Didn’t it say the expansion would release on or before December 31st, 2020? So whoever is saying that Shadowlands will release any later than that is wrong.
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The more I look into the German court ruling on what is just a “vague date” pre-order law, the less teeth it appears to have. All I can find on it is that the law allows consumers to refund the pre-order without penalty. Nothing I can find puts a harsh fine or opens a company to be liable to lawsuit for delaying a product, however I can’t find the title or ID for the law to read the details.
I sell products online, from where I live, people buy them where it is illegal, not my responsibility.
Also when a Corporation does business in a country, they usually set up a business in that country to handle business with that country. Only the entity set up in that country can be held accountable. It’s how ALL businesses do things. Nintendo USA is owned by Nintendo in Japan, but legally Nintendo USA is it’s own legal entity, and is the only part of Nintendo responsible for US laws.
Same with Blizzard they set up legal entities in certain nations and those entities are the only part of the company responsible to obey local laws. Case in point, say you are releasing a Japanese MMO in the US, the Japanese company will set up a new company in the US as the legal rights holders in that country, that company in the US is only required by law to obey US laws, even though it’s parent Company is in Japan, and the game is Fully owned in Japan. If they don’t open an office in Canada, and only accept US Dollars, than that company has no legal requirement to obey Canadian Laws.
Now say people in Russia purchase a copy of the game from the US parent company, and they have no offices or support in Russia, then they have no legal requirements either. However the second they open an Office in Russia that office is required to follow Russian Laws, also the company will most likely block Russian players from accessing the US servers as the Russian localization would be the primary source for Russian Players.
ie As a US licence holder of WOW, I am not allowed to play on EU servers, as those are owned by a separate company called Blizzard EU, even though Blizzard EU is owned by Blizzard HQ it is it’s own separate legal entity. Oddly Blizzard US owns all of North America and South America and ‘Oceanica’ which is why if you play in those regions you can play on the other region servers as well.
EU, Korea, and China have their own separate entities, servers, and legal structures that are independent of the US. They did this in 2004 when the game was released.
Now because of this, if Blizzard HQ brakes Australian laws, as the office is not a separate entity than Blizzard HQ is directly responsible. But not in Europe, China, or Korea.
Also there are countries where you can play the game that Blizzard has specifically said they have no service in, if you play the game in those countries and there is something illegal in the game in those places than it is on you not Blizzard. ie Most of the Middle East is not supported, and Iran is technically Blocked.
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Yeah, I saw this posted on MMO-Champion the other day also…
No one has a source to back up the claim, honestly just seems like the people who were making up fake leaks have shifted to making up fake information on Shadowlands now.
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And as earlier stated, Blizzard has already made clear that patch 8.3 will not be released before the end of the year. The patch will probably come…not the first week of January, but probably the second, at the earliest. The raid will open a couple of weeks after that, so on.
My guess is that Shadowlands will be out before next year’s BlizzCon. Both Legion and BfA were August releases, so I figure that would be the earliest - that’s still another nine months, give or take. October at the latest, I think.
Look at Warcraft III Reforged… it was announced at Blizzcon and pre-orders were taken over a year ago.
It’s one thing to take their sweet time. It’s another to take someones money and not produce quality work in a timely fashion.
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Not according to The EU in multiple documents on digital goods. You can spend plenty of time perusing a lot of material, but the bottom line is that Blizzard asking for money now in return for a software expansion (good, finished or not) by 31 Dec 2020.
.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2019/770/article/11
(Add www.)
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I can only imagine that people are trying to push Blizzard’s button into confirming a date maybe? Start a fire and make Blizzard put it out?
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Blizzard WILL release 9.0 by the date they committed to. It may not bug free, perfect, or finished, but it will be delivered by that date.
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I doubt the N’Zoth stuff will be interesting long enough to keep us going until 9.0, that’s my only concern.
That doesn’t mean I want 9.0 early, by all means take as much time as needed to make it excellent, but I really hope 8.3 is beefier than I imagine it will be.
Who knows maybe there will be an 8.4. Lol
It will be out no later than December 2020. They’re not going to go past 12/31/2020 because of pre-orders.
That part I’m still wondering about. I keep looking at my calendar, then at the “before 12/31/2019”… the days are getting shorter.
That is untrue. If you sell something in Germany that is against German law, Germany can prosecute you. They can’t come over and drag you physically into German Court, but they can still prosecute you.
This would be the same as in food stuff.
There is a red food dye in Great Britain that is legal over there, but illegal in the US. Under your theory, that company in Britain could sell it in the US because it is legal over there.
They can’t, and they would be prosecuted in the USA if they did.
Just because you haven’t been prosecuted by Germany doesn’t mean what you are doing is okay. It just means they haven’t prosecuted you yet.
It depends if the country holds extradition laws with the other country. They can accuse you of illegal conduct, but without being able to try someone in a proper court its meaningless.
But this is an argument against persons in general, not a mega corporation.
Extradition isn’t necessarily what they’d worry about – they’d worry about being forbidden to do business at all in their jurisdiction.
Sure, they’ll laugh at a German bailiff from California. But once the “No EU for you!” banhammer falls, the laughing will stop.
Is it being advertised in the EU with that exact date, or are you reading from the US site?
God I am tired of these Reddit rumors already…
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No, it’s not. It’s not being released until early 2020.
Shadowlands will go through a six to eight month Beta/Alpha process, so don’t expect that until late 2020 or early 2021.
They hardly have ANYTHING done on the development of Shadowlands from the interviews I’ve watched.
Only I never sold anything in Germany, Germans in Germany have purchased things which are illegal in Germany from me, but my online presence and goods are all local. So legally they have no ground to prosecute me for the actions of their citizens.
If I as a private citizen went online and purchased a product which is illegal here but legal there, it is not the company but me that is responsible. In fact I do this often, as I am British, and I do buy some British products which are not allowed in the US on a regular basis.
I also buy some meds online from countries which are less regulated than the US, which is illegal here. But it saves me enough money that the risk is totally worth it.
All this however has gotten way off topic, as I am talking about private sellers, that sell to one market only but often have customers outside their market.
Blizzard has a legal entity in the EU and the product they sell to the EU are sold through that entity, which is required to obey local laws in the EU. However the point still stands that Blizzard HQ is not legally responsible for the Actions of Blizzard EU. Also if you are in the EU and have a US account you are actually in violation of the TOS. (something that is never enforced.) They do this because the Laws, and to maintain a legal entity in the EU that can deal with the laws and Taxes in the EU.