ADV Continues to Screw Over Devil May Cry fans

[Collector's Edition]

If you purchased the NTSC Collector's Edition of Devil May Cry 4 for Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 you know that it came with the first volume of the Animated Series, published by ADV Films. If you followed the release of this collectors edition you'd know that the reason for the extra $20 over the regular edition was due to the fact that it included this disc.

What you may not have realized is that on page 34 of the Instruction Manual included with the game is an offer for a full sized case to accompany your Animated Series Volume 1 disc. The reason they didn't include the case with the game was that the cases apparently weren't ready when the game was getting produced, so they opted for a cheaper cardboard wallet with the option to upgrade once the REAL cases were available later. In addition to the case gamers were also to receive a coupon good towards the purchase of Volume 2 as thank you for putting up with the crappy cardboard wallet.

If you read page 34 of the disc they don't give you a form to fill out or some postcard to send in. Instead they instruct you to visit ADV Films' website and find a forum to fill out to redeem your case. Unfortunately there is no forum on their website, nor is there mention of the Devil May Cry animated series AT ALL. Even visiting the url for the Devil May Cry TV website, which is listed on the game packaging in several locations turns up empty pages.

Apparently the Devil May Cry series was under threat of getting canceled, and because of that ADV pulled all mention of the series from their website before the Game or the Anime's release. The dedicated page for the Series is still up, but it's little more than a "coming soon" placeholder.

Despite the fate of the series coming into question everything was worked out and Volume 2 was delayed a bit. If you want further proof that everything is worked out just walk into any store where Anime is sold and you should see Volume 2 sitting happily on the shelf waiting for your dollars. That is if it isn't already sold out. See, to make matters even more interesting the Devil May Cry Animated Series has so far been the best selling Anime of 2008 despite all of the licensing issues and the fact that ADV Films is pretending that they have nothing to do with it, no advertising, and no mention of it on their website, it still managed to sell better than anything else on the market, and then of course in response to the overwhelming support for the series they decide to take a dump on their loyal customers ... and Anime publishers wonder why they have trouble turning profits.

Back in February I signed up for ADV's mailing list and I also emailed them asking about the forum to sign up for the case, this is the response I received:

Hello,
Thank you for emailing ADV, currently our site is under construction. We will have a place for you to input your information and submit your shipping for the Devil May Cry box shortly. With this box we will include a coupon code for you to use on our site towards the purchase of volume 2. We are sorry for the delay and appreciate your
patience in this matter.

Thank you again,
ADV Customer Service

It has now been two months since I received that email, ADV has ignored further inquiries and Volume 2 has already been released. I've been doing freelance web development for over a decade, I do it in my spare time and I'm by no means a pro, in a single afternoon I could easily whip up a professional looking form that collects, verifies sanitizes and saves shipping info to a database, heck there are dozens of free pre-written scripts out there that do just that already. There's no reason that ADV couldn't have something up TODAY to start making things right.

I propose that if you bought the Collector's Edition game, that you boycott the purchase of Volume 2 until ADV Films makes good on their promise of a case for Volume 1. It was shady of them to not include the case with the game in the first place, it was shady of them to hide the redemption offer in the instruction manual, it was shady of them to not have any mention on their website about it, and it's shady of them to ignore a majority of the emails they've received on the subject hiding behind a supposed website redesign as an excuse.

We've been patient, but if they can't so much as make a press-release apologizing for this situation then this company obviously isn't deserving of your money.... View this article on the News Page.

[Humberto Saabedra]

I'd like to offer an update to the whole debacle, yet I'm sure this will incense those of us who purchased the Special Edition.

As a result of ADV's recent distribution arrangement shifting away from direct customer fulfillment to third-party fulfillment through RightStuf International, the new distributor has taken it upon themselves to offer the actual cases at an additional charge of $3.99 instead of supplying a redemption form.

Why this is being done instead of supplying the cases at no additional charge with proof of purchase is upsetting to me, as one would think that the additional cost of the Collector's Edition covered the future costs of production related to the actual cases.

Not only that, it shafts those that imported this game as it is only for US residents.

RightStuf Devil May Cry DVD Case Offer Page