Banjo-Kazooie XBLA delayed until Dec 3rd because of preorder code problems

[Queasy]

Link - Street Fighter II HD is coming on the 26th so that probably made the decision to bump BK back a week easier.

UPDATE: Almost as though directly responding to our reaction to this news, Microsoft sent us an update revealing that the official public release of Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade has been delayed to December 3. Microsoft notes that this move "extends the exclusive window for our preorder customers another week." Here's hoping those customers can get the code they need to enjoy that extra week.

ORIGINAL STORY: With so many huge releases coming out in the last few months, one of the tricks publishers have employed to help pull gamers in to purchasing their game over the competition is special preorder bonuses. One of the coolest bonuses came with last week's new release from Rare, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. Customers who preordered the game from select retailers received a free download code for the full original Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade weeks before it's available for purchase for anyone who didn't preorder...or at least preorder customers should have received that code. I didn't when I picked up my copy of the game, and it turns out I wasn't alone.

Two separate GameStops in the Bay Area informed me that they had only been sent two preorder codes for the whole store -- significantly less than the number of preorders they had taken on the game. The problem is not limited to GameStop stores either, as others in the office had preordered the game from Amazon and also never received download codes for Banjo-Kazooie. Upon hearing that the problem was also happening to some friends on the opposite side of the country (and thus was not just a California issue), I contacted Microsoft to see if they knew what was going on and received the following official response:

"We are aware that some consumers who preordered Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts have not received their redeem code for Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade. We are currently investigating the scope of this situation, but we believe it represents a small fraction of the total number of preorder customers. We encourage anyone who preordered Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and did not receive a redeem code to follow up directly with your retailer's customer service team for resolution."

Wrestling the code out of your retailer of choice may not be as easy as Microsoft makes it sound here, though. When I asked for help, GameStop employees just pointed me toward other GameStop stores in the area that "could have extra codes" (and didn't). Another customer contacted a manager who also checked other stores (which also didn't have extras) and then put the customer on a waiting list in the store's inventory in case more codes showed up, but the manager didn't seem hopeful about the prospects of that happening.

Of course, even if you do happen to wring a free code from Microsoft's grasp at some point, a week of the early access to Banjo-Kazooie XBLA is already up, and this last week before its public November 26 release is closing fast. One of the major bonuses of this "preorder bonus" has already almost dried up for at least some of the customers. Perhaps we'll be a little less eager to commit to dropping cash in advance next time.