Did Blizzard pull a Bethesda?

General Discussion
1

So these bundles are limited time for Halloween right?

And that they released the bundles with a discount?

But there’s no way to buy these beyond the events, right?

If so then this is illegal in the EU, Canada and Australia and the same thing Bethesda did with Fallout 76’s Christmas bundles. To quote the Internet Historian during his “The Fall of 76” video.

“Oh look! It’s marked down half price! But it’s not. It was RELEASED half price. They’re artificially jacking up the price, only to give it a fake limited-time discount in order to create a sense of urgency.” – Internet Historian on the Fallout 76 Christmas emote bundle. (Time Stamp 23:58)

Blizzard is doing the exact same thing, listing limited-time bundles for Halloween, only purchasable during the event with a “sale” of at least 9%

Here is a link to “Guidance on the interpretation and application of Article 6a of Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers” which details what is legal when concerning sales and price reductions within the EU.

I’d share links but the forum won’t let me. I also posted this on Reddit with the links.

8 Likes
2

I was just about to write the same thing: In my country it is illegal for an item to go “straight to discount” and have the discount price as its only price. Basically the advertisement has to be truthful. If there is only one price, that is its real price and not a discounted price.

Hoping somebody picks up on this, as Blizzard could use a smack on the face with a wet trout.

3

Nope because its not a item that is discounted, its a bundle. If you read the text from the legal team that is displayed at the bottom right, you will see what I mean. it is a discount because all the items have a base value. Its still stupid because you cant buy the items individually.

But no, its not illegal.

4

If the bundle items are not available for purchase in any other way, then the bundle is an item. It still counts.

5

They are pulling the exact same crap Fallout 76 Christmas bundle did. Don’t know how anyone can claim otherwise. This Kiriko skin and other items are only available in this new bundle… which was released on a “discount”. That indeed is an illegal practice here in EU. The “real” price never existed, they just try and make it look like you’re getting such a “great deal” by buying this.

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6

But its not illegal. The legal team made sure of it with the text that explains how the discount works. If there is one thing you can be sure of is that blizz know what they are selling and how…

7

They should have done a Microsoft studios. Heyyy at least you can still play the original Age of Empires series online. That is from 1997 already.

Overwatch from 2016 is down the drain!

8

could you put in the OP the reddit link with the option </> of the forum post, please? :pray:

9

Hell I even brought that up when Cyber Detective Soujorn came out.

Real deceptive.

You can put in a blockquote otherwise put a space in between the url.

1 Like
10

Like they put the bundle as a discount while having no previous set price ever before and also do not offer the items outside of the bundle.

Like they without shame set a base price then decided what number the “discount” should be and put a higher number above it with a stripe through it… Shows how stupid they think their player base is…

And they are justified in thinking the player base is really stupid and their morals end with just words not their wallet as this community actually went to the Blizz store and PRE ORDERED A BATTLEPASS…

I cant point it out enough that for the first time ever you could PRE ORDER A BATTLEPASS and people actually still bought it because it had a few extra items in it and 2000 coins and what does Blizzard do? Makes skins like 2300 coins so you must buy 500 coins or 3x 100 xD

Stop giving them your money (not stop playing as lets keep server cost up as high as possible) and realize morals aint come cheap and u will miss out on alot if you stand by them but nothing will ever change if you give them money cuz other people do it anyway or you really need that skin.

11

That was the exact thoughts I had at all these “discounts” lmao

12

Might be the same tier/category as they claim, but it’s not the same item; and if anyone wanted to pull them up for this legally, they could argue this. A Halloween skin is not the same as skins from other events.

13

The key question is: Are the items available for purchase separately?
If not, then those items DON’T HAVE A PRICE and they thus don’t have a price to calculate the reduced price from.

What you said ONLY counts if the items can be acquired separately, and I am fairly certain they cant. I would be willing to bet this is still illegal.

It says Kiriko skin real price is 3700 coins, but guess what, you cannot buy the skin for that price since the skin IS NOT ON SALE and will not be after this event.

14

Oh look it’s this thread again.

It’s not the same thing, and what they’re doing is completely legal, even in the EU, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it.

This has already been discussed.

15

And the text exactly ensures that people know THAT they have a price. The skin 1900 to be exact because thats how legys are priced. So if you do that for all items you get to the crossed out amount and then you have your “discount”. They did not put that text here for the users and more for protecting them from stuff like this.

16

Guess Blizzard lawyers weren’t feeling confident cause Blizz updated the store prices. :stuck_out_tongue:

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