Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is inching toward its release on July 29th, so naturally, folks in the UK and the EU are wondering when on earth they'll be able to pre-order the fancy Special Edition.
Well, sadly, although those in North America were able to secure their pre-orders recently (albeit with the added sting of those ruddy scalpers swooping in), Nintendo has now announced that pre-orders for the UK and the EU won't be opening until after the game's launch later this month.
Here's exactly what Nintendo had to say on the matter:
Due to unforeseen logistical challenges, we are unable to open pre-orders for the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Collector’s Edition before the game launches on July 29th.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused. To give customers the flexibility to purchase and enjoy the game at launch, we will now be offering the contents of the Collector’s Edition (soft cover concept art book, steel case and outer box packaging) as a separate purchase at a price that does not include the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 software.
This means you can buy the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 game when it launches on July 29th, and have a chance to pre-order the Collector’s Edition contents on My Nintendo Store later in September.
So the good news then (if you can call it that), is you'll be able to purchase the game on its own in time for launch on the 29th, with the extra contents available in September at a lower price.
Nintendo has also confirmed that the contents of the Special Edition will be delivered at some time in Autumn with free shipping. So that's something! Of course, this news comes very shortly after we learned that the My Nintendo Store was taken offline for maintenance in multiple EU countries, possibly for weeks on end.
We recently went hands on with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and came away pretty impressed with what we'd seen so far, stating that "everything from that cracking new combat system to the twisting, turning storyline, superbly written characters and top-notch world-building is making for a third entry in this series that's hitting all the right notes so far".
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What do you make of this news from Nintendo? Disappointed? Don't care? Let us know in the comments below!
[source store.nintendo.co.uk, via twitter.com]
Comments 68
ok so I just bought the standard game then. I was waiting until collector's edition orders opened up but tbh now I kinda just want the game.
Yep, saw this one coming. It's less than 2 weeks before launch and The My Nintendo Store in mainland EU countries is still down for “extensive maintenance”.
Ordered a physical copy just now. Then at least can fill the CE steel case later.
Ugh. Ridiculous. What’s stopping Nintendo putting the pre orders up now and letting people secure in advance?
Whilst this isn't great, equally I'd probably rather have the game digitally in any case. I'll pick this up with a switch online voucher and hopefully get the special edition contents later in the year. Now, I wonder whether I'll hold off and use the other voucher for Pokemon or whether I'll cave and get Three Hopes
I might just get the normal one now... I'm getting too old for Limited Editions by Nintendo. Trying to snag one is so blooming stressful.
As a digital buyer, I find the separate option to purchase artbooks and stuff ironically preferable. Too bad it's still just Nintendo Store, meaning that any occurrence of these contents in local retail would have the finest scalpaloosa pedigree.
That's a nice little mess that Nintendo is doing here...
I'm ok with that because the collector part was announced for autumn and the collector will be cheaper that way because the game can be bought for 45€
Good thing I pre-ordered with my local retailer as well. Hopefully, I'll be able to get their pre-order bonuses (poster, stickers and post-cards) and then get the CE bonus content only in September (even though I'm not getting the game from their store...I don't see anything saying you'd be able to get the CE contents only if you've bought the game itself from My Nintendo).
But this has truly been a ***** show and shows how ill-prepared Nintendo was for moving the game from its September slot to July...
@AhabSpampurse this one is stressing me out as they keep moving the goalposts..
Why they can’t say ‘pre orders on July 22nd at 1pm, although the limited edition contents won’t ship until September’ is beyond me..
Special Editions are for fans and fans obviously want this game at launch. This is stupid
@mariomaster96 they’re saying buy the game at launch, and then they’ll release the contents of the special edition separately (i.e minus the game)
It’s a big old mess - I’m going to wait until the collectors edition goes on sale and try and snag the game + special edition together if they bundle it like that..
I'm wondering why so many people complain. The CE content was always announced for Autumn, therefore not much changes here...
@mazzel no, but the pre order window has changed, for no reason.
CE sold separately.what a shambles of a launch. I think Nintendo took inspiration from ebay. I feel sorry for the devs and everyone involved in making the game
@piecez sales of the game aren’t going to be affected. The CE is still being released. It’s just the mess up of changing the pre order window that’s a hassle here.
That's frustrating, but I want to play this game on launch date.
So, I'll just go ahead and place that standard edition pre-order right now then.
@AndyMK84 buying the CE contents separate is fine on eBay, but for Nintendo to be doing this is idiotic
I'm pretty annoyed about this but on the plus side £38.24 for a game of this calibre is an absolutely incredible deal
@AndyMK84 because you can't buy the game from mynintendo it's on maintenance and it will be for a few weeks, that's why they announced today that the collector part of the edition (that was supposed to be shipped in autumn) will be sold as a separate purchase because they can't sell the game before the 29th
Funny definition of pre-order
@piecez it was always separate because the collector part was announced for shipping in autumn.
Not much of a pre-order at that point, is it?
I never get why you’d want to own a statue of a character or and art book from a game before you’ve actually played it and like it.
@nathatruc that’s the EU Store - the U.K. Store is up and running as it always has been..
@MrGawain because people are fans of the franchise and based on previous entries there’s a pretty high probability that they’ll enjoy this game as well..
There’s no risk involved from the buyer - either pre order and if the game bombs, return the collectors edition, or sell it on eBay.
@MrGawain probably because the artbooks are really high quality and practically impossible to buy for a reasonable price by the time you've finished the game
#NintendoLogic #GuanoLoco
Thats a shame, but at least that calms my concerns of not having the game on day one.
Will finally put in an order today and hope I grab the LE stuff later on. Hopefully its not TOO overpriced without the game?
See, not feeling the need to collect these things because I'll never have a complete set makes it almost a good thing that an old friend of mine never returned my original copy of Xenoblade or explained what happened to it. Almost. I still remember, Matt, and one day I'll come for you.
Preorder more like Postorder 😂
I probably should stop complaining about scalpers before it becomes a nuisance... No government or corporation is gonna care enough unless it was an essential item.
If they're holding off like this for EU maybe that means NA fans will get another shot?????? Cause I'm still livid about the trainwreck that the NA preorder was.
@AndyMK84 actually, there was no window announced before, they just said "before the release". actually, this way you can save some bucks because you don't have to buy the game full price from Nintendo, but can get a good deal at a retailer
don't get me wrong, I basically checked the Nintendo website daily to not miss the pre-order. As I'm currently in China it's actually good that I can buy the CE stiff separately and just get the cartridge here ✌️
@mazzel we were given a late July window for the CE:
https://twitter.com/NintendoUK/status/1534188479298641920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1534188479298641920%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnoisypixel.net%2Fxenoblade-chronicles-3-special-edition-pre-orders%2F
@AndyMK84 the German Nintendo website was just stating "you will get an email notification when pre orders start before the release of the game". but what we are discussing now is nonsense anyway... they have some issues with the supply chain and have to postpone... it's crazy times anyway... if you participated in the wonderful 101 kickstarter catastrophe, this here is nothing
@mazzel got you…Cross communication there, as I was looking at it from the POV of the U.K. pre order.
Like you said though, it’s all nonsense now. The fun and games continue..
@nhSnork i agree they should sell the artbook on the side like at book stores or something.
@AndyMK84 yeah! and the game will be lots of fun, no way they mess this one up!
Man...talk about a fiasco. Japan, NZ, and Australia had few issues, North American countries had a scalper/broken site insanity fest to deal with, and now the UK/EU can't even preorder the SE contents until later this year. I suppose it's a consolation that they're offering the items without the game for a cheaper price?
I don’t pretend to know the logistics behind this, but Nintendo have managed to put out so much grander special editions on time.
I preordered mine at Target before I got the email from Nintendo. So I might get the CE contents if it’s not too much of a hassle, otherwise I’ll pass.
This special edition is missing a soundtrack. We had one with 2 and with 1's Definitive Edition. So that's disappointing.
Ok, I get stuff happens...but...
NOOOOooooo......!
Ok but what puzzles me here is how do we order the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 special edition if we don't live in the UK or US? I live in neither of those places.
My Nintendo store only does shipping within the UK or US, so does that mean that only 3 countries in the world (US, UK and Japan) will get access to this special edition?
This was obviously going to happen. You don't keep people waiting until this close to release with no pre-orders up, and tell us the book is not even going to ship with it, without there being a huge problem in sourcing supply. They should've just been honest with us months ago when they knew the book wasn't going to ship. At least let us pre-order in advance (and they still aren't for some reason) rather than keep us all in suspense and anxious about missing the orders opening. It's been a real shambles. This isn't even as good as previous special editions. No soundtrack, no keyring or even a poster. Just a book and a steelcase is a paltry offering imo. I'd rather they just offered the book up for standard retail as that's all I really want. Instead of making us sweat that it's limited edition and we may miss out if we're too slow to place an order.
Finland doesn't have My Nintendo Store... How can I get The Special Edition?
Honestly out of all the fanbases, Xenoblade fans are one of the few who deserve crap like this because of how arrogant and gatekeeping they are.
In the US it always said that the Game was going to ship physically first and the CE box would ship later. Which I am surprised I never saw anybody up in arms about that. This means the CE doesn't have a game in it in sealed fashion.
"The physical edition of the game is scheduled to ship by July 29, 2022. The remaining Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition contents will ship in fall 2022."
@QueenKittenWrite Every fanbase has its toxic idiots lol. I'm not even dealing with them because its full of manchilds and children.
@Grawbad which is even more hilarious to me considering after the game drops, none of the scalped CEs on eBay are going to go down in price even though it’s minus the actual game. These dip-sucks will be asking for $200 for what essentially amounts to $30 worth of retail.
When your CE consists of 1/3 the value of retail and gets poached for nearly a 700% increase because you rushed a comparable game out because Zelda’s still not ready, you might be Nintendo.
Cue the FFS, SMH…
'How to hurt sales 101' right there.
@nhSnork I don’t get how you people feel safe buying games digitally from Nintendo. I can only feel safe about doing that from Steam. With Nintendo you could end up never being able to play it again. With Steam the games I buy will always be available to me. Even games no longer for sale on their store can be downloaded. I can take my account anywhere, and I don’t have to call to have an account transfer if something goes wrong with my system and I have to buy a new one.
@-Juice- as far as once purchased redownloads go, Nintendo is the same as Steam - even Wii and DS digital titles remain on the servers to this day (outside a recent SNAFU, but it was clearly unplanned and has been solved since). But as someone who spent the handheld Gen 7 on flash cards and CFWs, I both cherish the proper digital stores and feel little commotion over the prospect of ever losing official access to my library there - it might be more of a hassle afterwards, but the day a Nintendo console's dedicated servers die off entirely will just be my cue to hack the console in question and pack it with roms that will undoubtedly be available throughout the internet by then (Nintendo's occasional raids against the more conspicuous websites don't impact that much). If I have few qualms about pirating games I can't access a proper purchase option of, how many would I ever have about downloading the ones I have actually paid for? And that's assuming a successor console won't be hosting all these games for backward compatibility in the first place.
That's the thing in many cases like mine, really - doomsayers tell us that "you're only paying for a license" while we're actually paying for good conscience and QoL perks of legal access. But I remember the days when all this legal access was off limits here in the first place, as recently as a decade ago, and I remember how we got by in the meantime.
Scapler or not this whole sh%t show is nintendo's fault, everything from game release on one date to limited edition item on another date. Then nintendo won't allow game store like gamestop, bestbuy to pre-order limited edition, so they can cut the middle man and grab all the profits for themselves. Is not even the scapler causing all these problem is nintendo's Greed and stupidity the main problem here. If i were nintendo ceo i definitely fire the morons that causing this whole mess.
Does anyone know the date when we are likely to see reviews on this game?
Hoping to track down a physical copy of this in LATAM!
First non-indy game I am buying for the switch, really looking forward to this one. Have pencilled in 15 hours on July 29th to play.
Tempted to download off of the eshop to get it going at 7pm local time though maybe a fools errand.
Forget pre-orders, post-order going to be the new trend!
@-Juice- Because they aren't likely to just magically go POOF in the middle of the night. Plenty of time to buy an extra SD card and download everything you bought if need be? Oh and the 50 games stored on that SD card take up just a weee little less space than 50 plastic cases just sitting in your room.
@completo88 other countries have my Nintendo stores, too. if your country does not have one, no idea what you can do
Not a good sign when a corporation doesn't even want to take your money first.
@completo88 presumably once the European My Nintendo Store reopens you'll be able to preorder the game-less collectors edition in September along with us in the UK.
@zippu95 You'll have to check which country closest to you has a store, what countries they ship to and potentially use that. I live in Bulgaria and I've redeemed "My Nintendo Store" rewards (like the Metroid Dread pins for example) through the German store. Hoping to do the same with XC3.
I know it was a joke but now it's seriously looking like they forgot the game got pushed forward two months from it's original release date.
Unbelievable!
@zippu95 hey, swedish neighbor here. You can get MyNintendo stuff from nintendo.de. The MyNintendo store is down right now though but that's what have used and it works fine. .
What’s the delay? The collector Ed is only a book.
How many other games have released with a collector book and no issues?
UK + EU? What about other European countries outside the EU (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland...)?
So does that mean SE buyers will get the Game and SE packaging will come out later?
Does anyone know if this goes the same for the US? Will I be able to get the base game now and then order the special edition contents later?
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