This past week was the release of the much anticipated title – Ni No Kuni: Wraith of the White Witch. A rare partnership between the famous Studio Ghibli and famed RPG developer: Level 5. To add to the fan fare, the game offered a special edition pack featuring a bunch of goodies. The special edition was so limited that first round pre-orders had a limited launch window last August and US audiences could only get it from Namco’s store.
However joy quickly turned to anger that could have a major affect on Ni No Kuni’s US release thanks to poor customer service between a publisher and their distributor. That yours truly among many, many fans got to experience
The Ordering Debacle:
Now, there are several layers to this crazy issue and to explain it we’re going to start at the beginning.
Namco’s online store is similar to many game publisher stores in that it is behind major retailers like Best Buy or Amazon in terms of usability. Such as: not being able to change information like what shipping address or a different credit card , not even for pre-orders.
What this meant was that if there were any problems with incorrect or no longer accurate information, the customer could not change it on their own and had to hope that customer support would be able to make the necessary changes.
On the release date, many people were greeted with an email stating that for one reason or another that their order was cancelled and that there were no more copies in stock. For me, it was because the expiration date on the card came and went between when I ordered it last year and when it was actually charged on release date.
Now, Namco Bandai uses the distributor – Digital River for all online purchases. During launch, I called Digital River three times and each time met with different results.
The first time, I was told that there was nothing they could do and that they would put in a support ticket. The second time I spoke to a manager who would escalate it but said that it wasn’t very likely to go anywhere. Finally on the third time I got a regular rep that took a new order and was shipped out the following morning. Not surprisingly I received an email from the first person I contacted saying that there was no way for me to get another copy… after my new order was shipped.
While my little ordeal was finished, a lot of other people weren’t so lucky. Some who had no problems with their billing information had their order cancelled. Others were charged, and were cancelled nonetheless. Making things worse, Namco took more orders on the 17th of January for the special edition which considering Digital River’s response that there were no more copies was suspicious to say the least.
This is the list of play station 3 games offered from Namco Bandai following the event. With both versions of Ni No Kuni, simply erased from existence.
For the 2nd wave of orders there have been mixed reports that some were fulfilled before the original, while others were cancelled after they had “oversold” the edition.
Throwing salt on the wound it has been rumored that a site called Play Canada purchased several hundred copies of the special edition from Digital River and was awaiting their order, effectively superseding everyone who had preordered.
For the entire week, Namco had remained silent on the whole matter, both versions of Ni No Kuni have been taken off of the Namco store and there are a lot of angry fans. Digital River even issued people a $25 off coupon for the store, which can’t even be used for Ni No Kuni now further adding fuel to the fire.
Namco finally issued a statement apologizing for the whole incident Friday night. Saying that Digital River would get in touch with everyone who lost out due to errors and would give them a free copy of the hardcover strategy guide. But at the time of this writing, we haven’t seen anything yet.
This whole ordeal shows a major problem with customer service and could have been handled so much better.
Fixing the Service in Customer Service:
Firstly, for any publisher or developer who wants to sell their products on their own site, make sure that your site can match the functionality of major retailers. One of the reasons why many indie developers have taken to retailers like Amazon, Steam or Origin, is that it frees them from having to worry about issues like the ones Namco had to deal with.
This allows them to concentrate on making their game, instead of people having billing issues with their site. But if you are dealing with physical products, it’s important to be ready to handle any billing or shipping problems.
The other major point is that when there is a major problem affecting the majority of your consumer base, an action plan has to be delivered to the first tier of support.
During my time at Comcast I was a part of numerous major incidents, including one that was national. And within 30 minutes we all received companywide emails on the issue and what to tell the customer. Meaning that no matter who you spoke to, you would receive the same level of service.
These guys were not amused at Digital River’s customer service.
With Digital River I called back 3 times: once at 1:30 in the afternoon, then again at 5:30 and lastly at 11:30 at night.
The first two times nothing was accomplished even when I spoke to a supervisor.
If it wasn’t for a message on the quarter to three thread about a number to call, I don’t think I would have gotten my copy. And that meant that I would have trusted the customer service, which I didn’t.
When you can’t trust the customer service that you’re getting, then the company has failed as a whole. The fact that a “supervisor” helped me less than a regular employee really shows the lack of professionalism and support at Digital River.
The last point and the one that hurts the most, is the utter silence from Namco Bandai on the whole ordeal. Waiting four days to even issue one statement on the matter.
There is definitely a stigma among developers and publishers to hide their heads in the sand, in a manner of speaking when there is trouble. But you can’t do that and remain looking professional in the eyes of your client base.
When the news broke out about Gas Powered Game’s problem during their kickstarter, owner of GPG: Chris Taylor could have remained completely silent on the matter and let the kickstarter run the course. But instead he acted professionally and told everyone what was going on and I think that helped him more than just disappearing.
In the end, we’re left with a very black mark on what should have been a momentous release. What’s worse is that Level 5 has been caught in the cross fire, as fans are angrily swearing they will never buy another game from Namco again, or just buy Ni No Kuni used. Given such a huge amount of development time and collaboration, to have the title’s launch affected by an issue outside the developer’s control is a shame.
This sadly just goes to show that in today’s age, making a good game is not enough. The sheer volume of quality games being made, makes consumers far less patient about dealing with issues then in the past. When the fan base can’t properly access the game or much less even buy it, then that can be just as much of a failure as having a poor game.
I do feel that a reprint is in order, at least for the people who had their orders cancelled either from the first or second run. I would hope that they would keep the records of all the cancelled orders and would do a better job contacting people compared to Digital River’s response.
With games that were already aimed at niche markets, issues like with Ni No Kuni could kill a new franchise before it gets off the ground. A harsh lesson that developers like EA with always on internet connectivity for SimCity 5 or Ubisoft with continued use of Uplay may have to learn the hard way.
