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Blizzard issues apology after BlizzCon ticket fiasco
BlizzCon hopefuls were refreshing the Blizzard Store page in vain as Blizzard's sale of tickets for the upcoming finals turned into a shambles. Blizzard have now issued an apology and conjured up an additional 3,000 tickets.
By Lawrence Benedict 'Malystryx' Phillips
Aug 14, 2008 12:58
BlizzCon hopefuls were refreshing the Blizzard Store page in vain as Blizzard's sale of tickets for the upcoming finals turned into a shambles. Blizzard have now issued an apology and conjured up an additional 3,000 tickets.The fiasco
Deciding to sell BlizzCon tickets through their new store instead of via the Blizard website like last year, Blizzard did not prepare for technical problems with dealing with overwhelming number of ticket sales happening simultaneously.
Ticket sales were supposed to open at 00:10am on Monday morning but WoW fans were enraged that their F5 refresh spam was pointless as the shop did not open until 6:30am, with Blizzard employees not arriving until 8am, the public was in the dark about what was happening.
At 10:55am a Blizzard rep announced that apparently no tickets had actually been sold which further enraged the WoW fans who had stayed up with the hope of a BLizzCon ticket.
According to WoWInsider of the 44 hours it took to sell the tickets, "there were about eight whole hours where people were refreshing a page that could not actually sell them tickets".
Blizzard however have now stepped up to face the music with Mike Morhaime issueing a formal apology as well offering a further 3,000 tickets.
Blizzard's formal apology
Deciding to sell BlizzCon tickets through their new store instead of via the Blizard website like last year, Blizzard did not prepare for technical problems with dealing with overwhelming number of ticket sales happening simultaneously.
Ticket sales were supposed to open at 00:10am on Monday morning but WoW fans were enraged that their F5 refresh spam was pointless as the shop did not open until 6:30am, with Blizzard employees not arriving until 8am, the public was in the dark about what was happening.
At 10:55am a Blizzard rep announced that apparently no tickets had actually been sold which further enraged the WoW fans who had stayed up with the hope of a BLizzCon ticket.
"Morhaim: The excitement that many of you felt about the show has turned into dissatisfaction and disappointment."
The website then crashed and Blizzard's repair SCV trimmed down the website to reduce bandwidth putting it out of action for several hours. The situation escalated and with very little information being dished out by Blizzard the rumours started to fly. If you want to know the whole tale of the ticket sales then visit WoW Insider who logged the whole thing.According to WoWInsider of the 44 hours it took to sell the tickets, "there were about eight whole hours where people were refreshing a page that could not actually sell them tickets".
Blizzard however have now stepped up to face the music with Mike Morhaime issueing a formal apology as well offering a further 3,000 tickets.
Blizzard's formal apology
"Mike Morhaime: "On behalf of everyone at Blizzard, I want to apologize for the challenges and frustrations you experienced while trying to purchase BlizzCon tickets on Monday and Tuesday.
BlizzCon is about the positive experiences you all have had with Blizzard games. As a result of this week's events, the excitement that many of you felt about the show has turned into dissatisfaction and disappointment.
Due to these circumstances, we've reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale. We know this will not be enough to satisfy the very high level of demand for tickets this year, but we want to ensure that BlizzCon remains a great experience for those of you who are able to attend.
To avoid the issues many of you faced this week, we'll be selling these 3,000 via a lottery. We'll post further details once our plans are finalized. Please note that the lottery will only be open to those with an active Blizzard Account as of 9:00 PM PDT on August 12, the time that the “Sold Out” notice was posted. "
BlizzCon is about the positive experiences you all have had with Blizzard games. As a result of this week's events, the excitement that many of you felt about the show has turned into dissatisfaction and disappointment.
Due to these circumstances, we've reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale. We know this will not be enough to satisfy the very high level of demand for tickets this year, but we want to ensure that BlizzCon remains a great experience for those of you who are able to attend.
To avoid the issues many of you faced this week, we'll be selling these 3,000 via a lottery. We'll post further details once our plans are finalized. Please note that the lottery will only be open to those with an active Blizzard Account as of 9:00 PM PDT on August 12, the time that the “Sold Out” notice was posted. "
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anyway, they will make a great event :)