I Predict a Riot

From the home page:
"Steam keys are going out tomorrow at 10AM PST, look for them in your e-mail!"

10AM PST, is 6PM GMT, ie, the second Steam will make the game available, so they are going to try and send 100k e-mails at 6PM... yeah this will probably not end well. Assuming you don't overload your mail server this means people will get their pre-order keys, after the game is available on stream. How long after is going to depend on how well your mail server holds up, how long the e-mail takes to get to there inbox, which could be anywhere between a few seconds to a few hours after you send it.

But here is the main point, as a result you are going to have lots and lots of idiots flooding your forums demanding to know why the game is out and they still haven't received their keys, that they paid for in advance, so that they could play the second the game was out. This might have the knock on effect of slowing your server down and as such slowing down the sending of e-mails, which will result in more annoyed people.

Devs, please do yourself a favour and saves yourself a headack, start sending the keys out and hour before the game is on Steam, so that people can download it when it's available and don't flood for forum demanding to know why the game is out and they don't have the key they paid for.

 

100k keys are nothing. The company I work at does mailings of 3-4 MILLION, which go out without any trouble, and no, we don't even specialize in e-mail marketing.

 

I say one thing: Newsletter

(for clarification, it takes a while to get that sent out to others, I've gotten it a day late before...)

 

; _ ; Don't even joke like that...

 

Bingo.

Emails will work just fine.

 

I was talkin about the starbound newsletter tbh, still haven't recieved it, and I'm fairly high on the mailing list (both alphabetically and timewise).
But this is humble and steam, I'm sure nothing can be delayed!
...right...?

 

I can never under stand time zones! Right now its 7am and that's all I know!

 

So you're in EST like I am. The beta will release 1 PM in our time.

 

Dangit, where is that Mollytowel gif?

 

The point isn't the number it's the timing, are you really telling me the 3-4 million e-mails are both sent instantaneously and received the second you sent them? The answer is most certainly no.

The point I was making is while most normal people are happy to wait a few minutes for something they ordered, I've seen many a time where a forum will be flooded with messages demanding to know why they haven't received something they pre-ordered before or on the release. Their is an expectation that if you pre-order something you will be able to use it / play it the second it's available, if they start sending out pre-order keys the second the game is available then this is not the case, and there will be a backlash from a sub-set of gamers.

 

Steam keys are being distributed by Humble, who I'm pretty sure can handle the load with not much to worry about.

Maybe people should learn that it's just a game and if their key comes a minute or 2 later than they expected, it's not the biggest problem in the world?

 

So a tad over 100k people pre-ordered it, but most of them will be sleeping, working, in school etc

 

It is for people who've taken time off of work and such. They could have stayed an hour longer if they knew their key was gonna be late. You see my point? But yes, it's not the worst that could happen

 

Humblebundle won't have any problems sending the keys, i'm pretty sure.

 

Wanted to post this aswell.
Seeing that Humble Bundle, Inc. just released the Humble Jumbo Bundle yesterday which sold like 100k within the first 10 minutes, they don't seem to have alot of trouble handling that amount of E-Mail or Website traffic.

 

I can't believe I have a final exam today of all days. . .GRAAAAAAAGH I hope my key is there when I get home

 

If you've played games enough but still don't realise that launches are always on fire, then there's something wrong with you. If you've taken work off expecting this one to be the one that goes without a single hitch, then you're asking for it.

I'm not trying to be harsh are anti-consumer (I appreciate I am sounding like that though), it's just a reality of this industry that has been the same for years. If people haven't learnt that yet, and then create a massive furore over it, then I have no sympathy towards them.

 

No, of course not. Usually mailings that size are sent out at a rate of a few thousand per second, to prevent the server from being flagged as a bulk-spam sender. That rate actually increases though the smaller the total batch of identical mails gets. Depending on the email provider, there might be a slight delay too, but we're talking about minutes here, not hours.

As for the newsletter argument, I thought it was Humble Bundle distributing the keys? Assuming it's their new model of activating the game directly on steam, there are four scenarios:
1. You get the newsletter from the Starbound team telling you your game is available now, click a link, activate the game, and play.
2. You get a notification from HumbleBundle and ditto.
3. You read about it on the page.
4. Any combination of the above.

Even if they still distribute keys, it's not a huge deal. Spam filters (overt and hidden - hotmail for example is very restrictive) can play a role, but there's little you can do about that.

 

To my knowledge it's not Chucklefish releasing the keys but the Humble Store, so they can easily handle that many people.

 

well unlike you guys by the time my key arrive I have a whole days of things to do.