Bandai Namco announced that it has paused preorders on the Elden Ring Premium Collector’s Edition due to overwhelming demand. The company will announce when these limited editions will be available for preorder again.
Elden Ring is one of the most anticipated games coming in 2022, so it’s normal to expect demand for its Premium Collector’s Edition to be high. The Collector’s Edition is the most limited edition of the game up for sale. For $260, it includes an official scale replica of a helmet from Elden Ring, along with a statue, collector’s box, art book, steelbook, digital soundtrack, and a copy of the game.
However, Bandai Namco also relaunched its store with a new look at the same time preorders for the Collector’s Edition went live. Users (including myself) experienced issues with new account creation, as those requests didn’t go through until much later.
There was also an issue where users could not get past the “please enter your date of birth to continue” screen that pops up when trying to access the item page. Those who somehow managed to get past the age gate and successfully add the item to their carts were faced with another issue: guest checkouts were not allowed and users must have a Bandai Namco Store account to confirm preorder reservations. Since the site was experiencing account creation and log-in issues, many users were stuck with the item in their carts with no way to quickly check out.
We appreciate your patience with the new account creation issues on the Store this morning. Given the limited availability of the Premium CE we have paused reservations and will notify here again when we will make it available for pre-order.
— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) December 16, 2021
Some users were able to push through and secure their pre-orders. But Bandai Namco has now removed the listings for the Premium Collector’s Editions from the store page altogether. Although, the company did not mention what will happen to the orders that were successfully placed and whether or not they’d be canceled.
Elden Ring is the next action RPG from Japanese developer FromSoftware. From our Elden Ring preview, it will be familiar for anyone who has played games like Dark Souls but on a much bigger scale. And there’s the bonus of knowing the game’s lore was established by Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey