Hidden Springs Only Available Through EA Store?
I went shopping for Hidden Springs yesterday, because I'm very intrigued about all this talk of the "green people." But to my surprise I found that, unlike Barnacle Bay, it is only available through the Sims 3 store.
This is a problem for me for three reasons:
1. You have to buy store points. Technically it doesn't cost $22.50, it costs 2,250 SimPoints. Oh, but you might have noticed that you can only buy SimPoints in bundles. THAT IS HOW THEY GET YOU. In order to get Hidden Springs, I will actually have to spend $30 on SimPoints first.
Then I'll have 750 SimPoints points left over. Oh goody.
2. I have this, like, massive Amazon credit burning a hole in my pocket. Did you know that CoinStar machines don't charge a counting fee if you have your change converted to an Amazon certificate? Also, did you know that my coin jar contained $42.27 in discarded pocket change? Yowza!
3. I also have a $10 Best Buy gift card that I could deploy if Hidden Springs was sold at Best Buy and I didn't want to use my Amazon credit.
My theory - and I think it's a good one - is that the sale methods for Barnacle Bay proved too bizarre and irritating to their customers.
For example, if you go to Best Buy, you can buy something that looks for all the world like a Barnacle Bay DVD case. But when you get it home, if you're too careless to read the packaging, you will be surprised and angry when you open it up and find that the case is empty. In fact, ever since Barnacle Bay was released, there has been a steady churn of "I bought Barnacle Bay at the store but my DVD case is empty, help!"
(Of course, if you read the packaging, you will learn that inside the DVD case is the magic download code you use to download Barnacle Bay. This is ridiculous, and seems like the worst of both worlds.)
If you buy Barnacle Bay on Amazon, it's even worse. You have to wait however many days for them to ship you the empty DVD case which contains the code which you then use to download Barnacle Bay.
I get that EA wants to drive people away from physical discs and towards digital download. But I think they need to give it up and realize that no matter what, some people just want the darned disc, and EA might as well just give it to them!