Has Star Wars: The Clone Wars Shipped Yet?!

**selowitch** · 04-22-2003

I’ve had this on my calendar for months, but I see no announcement that it is available for shipping anywhere. Has anybody heard anything on this? Please advise.

**LTM360** · 04-22-2003

It came out today, http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categorie...p?pf_id=233115 Star Wars: The Clone Wars, there is also an Xbox Live tournament for the top 3000 players in a few days. So buy it, and get up your ranking!!

**selowitch** · 04-22-2003

I had checked both ebgames.com and gamestop.com before positng here, but in both cases that the data pubished on their websites was somewhat ambiguous.

For example, ebgames.com lists today's date (4/22) as the ship date for SW:TCW and when you go to the detail page it says “Usually ships in 24 hours”—but it also says “pre-order,” which suggests that they do not yet have it in inventory.

I wish the e-commerce sites would make it much clearer when a new game arrives. I think the present workflow makes finding out frustrating for gamer and reseller alike. That means more phone calls, more irritation, etc.

**Zion** · 04-22-2003

Originally posted by selowitch
I had checked both ebgames.com and gamestop.com before positng here, but in both cases that the data pubished on their websites was somewhat ambiguous.

For example, ebgames.com lists today's date (4/22) as the ship date for SW:TCW and when you go to the detail page it says &#8220;Usually ships in 24 hours&#8221;&#8212;but it also says &#8220;pre-order,&#8221; which suggests that they do not yet have it in inventory.

I wish the e-commerce sites would make it much clearer when a new game arrives. I think the present workflow makes finding out frustrating for gamer and reseller alike. That means more phone calls, more irritation, etc.

It's quite simple, really. 4/22 is the SHIP date, not the release date. The warehouse SHIPS it out on the 22nd, and stores will have it on the 23rd. But if you preorder, they will ship you one from the warehouse also, meaning you also get it on the 23rd.

So no, they do not have it in stock, but they will ship it straight to your door instead of having it shipped to them, then turning it right around and shipping it to you.

**selowitch** · 04-23-2003

It's quite simple, really. 4/22 is the SHIP date, not the release date. The warehouse SHIPS it out on the 22nd, and stores will have it on the 23rd. But if you preorder, they will ship you one from the warehouse also, meaning you also get it on the 23rd.

Thanks for that explanation. That resolves part of my problem, but not all of it, unfortunately.

So no, they do not have it in stock, but they will ship it straight to your door instead of having it shipped to them, then turning it right around and shipping it to you.

Hmmm. Sounds like a process called “drop-shipping”, if I am not mistaken. That’s good to know, and it makes me more likely to preorder my most-desired titles!

Nevertheless, I’m afraid I still have some bones to pick:

If you visit gamestop.com today, for example, you get a lot of confusing information about SW: TCW, to wit:<ol>
<li>In the tables on the lower right-hand corner, it lists the game under “Coming Soon” but with yesterday’s date—does that make any sense to you? Don’t you find that unclear and sloppy of them?</li>
<li>SW:TCW really belongs in the “Just Arrived” category, doesn’t it? Unless, of course, it is like you say and they haven’t got it in inventory, even though it is available to be drop-shipped to you, the customer. A mite confusing, no?</li>
<li>On the bottom-middle of the page, it says again that SW:TCW “ships 4/22,” begging the question, “Well, today is the 23rd. So did it ship yesterday or not?!”</li>
</ol>Among the things that annoy me about this is the constant use of the present subjunctive instead of the past tense for events that occurred in the past. The language does not accurate reflect processes that are underway, completed, ongoing, and expected in the future—and worse still, their grammar is lousy.

Why don’t they adopt a color-coded system like this?
<ul>
<li>(black) NOT AVAILABLE Not available and we know of no plans for future development.
<li>(blue) IN DEVELOPMENT Game is being developed but has not been published.
<li>(purple) GONE GOLD
<li>(yellow) AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER
<li>(green) INVENTORY We have stock in inventory for shipping.
</ul>
or something like that?

If I had to guess, I would attribute this to gamestop’s laziness and inattention, plus the lack of a date-sensitive database informing the content of the website. Looks to me like they do it manually, which is more subject to human error.