Should importers have got the free Blu Ray?

Should importers have got the free BR?

  • Yes

    Votes: 51 36.7%
  • No

    Votes: 63 45.3%
  • Don't know

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Face, Bothered?

    Votes: 25 18.0%

  • Total voters
    139

Dave

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Hi all, this thread has been created to try and keep this topic out of all the other Casino Royale threads.

There's obviously a lot of people who want to discuss it so please do so here. I have to say though, it's not for arguing, flaming or venting your spleen.

Any posts that are flaming, insulting, not constructive or otherwise against the AVF rules will be deleted. Please try and discuss it in a sensible, constructive and calm manner.

My view, Sony should have bundled it in the box. Simple as that.

I'm not against importers getting it, they paid their money like everyone else but it would have been much easier to have it in the box.
 
My view, Sony should have bundled it in the box. Simple as that.

I'm not against importers getting it, they paid their money like everyone else but it would have been much easier to have it in the box.

Agreed
 
Yeah they should have bundled it in the box, at the end of the day it was meant to be to supposedly reward those who waited for the European release of the console.

However saying that I don't really care if importers get a copy or not, if I was in their position i'd have taken it!
 
Sony screwed up. The order they're going out is apparently random and it was within their power to work out which PS3s were UK ones if they wanted to.

They could have avoided the whole fiasco by putting it in the box.
 
I think importers of Japan and US PS3's don't deserve it, because the free Casino Promotion was aimed at the people who waited for there PS3's to come out in the legal way, and did not result to grey imports.
 
Not too bothered so long as all UK launch early adopters who registered get a copy. I've been sick of waiting for Sony to deliver mine (for UK PS3) that I bought a copy of the forums for £10. Money well spent aI just watched the film & thought it was awesome. Thought the HD trailors & wmv-hd stuff was good but a true blu-ray disk is a step even higher in sharpness, detail & quality :smashin:
 
the free blu-ray was NOT for people who bought a ps3 on march 23rd, sony clearly state in the flyer that comes with the disc that the free gift is a thankyou for "signing up for the uk network", that is the only stipulation. They want people to use the uk store, buy things off it etc. They also have your details for marketing purposes. If they only wanted uk/europe "purchasers" of the console to get it they would have bundled it in the box like talledega nights in the US
 
What's the big deal anyway? If you get it, great, if you don't so what?

I think Sony always treated it as a lottery type affair anyway and everyone who bought a machine bought it on the understanding that casino Royale would not be included, but there was a chance that you might 'win' one in the draw.
 
the free blu-ray was NOT for people who bought a ps3 on march 23rd, sony clearly state in the flyer that comes with the disc that the free gift is a thankyou for "signing up for the uk network", that is the only stipulation. They want people to use the uk store, buy things off it etc. They also have your details for marketing purposes. If they only wanted uk/europe "purchasers" of the console to get it they would have bundled it in the box like talledega nights in the US
Did you forget Sony already gave people with US consoles there own promotion, but the promotion for signing up to a European or Australian network account was aimed at European and Australia people.
 
Did you forget Sony already gave people with US consoles there own promotion, but the promotion for signing up to a European or Australian network account was aimed at European and Australia people.

Well, i have a Japanese console and got nothing free with it. I'm stating what Sony say themselves that the free gift is a thankyou for signing up for the UK network, nothing more, not buying a uk machine but getting the numbers of registered (i.e. paying) customers up who will buy from the Uk store and to get the email addresses/contact details of ps3 owners.

What i find interesting also is that they opened the whole thing up a couple of days before the launch, therefore they now know who registered their console way before the official launch and thus they know the addresses of all the people who imported. This didn't stop them sending out the free gift though, in fact, they rewarded the importers by sending them out first.
 
Importers didn't do anything other than sign upto the UK PS Network.
I had signed upto the HK, Japanese and US Networks as well and simply signed upto the UK one when pre-registration became available. If Sony choose to send me a free BD movie for doing that then I'm grateful for their generosity but I've already bouhgt a US version of Casino Royale at launch so I'm not benefiting from receiving it - I'll maybe keep it as a memento of all the bickering it's caused though :D

There was nothing to stop the people awaiting the PS3 to be launched from pre-registering the same way that I, and many others did.

If the movie was for UK PS3 purchasers only then it would have been bundled in the box with the console like Talladega Nights in the US.

I find it surprising that some people appear to have a big issue with importers receiving Casino Royale. As has been mentioned already, it was a reward for people signing upto the PS Network.

I noticed a comment stating "the free Casino Promotion was aimed at the people who waited for there PS3's to come out in the legal way", well importing the PS3 wasn't illegal. If it had been then HM Customs would have seized mine on its entrance to the UK instead of VAT'ing it and sending it on its way to me. Not officially supported by the manufacturer would be accurate, but illegal is a touch too strong.
 
Let's get some perspective with the importers too, i paid £445 for my Japanese 20gb before christmas with customs charges etc. No free gift. I had to upgrade to a wireless Belkin gaming adapter at £45, a new 120gb hard drive at £60 and don't forget i have absolutely NO warranty. The fact i got a free blu-ray of a film that i had already purchased anyway is a drop in the ocean compared to the outlay and risk involved.

Ebay will be flooded with these at a fiver very soon, i don't see the big problem.
 
I purchased Casino Royale a week before the offer but I dont mind this. But Sony heavily advertised the PS3 as a Blue Ray movie player as well as a games console. A remote control in the box would have been far better.
 
the free blu-ray was NOT for people who bought a ps3 on march 23rd, sony clearly state in the flyer that comes with the disc that the free gift is a thankyou for "signing up for the uk network", that is the only stipulation. They want people to use the uk store, buy things off it etc. They also have your details for marketing purposes. If they only wanted uk/europe "purchasers" of the console to get it they would have bundled it in the box like talledega nights in the US


Sony don't care who gets the disc, all they the care about is that everyone who signs up, whether imported or not has updated to the latest firmware and has thereby minimized Piracy Threat :lesson: (The version of the firmware supplied with the PS3 allegedly vulnerable, the version updated to when going on-line to get the free disc more secure).

I would go as far to say as the disc was always meant to be a Trojan horse of such, luring people to upgrade.
 
I'm not against importers getting it, they paid their money like everyone else but it would have been much easier to have it in the box.
Would it have been easier to have it in the box? How many of the discs should be allocated to each country in Europe? Would there be an equal uproar if buyers in France could still buy a box with the disc in after 3 weeks, with the disc promotion sold out in the UK after 3 days? What about if they couldn't get all the discs ready in time, would a further launch delay have been accpetable?

I see far more issues with including a copy in the box than the way it has been done. At least this way the first 500,000 people to register get the disc regadless of where they live.
 
At least this way the first 500,000 people to register get the disc regadless of where they live.

Well that's how it was billed. Sony made such a dogs breakfast of it that's not what's happening.
 
It's a total mess. People who registered just a couple of days ago already getting the disk, and people who registered on the day not getting any kind of email or a disk. People managing to get 8 disks...

Heck, just checkout the forum here on the number of people who registered on launch day and haven't even had the email yet.

Sony themselves said it was a lottery, and although sceptical at the time it does seem like it. Instead of doing it in any kind of order they've just sent them out randomly.

Even if they manage by some miracle to get them all out you can't describe the process as anything less than a disaster.
 
At the end of the day it was up to Sony to make sure that the promo was run correctly, if they have been sending out copies to people other than those of with a UK PS3 then that's Sony's fault,if they were that interested in the EU customer they would have had something in place to prevent this from happening.
 
Importers didn't do anything other than sign upto the UK PS Network.
I had signed upto the HK, Japanese and US Networks as well and simply signed upto the UK one when pre-registration became available. If Sony choose to send me a free BD movie for doing that then I'm grateful for their generosity but I've already bouhgt a US version of Casino Royale at launch so I'm not benefiting from receiving it - I'll maybe keep it as a memento of all the bickering it's caused though :D

There was nothing to stop the people awaiting the PS3 to be launched from pre-registering the same way that I, and many others did.

If the movie was for UK PS3 purchasers only then it would have been bundled in the box with the console like Talladega Nights in the US.

I find it surprising that some people appear to have a big issue with importers receiving Casino Royale. As has been mentioned already, it was a reward for people signing upto the PS Network.

I noticed a comment stating "the free Casino Promotion was aimed at the people who waited for there PS3's to come out in the legal way", well importing the PS3 wasn't illegal. If it had been then HM Customs would have seized mine on its entrance to the UK instead of VAT'ing it and sending it on its way to me. Not officially supported by the manufacturer would be accurate, but illegal is a touch too strong.

It's a total mess. People who registered just a couple of days ago already getting the disk, and people who registered on the day not getting any kind of email or a disk. People managing to get 8 disks...

Heck, just checkout the forum here on the number of people who registered on launch day and haven't even had the email yet.

Sony themselves said it was a lottery, and although sceptical at the time it does seem like it. Instead of doing it in any kind of order they've just sent them out randomly.

Even if they manage by some miracle to get them all out you can't describe the process as anything less than a disaster.

At the end of the day it was up to Sony to make sure that the promo was run correctly, if they have been sending out copies to people other than those of with a UK PS3 then that's Sony's fault,if they were that interested in the EU customer they would have had something in place to prevent this from happening.

Agreed.
 
As said if they wanted to make sure that only europeans got the disc then they should have packed it in. They way they did it was open to abuse and tbh where ever you bought your ps3 you bought one and because of sonys stupidity it was a free for all so it was all fair game imho.
 
i don't think its fair the importers get the disk as it's not in the spirit of what the promotion was for (eu/aus buyers) but it is sonys mistake for it going wrong so i think they should make sure the first 500,000 eu and aus buyers do get the disk for sure, even if that means giving away another 100,000 because of what importers got. its their mistake so put it right!
 
I've got a US PS3, and I've had the email to say I will be getting a disc. And why shouldn't I? I want to use the UK store, not the US store. If Sony send me a disc because I registered, thats their fault, not mine.

Even if I imported, Sony still received my money. I've bought approximately 15 BR discs so far, and even bought 2 games from the (UK) store. I don't honestly see why I deserve a 'gift' any less than anyone else.
 

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