the last games (where we basically got each wave a month later than the US) over getting two packs early with severe delays for new figures afterward.

We're still waiting for Quickdraw and LightCore Bumble Blast too. And I'm confident that I'll need to go to eBay for both.

Worry over the release schedule is one of the biggest things killing my excitement. It's gotten noticeably worse with every game. At least we have the ability to pre-order Skylanders again. :V

Why is this such a big deal to me? Well, aside from the wait being ridiculously stretched out in the case of SF, it makes getting new figures less fun since there's virtually no discussion or hype for them when I get them. I'd like to talk to people about new Skylanders, but if I get them a month later than the majority of players, not many people still talk about them.
Also, I bet we'll have to wait months to get a Magic Trap Master. Waiting months to complete the game when I've done everything else is not fun and it's annoying that I can't complete areas just because a Skylander I need isn't out. That happened with Stealth Zones; I think Stink Bomb came out here in February or something.

Just importing to get figures earlier is iffy- it's more expensive than buying the figures when they come out here, and I personally don't think it's worth it, because in most cases I'd just get them a couple weeks sooner... Also, I haven't really found a reliable source to import every toy I want... I have imported a few favourites early, though, and I'm considering importing more for TT, because I suspect releases are going to be worse again and I wish I had imported the later waves of SF.

It's not just UK it's everywhere in the world but US!

Comes down to one thing.

Money.

Y'all don't spend enough on Skylanders to make the investment worth it for Activision.

On the flip side, Activision isn't making it worth it for y'all to spend more money on Skylanders. So then, they ship even less over there. Which turns more folks off.

It's a no-win for everyone involved.

They're also encouraging scalping. If the US has seas of figures that no one buys, it's more people that will clean the shelves and gladly resell on ebay for a profit. And I'll gladly buy from them too if the book stores (because there's no hope for the game stores here) can't be bothered with looking into the issue of missing waves with Acti. Sure, it counts for US sales, but who says it's actually for people living there.

Australia does get trap team before the everyone but that will only be wave 1. I doubt issues are down to shipping as everything is made in china. It's more than likely has to do with what stores order and most stores won't order new stock until old stock is nearly depleted, especially when the stock they get is random, they could order more cases and end up with more stock they can't sell. It's quite weird because Australia got the last 2 SF triple packs and the US hasn't and the same thing happened for giants as well. Bottom line, the way activision works is very mysterious.

I'm ok with getting characters later (normally a month), because it is normal, since the game is produced and thus distributed first in the US...

But if they do make the Kaos trap Wave 1, only there, then it's a big lack of respect to all the fans from outside the States.

Quote: SirKev7

The UK is constantly being left out by Activision with Skylanders.

Once again, UK is getting the game days later than the US.

UK usually have to wait weeks, sometimes MONTHS before getting figures of any kind before the US. By the time we've got them, the US has got the next wave.

For some reason, UK never got the Wii U dark edition for SWAP Force and this year UK isn't getting the Xbox One dark edition. Why?!

All of the contests that are held, every single one, be it on Facebook, Twitter or Frito Lay, the UK can never participate. Its always US only.

The US is supposingly getting the Kaos trap single first.

For Giants, the UK never even got series 2 drobot and there's still no sign of LC Bumble Blast. This means UK has to go on ebay and buy them from scalpers.

Didn't UK sales for Swap Force go into the toilet?

They never cared in the first place. They just see money and follow the green line.

Quote: Punk Bomb

They never cared in the first place. They just see money and follow the green line.

That applies to every company. Acti isn't some kind of special evil organization of evil stuff. You need to care to see that money.

Quote: Bifrost

Quote: Punk Bomb

They never cared in the first place. They just see money and follow the green line.

That applies to every company. Acti isn't some kind of special evil organization of evil stuff. You need to care to see that money.

Still, some companies are willing to put more out for their customers. You're right. Every company is about money but passion is a rare trait that makes me attracted to their products (e.g. Nintendo).

And, as I said on other threads, Acti is greedy and focuses too much on short term decisions, but at least they're not EA. I know too little about international shipping, but it might not be 100% their fault that the stores on other countries are so understocked.
(Say, SSA never getting a portuguese translation even if dubbed games were popular here already, and the SPANISH packaging being sold in Brazil instead... Contrary to popular belief, we're not good at spanish in here)

Pretty sure the people creating the game have some passion, else this game would be lifeless...

It seems Canada has been more lucky for Swap Force, the maximum time I had to wait was 1 month for Wave 3 and I did not have trouble finding any figure at all (contrarily to Bash Series 2, Lightcore Pop Fizz, Ninjini during Giants).

Quote: Arc of Archives

<snip>
We're still waiting for Quickdraw and LightCore Bumble Blast too. And I'm confident that I'll need to go to eBay for both.
<snip>

I got sick of waiting, and purchsed both from Amazon; the lesser of two evils. The prices on EvilBay are ridiculous (esp for QDRS)

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: SirKev7

The UK is constantly being left out by Activision with Skylanders.

Once again, UK is getting the game days later than the US.

UK usually have to wait weeks, sometimes MONTHS before getting figures of any kind before the US. By the time we've got them, the US has got the next wave.

For some reason, UK never got the Wii U dark edition for SWAP Force and this year UK isn't getting the Xbox One dark edition. Why?!

All of the contests that are held, every single one, be it on Facebook, Twitter or Frito Lay, the UK can never participate. Its always US only.

The US is supposingly getting the Kaos trap single first.

For Giants, the UK never even got series 2 drobot and there's still no sign of LC Bumble Blast. This means UK has to go on ebay and buy them from scalpers.

Didn't UK sales for Swap Force go into the toilet?

Uhh, I hope not.

I don't mind the time difference that much, but the one thing I absolutely hate is the US-only competitions. That just makes me want to cry.

There is no reason to have different launch dates in different countries. It's artificial and stupid.
That said, there is also no reason in the modern age to have artificial region restrictions on products.

The games industry will eventually wake up like the music/movie industry is doing and learn that they need to supply their products how and when the customers want or the customer goes elsewhere.

You know where region locking isn't a problem? Pirate games.

So, if you hold back my local launch of a product, I can wait, or pirate and get it right away. They are essentially driving people to piracy!
Of course with Skylanders that's not an issue as you need the game to get the portal but it shines a light on how short sighted the whole industry is.

When they wake up and do global launches, digital content that is cheaper than physical, no region locking etc they will see more customers.

Quote: checkerchairs

I don't mind the time difference that much, but the one thing I absolutely hate is the US-only competitions. That just makes me want to cry.

There's a couple of reasons why you see this, but the primary reason is that competitions and give-aways have so many different rules in various countries that no one wants to sit down and compile all the legaleze that would be required to hold such a competition. Combined with the fact that, for example, Frito-Lay doesn't really do business in Europe, therefore, has no customers in Europe, why would they spend all the effort to attract people who can't really be their customers to the brand?

Well, on the bright side, the UK gets almost all of the books almost a year before the US does. I can see how that's only a slight consolation, though...

I agree that region locking is moronic, but it's not completely true that there's "no reason to have different launch dates." Supply either meets demand, or scarcity creates increased scalping and buyer frustration. That's why phones tend not to launch worldwide. Factories struggle with production for products that are not consistently consumed. That's why Coke can churn out an endless number of cans and bottles of cola but shelves worldwide cannot just suddenly be evenly blanketed with Skylanders.

If you had no region lock and single release dates you could produce a single product for all countries (English speaking).
This single change would completely revolutionize their inventory system, simplify manufacturing and actually save them money.
Notice EU figures on US shelves? That probably took quite a bit of doing. If you only made one model to start with you could simply send the inventory where it was needed.

Shelves worldwide CAN be suddenly blanketed. You produce them before launch. It's not like an iPhone or something, they don't cost that much to sell. They don't even have to hold it all in a warehouse, just ship it out with release date instructions.

We are a long way away from a single product. The US has ESRB ratings, while UK has PEGI. Sometimes these two ratings boards give different ratings to the same game, so it would cause a lot of confusion to have both on the same box. Someone needs to start a global rating company.

I am fairly certain the manufacturing is the same for all countries (for the figures anyway, as I don't see a difference between characters released in Europe and the US). The packaging is different however. The UK release is usually tied to the European release, so the packaging for the game and figures has to be localized for multiple languages.

I agree that region locking is stupid.

All good points about the language thing, that's why I said English speaking. Although, no reason they couldn't have a multi lingual single packaging. It's a multi-lingual world after all.

I hadn't thought about the ratings, although if you did it as a digital download instead of stupid disks it would be easy as heck to localise in the store for each person. Of course you can't download the portal So maybe they should stop making new ones!

Anyway this is all a bit off topic from "Have they forgotten the UK fans".

I think the game has just lost a lot of customers in the UK since Swap Force, probably because of the US/UK divide and the way they treated us with the first 2 game releases.
So Activision are going to treat us worse due to the lower sales and thus, create a nice downward spiral of suckiness for Skylanders in the UK.

I never get Polar Whirlwind, my favourite Skylander.
I went to America on holiday last month but she wasn't being sold anymore -.-

Multi-lingual packaging would be a total mess, we'd probably have to get bigger starter packs and toy packagings for that.
Not to mention some contries have a thing for having everything translated for them. Like here in Brazil, where the most incentive to have dubbed games came from the fact people started to complain they had to learn a second language to understand a game like the other countries. Even if, in Skylanders' case, not all the good voice actors we have can make up for the fact nearly no puns translate to portuguese without sounding corny or not making any sense whatsoever.

Well, seeing UK messing up in Skylanders, I'm suprised. No offence but compared to UK the Netherlands arent that bad....
Sadly though, Series 2 Drobot never came here either....

Quote: NINJAsk11

Well, seeing UK messing up in Skylanders, I'm suprised. No offence but compared to UK the Netherlands arent that bad....
Sadly though, Series 2 Drobot never came here either....

What do you mean? Do we have a comparison in sales?

Quote: wreckingballbob

Quote: NINJAsk11

Well, seeing UK messing up in Skylanders, I'm suprised. No offence but compared to UK the Netherlands arent that bad....
Sadly though, Series 2 Drobot never came here either....

What do you mean? Do we have a comparison in sales?

Almost. We dont have frito lay here and cartain Skylandershave never been released in stores here. However, we did have skylanders like Polar ww and the Frito lay Sidekicks here where released in promo's.
Qd Rattle Shake also been released here and yeah. We do have comparisions, but its a little better here.

Quote:

The UK is constantly being left out by Activision with Skylanders.

Whatever UK does not get , Africa gets even less . SSF Wave 3 was totally skipped out on .