You know, I can't believe the criticism I'm hearing of Stardock here. Stardock is a tiny company (in the scheme of things) and they made a decision based upon what they thought reasonable demand would be. The fact that demand way outstripped supply is amazing for them, but it is not their fault. Why don't the complainers take a look at what happened with the Xbox 360. Microsoft is the polar opposite of Stardock in terms of size and money and power. Yet my friend pre-ordered his Xbox in the summer and didn't get it until MONTHS after the "release day."

"Release days" are relative things. The ONLY place that that specific date has EVER held meaning as far as I know is online and Stardock didn't just deliver, they delivered in style.

I have been a gamer a long time too, and "release days" are always estimates. Shipments and ship times always have random bugs in them and there's NOTHING that Stardock can do about it.

So please, think about this for a while and lay off. They did the best they could and if you REALLY wanted the game right away, you can download it.

UPDATE:

I ordered my copy from EBGames.com on Feb 9th, and it is currently being shipped to me! All the UPS site says is that they rec'd the billing information so it is not technically on the road yet, but it is closer to me then it has been since tuesday.

When I talked to EB yesterday a rep said they do not do "weekend shipping", BUT since the game is now in the posession of UPS does that still mean I will get it Saturday? I have rec'd packages from UPS on the weekend before. Just so you know I don't necessarily want the truth, I just want to hear someone say something along the lines of......."Of course you will recieve it tomorrow! UPS will have that game in your hands first thing in the morning. In fact more than likely they will come in and install the game so when you wake up you can go straight to playing the game!"

Hey, I'm not saying this is the end of the world or that it is unforgivable. I'm just saying that a release date is a release date. I canceled my order with Gamestop and downloaded it. I think Stardock could have been fair to the retailers and delayed availabilty for download but made consumers mad or been unfair to retailers and did what they did. I'm glad they chose the consumer but those that sunk money in to the retailer delivery path will be dissapointed and rightly so. This is in no way the consumer's, who want the game asap, fault. This is not a market that is known for patient disinterested consumers. Take the complaints and learn and move on. I just jumped in because I don't like people turning the tables on those not to blame.

I also dont think the trade of publishing a game is a hit and miss thing that is presented here. I'm pretty sure this sort of thing has been done before and there is a certain amount of predictability in shipping, production etc.

PS All that aside love the game so far and it is worth the trouble and the demand.

Ive been hitting up my local Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Gamestop every day since Tuesday. Being in Panama City, Florida, I didnt expect it to be in today, so I wasnt surprised. The only thing that upsets me, is none of the people in customer service had any idea when it would be in, or how to go about finding any information. My local Gamestop has it in stock since tuesday, according to their computer, but cant explain to me how it is its not in their store. None of this seems to be Stardocks fault, and im just glad I didnt pre-order the CE like I considered. Im downloading my copy right now, and hopefully wont have to wait too long for the box/cd to come in the mail. I know the whole point of buying it retail is to increase marketing/product awareness, but honestly the 4x space gamer is such a niche market respectively that having it available in the stores isnt likely to impact their sales too drastically. Or at least I would assume, im no marketing executive with a briefcase.

Nowhere in the south-west Washington state region has it (two Wal-Marts, EBGames) nor the Portland, OR Best Buy.

The Best Buy employee joked that he got in two Xbox 360's, but all anyone wants is a PC game.

I'm *this* close to just picking up EaW for my sci-fi gaming fix, to be honest.

Wow. The impatience of some people is astonishing. To TheMissingLink -- picking up EaW would be a tragedy. The game is poor, at best. I've read nothing but negative things about it (except for Tycho on PA, he seems to like it, which is unusual). GalCiv2 is a great, great game, and it WILL BE OUT THERE SOON. I'm STILL waiting for my 360, but it's ok. There are other things to do while waiting than complaining that you don't have the game yet.

Patience, people, patience!

Just got off the phone with Gamestop. I was told that the game has not even been released yet. Call back on Monday. I pre order it in January.

I'm normally a very patient person, but when you've actually got a spare weekend for once, and got totally into the hype for GalCiv2 last weekend, it's pretty rough. It's just frustrating.

(Star Wars: EaW has a 79% on GameRankings, I wouldn't call that poor.)

And apoc527 - picking up a 360 would be the real tragedy.

So much for promises.

Friday, no game.

Nowhere around here.

A lot has been said about blame, about taking it easy on everyone, how this isn't the end of the world. About the end of the world thing, they're correct. (BTW - Octaviusviii, it's 'they're' when referrering to people. It's 'there' when referring to a place.) However, I, like many others, set aside time this week to play this new game. Oh, one more thing, Stardock is not 'blessing' us with this wonderful game, like they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, they are making money from it. Money I, like many others, have already spent.

I'm not having an 'aneurysm'. I'm just upset, and I have a right to be. A preorder is a vote of confidence from the consumer telling the manufacturer, "Hey, I believe in this, here is my money sight unseen." A release date from a publisher is a promise from that manufacturer.

I understand what everyone is saying about Stardock being a small company. Unfortunately, I'm outnumbered here because only Stardock 'fans' are going to take time to use the forums. The thousands of folks who, like me, are understanably upset about this aren't going to post. One would think, though, that since Stardock is a small company, they would try to keep those preorder people happy. Thus far, it's not happening, regardless of what what the fans on this site have to say.

I'm not happy. I will probably enjoy this game, but this experience will definately leave a sour taste in my mouth.

One more thing; a game from a large publishing company, Dungeons and Dragons Online, rewarded its preorder folks by opening the game early for them today. An interesting idea, being rewarded for preordering.

Unbelievable. It looks like I won't be playing GalCiv2 till the last day of Feb. or even the beginning of March. A week after the street release date. "Preordered" at a Gamestop in Los Angeles, CA.

I can stomach the wait... I just find it unfair that other people are thoroughly playing and enjoying the game, while I am not despite having preordered weeks in advance.

If it keeps getting pushed to a later date and coupled with the possibility that my preorderd copy might not be a collector's edition, I will be pissed, heh.

If you live in Columbia, Mo and are looking for Galactic Civ II I aplolgize. I pre-ordered from EBgames and they rec'd it yesterday, but for some reason they decided to sit on their a** all day today and never bothered to ship it. (At aprox 1230pm today they sent UPS the billing info.......& that's it). So needless to say I called by nearest EB and they had ONE copy left, so I asked the guy if he could hold it for me and he said yes. So I drove 45 minutes (One way) to pick up the last copy.

IT IS NOT A COLLECTOR's EDITION, but then again my pre-order (Which is still on the way) apparently is not either, so oh well.

You or anyone else that says they must have the game NOW NOW NOW.  You have that option. You continue to have that option: You could buy it directly from Stardock and have it right now. And we ONLY sell the Collector's Edition.

I'm not sure what you want, Danderson.  We can't force your store of choice to stock the CE.  We were told that all retailers would have their orders fulfilled with the CE.  Some did not.  What would you have us do?

One more thing; a game from a large publishing company, Dungeons and Dragons Online, rewarded its preorder folks by opening the game early for them today. An interesting idea, being rewarded for preordering.

That's an MMO. That's no different than what we've done.  People we KNOW who pre-ordered it, i.e. purchased form us, HAVE THE GAME.

We want gamers to buy the game wherever they feel most comfortable. But it's been pretty clear for the past couple of days that for a variety of reasons, people who absolutely positively have to have the game right this second are better off ordering and downloading while they wait for their Collector's Edition box to arrive.

We want you to be happy with us and your purchase, but I'm not sure what you want us to do. I'm an engineer. I problem solve. How can we solve your problem?  I can only present the solutions that I know are possible. If you have a suggestion, we're all ears.

Solutions for getting the game:
1. Download it from Stardock.
2. Buy the CD from Stardock and then download and play with a temp key until the CD arrives.
3. Search all the stores (Walmart, Bestbuy, EB, Gamestop) in your area for the last copy of the game.
4. Wait for your pre-order.
5. Steal your friends copy.
6. Splice together all of the screenshots and video online to make your own pseudo game. (Limited replayability)
7. Call of a friend and play by directing their every move over the phone. This can also work over the internet.
8. Go to a friends house and play pseudo hotseat.
9. Download from Stardock.
10. Go to the Fedex distributing center and find your package.
11. Randomly copy and paste all of Brad's game commentaries to make your own variations.
12. Suck up to Brad and maybe he will send you a free CE copy of the game.

I am doing a combination of 3, 4, 10, 11, and 12.....and scavanging the forums for any new bit of information I can find out about the game. I look at it this way. I am going to miss all of the major bugs because by the time I get the game two patches will have already been released to deal with the most grevious errors. Ok, now back to my waiting...

Given that Brad didnt even have a CE copy himself yesterday you could be out of luck with 12! Nice post though.

Hmmm, one idea might be to issue temporary keys to people who pre-ordered and have not received the game yet. I really wanted to play this weeked, but due to the fact that there are no weeked deliveries, I will only get my game monday or tuesday. But downloading 1 GB from Stardock should only take me a cpouple of hours.
So, a temporary key that will expire, let's say, tuesday would be very usefull. This way I'll get to play this weekend, and when my game arrives I'll just change the temp key with the right one.

Hmmm, one idea might be to issue temporary keys to people who pre-ordered and have not received the game yet. I really wanted to play this weeked, but due to the fact that there are no weeked deliveries, I will only get my game monday or tuesday. But downloading 1 GB from Stardock should only take me a cpouple of hours. So, a temporary key that will expire, let's say, tuesday would be very usefull. This way I'll get to play this weekend, and when my game arrives I'll just change the temp key with the right one.

That's what we do. But we have no way of telling if someone pre-ordered it from a store. We're not privy to their databases.

Still nowhere to be found in the Portland, OR / southern Washington area. All signs point to next week.

Like practically everyone else who's posting, I'm a big fan, and I'm about to break down and download GalCiv 2. Tried to find it in stores to pump up the shelf sales, but no dice, and I'm impatient.

I'm just curious as to why the download version has a base price of $44.95 when brick 'n mortar stores are selling it for $39.95. Is it because the download version is the collector's edition? It's not a big deal to me (I'll buy it at either price); I'm just curious since in forum hopping I've yet to see this price difference mentioned.

Couldn't find the collector's edition anywhere in the Boston, MA area. I looked at two best buys, target, and ebgames. I'm going to check gamestop next week. I know Walmart has it but I don't have one near me.

My copy is sitting at a Fedex depot < 10mi. from my house. I can't get it until monday though. Stupid fedex, won't give it to me on the weekend.

My copy is sitting at a Fedex depot < 10mi. from my house. I can't get it until monday though. Stupid fedex, won't give it to me on the weekend

Oh. That's just cruel.

You or anyone else that says they must have the game NOW NOW NOW. You have that option. You continue to have that option: You could buy it directly from Stardock and have it right now. And we ONLY sell the Collector's Edition.

And yet, you encourage people to wait for the preorder at the stores so that you can sit on the shevles longer.

That's an MMO. That's no different than what we've done. People we KNOW who pre-ordered it, i.e. purchased form us, HAVE THE GAME.

I preordered my DDO copy from the same store I preorder GalCivII from, so you're doing something very different. I have DDO early as a reward for preorder. I'm still waiting for my GalCivII copy.

We want gamers to buy the game wherever they feel most comfortable. But it's been pretty clear for the past couple of days that for a variety of reasons, people who absolutely positively have to have the game right this second are better off ordering and downloading while they wait for their Collector's Edition box to arrive.

I shouldn't have to, and that's my point. I shouldn't HAVE to do any of this. You are an engineer, you want to problem solve, then solve it. I don't work for Stardock, and I'm not about to solve your problems for you.

Don't sit there and write a message in response to mine like I'm whining about this, or that I'm some petulent child, then tell me you want me to be happy. You're charging more on the website for the game than I paid in the store. You're telling me in order to play this game on the date set by your company I have to pay extra money AFTER I already paid for it.

I don't appreciate the tone. I paid for this, your company promised it, I'm not the one who fudged this up.

DAnderson:

I'm glad that you have DDO early as a reward for your pre-order. For GalCiv2 you will get extra cosmetics, a tech-tree, and a shiny box for your pre-order. Why did Stardock choose this instead? I have no idea.

Welcome to the crowd, I am still waiting for my pre-order. I had this entire last week blocked out to play GalCiv2. Yeah, that screwed up my week. Here's the thing. Stardock made an honest mistake and they are doing everything they can to rectify it. Life is hard enough occasionally screwing up once in a while. Try doing that in front of thousands of people. What have you done to try and resolve your issue with Stardock. Did you email them or call them before you started posting how bad they messed up your life and you know exactly what they could have done to avoid this? What did they say?

Here is the basic issue as I see it:

Stardock: GalCiv2 will be released everywhere on 2/21/2006

Stardock (2/21/2006): For lots of reasons (Stardock, Take 2, Ebgames, etc all have plenty of blame) retail stores will not have the game for a couple of days. We appologize for the delay and are working as fast as we can to fix it.

I'm sure that you are aware that it is mutually benefitial for both Stardock and you to have a copy of the game in your hands as soon as possible. If you want to offer some constructive criticism, Great. Stop trying to tear apart Stardock for making an honest mistake. If you want a fight go find one actually worth fighting. One week, $50, a video game, and an honest mistake don't qualify.

I understand everyone's frustration, because I walked into an EB store on Thursday and there was no Gal Civ II and the guy behind the counter couldn't tell me when he would get one. Then I stopped at Comp USA and there was no Gal Civ II there either.

I believe the story that, as a small independent company, they don't have as much power with the distributors and the retail chains. I'm sure Stardock wishes that every retail store had a big display case up front promoting the game, so there's no point beating up on them.

I'm not sure how Stardock is able to rectify this for DAnderson. I see his point, but then I see the unreasonable demand from him that they have to fix this right away and that if it wasn't done yesterday then its too late for him and he now hates the company.

Living in Canada, I always have to account for a day or two more then the stated release date of a game. Its like that for every game for us. It has to cross a border, get through customs, etc etc, in order for it to get to the retail chains up here. Most of the population here is less then an hour away from the US border, but it still takes an extra day or two. I for one, have always learned that a release date from a developer is the release date that they allow the retail chains to sell it. Its up to the distributor and the retail chains to provide the product on that day, and it always takes them a day or two more then in the US to get the games up here.

Now, could Stardock have said "listen, people pre-ordered, make sure enough copies go out by x date to make it for the 21st", like DDO? Yes, I suppose so. But ultimately, they were promised by a distributor that it would be ok for the 21st, and they were let down as much as DAnderson was. So, I'm not sure how DAnderson wants a company of 30 people (who, by the journals, seem very dedicated to making this work) to demand Take2 or their retail suppliers to stock the game by now, no matter what. They only have two hands each. They only have so many hours in the day. They also have deals to take some of these tasks off their hands so they can concentrate on making the game great, not the release date perfect. That last one, in my opinion, is for the distributor and the retail chains to do, not the little developer who is already working on weekends to fulfill orders without any cohersion by the company to do so...