You partnered with Blizzard to deliver a custom, high end gaming headset branded for World of Warcraft. With millions of players in the US and Europe, this is sure to draw attention to your brand.
Only when Blizzard puts up their announcement about the product as the top news item on the World of Warcraft web site…
Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset
Creative Labs is partnering with Blizzard Entertainment to announce the new Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset, catering specifically to the World of Warcraft gamer. From the customizable ear cup “Glyphs” featuring Horde and Alliance artwork illuminated by 16 million color programmable LEDs, to the huge emphasis on comfort for extended wear, this headset pushes the envelope in both technology and design. For more information about the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset, visit Creative.com.
…there is no mention at all on your own site, which is linked in the announcement, of the product. None. Not anywhere.
I’m sure the info will be there at some point, but you’re only the top headline for a limited amount of time.
Oh, hey, they went to #2 position even as I wrote this. And with BlizzCon, they’ll be off the front page before Monday.
There is nothing like a well executed plan.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
To be honest I think this is a ‘Blizzard Fail’. They should have been linking to , which has had a flash teaser up for the new product for a couple of days now. That said, the site is being hammered and is struggling to keep up.
FWIW, the press release can be found Here.
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Well, when something is more important to you than your business partner, you check up on it. Still a Creative fail IMO. They are the one who loses by the bad link.
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I will refrain from allocating blame in this case but I have been along time Creative customer and I have never been impressed by their web presence. Trying to find anything on a creative website was always difficult not helped by their deliberately obfuscating product names (X-Fi Extreme Audio must be a really good version of the Xfi right?). Trying to get get the latest driver for my audio cards was always a hair pulling experience as I waded through many slowly loading pages to try and find the right link. I was delighted to discover just yesterday however that they now have an auto update tool that seems to work! Better still it doesn’t install itself to run everyday sitting there taking up resources, it only runs when you ask it to.
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I’ve had a few Creative products over the years and I’m always struck by how inadequate their software and driver support is, especially regarding the issues I’ve had with the x-fi I bought last year. Driver downloads speeds also seem to be painfully slow.
Anyway, I’ll be steering clear of their products in future.
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Nifty.
Yeah, I’ve had nothing but problems with their drivers too.
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This post made me chuckle. :) I’m sure there are some really ticked off marketing people running around both companies.
And it’s a partnership fail, because we don’t know which side dropped the ball. Did Blizzard not put up the correct link that Creative gave them, or did Creative not hold up their end by having the headset info available on their site? My guess is a Creative fail, cause you’re right. It’s more important to Creative and they should be on top of it closely.
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Meanwhile, they may or may not have inadvertantly confirmed the new races for the expansion. MMO-Champion reported that they posted maps which focused in on two obscure corners of Azeroth that happen to be the leaked starting areas for the new races.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=95864.0
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I see that Blizzard changed the link this morning. While it still says “Creative.com” it actually points to soundblaster.com. But now the announcement is in forth place in the latest news list.
@GA – The team at MMO Champion is working all angles. At some point they are going to seem very sharp or very silly.
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As an additional fail, I’d be very upset to discover the headset does not, in fact, contain 16 million LEDs. Where are my 16 million color programmable LEDs, dammit?! The text clearly states it has 16 million LEDs . . .
:p
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I think it’s been 10 years since I bought a soundblaster.
Back in Win9x times they were quite the standard and also quite good.
But ever since I’ve been absolutely fine with onboard sound, I really wonder how they managed to not go bankrupt. From market leader to partially ignored.
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Well, the Creative announcement didn’t fall off the front page by today, but it is the 20th item on the news page, which means you have to scroll down a long ways to get to it.
Still no actual LED count.
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